Aviva Life Insurance [REVIEW]

Who Are Aviva?

As it stands today, Aviva came from the merger of Norwich Union and CGU PLC in 2000. The business first adopted the name Aviva in 2002. However, Aviva can trace its origins all the way back to 1696.

Not only is Aviva the UK’s largest insurance company, it’s also the world’s sixth-biggest insurer. It has around 33 million customers across the globe.

Aviva is a public limited company (PLC), with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange. It’s also part of the FTSE 100 Index.

Aviva Life Insurance+ is a comprehensive policy with many additional benefits.

This includes Aviva DigiCare+, offering gym discounts, annual health checks, telephone health helplines and more.

Josh Martin
Independent Protection Expert at Drewberry

Aviva Life Insurance

Policy Overview

• A comprehensive Life Insurance policy which includes a range of additional benefits and support services for free.
• Add other benefits to your policy for an additional premium, making Aviva Life Insurance an incredibly flexible plan you can tailor to your needs.
• Unlimited maximum Life Insurance benefit available, so you can pick a sum of your choosing.
• Opt for Critical Illness Cover for an extra premium, which pays your full benefit if you develop one of 33 critical conditions.

Documentation

What Does Aviva Life Insurance Cover?

Key Benefits With Aviva Life Insurance

Guaranteed Insurability / Life Change Benefit

Life Change Benefit is Aviva’s name for guaranteed insurability, which lets you increase your benefit without supplying medical evidence if you go through certain life events.

You can increase your benefit if you:

• Get married / enter a civil partnership
• Divorce, dissolve your civil partnership or otherwise separate
• Become a parent
• Get a larger mortgage because you’re moving, buying a new home or making home improvements
• Get a pay rise of at least 20% because you’ve been promoted / moved to a new employer
• See an increase in your rent due to your landlord putting it up or moving to a new rental property
• Move from paying rent to paying a mortgage which means an increase in your housing costs.

You can increase your cover by the lower of:

• £200,000 (for level and decreasing cover)
• £8,000 per year for Family Income Benefit paid monthly
• The original cover amount you had at the start of the policy
• The amount your mortgage has increased by
• Your rent increase / your increase in housing payments when shifting from rent to a mortgage, multiplied by the number of months left on your Life Insurance (up to a maximum increase of £200,000).

You must be no more than 55 years old to use the Life Change Benefit. You must also apply for it within 90 days of the life event and send the evidence Aviva requires.

Separation Benefit

If you have a joint policy and get divorced, dissolve your civil partnership or otherwise separate, you can split it into two separate policies. Neither party will have to answer further medical questions, providing:

• The oldest person the policy covers is no more than 55 years old
• Aviva accepted your policy on standard terms
• You supply the evidence of your separation that Aviva requires and apply for the split policy within 90 days of the separation occurring
• You haven’t made any claims (except hospitalisation benefit, Children’s Critical Illness Cover or Upgraded Children’s Critical Illness Cover)
• The policy isn’t in a trust
• The new policies each meet Aviva’s minimum premium amount
• Your two separate policies end before each party’s 70th birthday.

Indexed / Increasing Cover Available

Aviva lets you choose either an indexed or a fixed increasing benefit so that inflation won’t erode the purchasing power of your payout over time.

• Indexed benefit
  Your payout rises each year in line with Retail Prices Index (RPI) inflation, up to a maximum of 10% each year. To compensate for your larger benefit, your premiums will rise by inflation times 1.5.
• Fixed increasing cover
  Your benefit rises by either 3% or 5% each year. To compensate for your larger benefit, your premiums will rise by 4.5% or 7.5% annually depending on the fixed increase you choose.

Aviva will write to you each year to inform you of your increase. If you don’t want your benefit to go up that year, you can opt out and your benefit and premiums will remain the same.

However, if you do this 3 years in a row, Aviva removes increasing cover from your policy. You won’t be able to add it back on later and your benefit will remain level thereafter.

Multiple Free Benefits, Plus Add More for an Extra Premium

Aviva has multiple free additional benefits as standard with Life Insurance, mostly under the DigiCare+ offering.

However, it also has a number of paid options you can add to the policy for an extra premium. This further increases how comprehensive the policy is.

Children’s Cover as Standard With Adult Critical Illness Cover

When you add adult Critical Illness Cover to Aviva Life Insurance, Aviva covers your child automatically if they’re aged between 30 days and 18 (21 if in full-time education).

Additional Benefits

Aviva Life Insurance offers both free additional benefits as standard, plus some extra benefits you can add to the policy for an extra premium.

Aviva DigiCare+

Aviva DigiCare+ offers a wide range of support services with its Life Insurance. These include:

Bupa Anytime HealthLine

An unlimited 24 / 7 / 365 helpline staffed by Bupa nurses. You can ask them a range of medical questions focusing on medication queries, health concerns, travel advice and mental health.

Available to you, your partner and eligible children up until their 18th birthday (age 21 if in full-time education).

Mental Health Support

Up to six video or telephone appointments with a qualified psychotherapist shared between you, your partner and eligible children up until their 18th birthday (age 21 if in full-time education).

Second Medical Opinion

If you develop a physical or mental health condition, you get access to a face-to-face second medical opinion from a UK-based specialist. They can look at your diagnosis or treatment plan and suggest potential improvements / alternatives.

Provides up to two appointments per year shared between you, your partner and eligible children up until their 18th birthday (age 21 if in full-time education).

Physiotherapy

Access physiotherapy exactly when you need it. It includes an initial phone consultation, an online physiotherapy program and up to three face-to-face sessions per condition per year. You can use it up to twice per year for separate conditions.

Annual Health Check

A free annual health checkup via a finger prick blood test. Aviva sends you a kit through the post, which you do in the comfort of your own home and send it back to a lab for analysis. It picks up 20 markers of potential disease, letting you get ahead of any health problems.

Nutrition Consultation

Offers up to six consultations per year with a qualified nutritionist shared between you, your partner and your children aged between 12 and 18 (up to age 21 if in full-time education).

This includes an assessment of current nutritional / lifestyle choices, advice and guidance on optimal eating plans and advice on changing relationships with food.

Gym Discounts

Up to 25% off your gym membership at a range of UK gym chains, plus a number of independent outfits.

Bereavement Counselling

Up to six video or telephone sessions shared between you, your partner and your children aged between 16 and 18 (up to age 21 if in full-time education) with a qualified counsellor.

You can use these sessions in the 12 month period following the death of a close family member.

Digital GP Consultation

An optional paid-for service, this provides up to three digital GP appointments per year shared between you, your partner and eligible children up until their 18th birthday (age 21 if in full-time education).

Available via phone or video link, you’ll receive an appointment within 24 hours.

Fracture Cover

An optional add-on for an extra premium, this sees Aviva pay up to £6,000 if you suffer 1 of 18 specified fractures. You must have held the policy for 7 days before being able to claim.

You can make one claim per year; however, if you suffer multiple listed fractures at once, you can choose the one that attracts the highest payout.

Aviva excludes fractures sustained during:

• Mountain biking / BMX
• Boxing
• Cage fighting
• Martial arts
• Rugby / Gaelic football
• Horseriding
• Motorcycle sports.

Global Treatment

An optional add-on for an extra premium.

If you or your child develops a serious medical condition, Global Treatment works with Best Doctors to find world renowned medical experts to offer you treatment.

You get a second medical opinion from a specialist doctor or surgeon, who’ll review your diagnosis and suggest treatment options. They’ll then arrange treatment overseas.

Aviva will pay up to £1 million per year for overseas medical treatment and up to £2 million over the life of the policy. This is to cover treatment but also your travel and accommodation, including accommodation for you as a parent if your child is ill.

On returning to the UK, the plan also pays out up to £50,000 for ongoing medication costs where approved medications are not available on, or only partially funded by, the NHS.

Extra Care Cover

An optional add-on for an extra premium.

Adding Extra Care Cover to your Life Insurance with Critical Illness Cover means Aviva pays an additional £50,000 on top of your Critical Illness payout for a selection of severe, permanent conditions.

If you’re under 55, Aviva will pay out if you develop a condition that meets its definition of illnesses such as:

• Dementia
• Kidney / liver failure
• Parkinson’s disease
• Motor neurone disease
• Respiratory failure.

Regardless of your age, Aviva will pay out the additional £50,000 if you’re left completely and permanently unable to do at least three activities of daily living. For example, these include:

• Washing yourself
• Dressing yourself
• Feeding yourself pre-prepared food unaided
• Moving from one room to another on a level surface
• Being able to get on and off the toilet, in and out of bed to a chair / wheelchair and back again.

Funeral Benefit

Aviva will advance up to £11,000 of your benefit to your family to put towards a funeral or probate application fees if your overall payout is tied up in probate or other legal delays after your death.

Key Comparison Points

Aviva Life Insurance Offers Excellent Free Additional Benefits

Aviva DigiCare+ is a great suite of additional benefits offering many free services as standard. This includes a number of benefits many other insurers don’t typically offer with Life Insurance, such as physiotherapy and mental health support.

Digital GP Appointments an Optional Extra

While Aviva offers a digital GP service, which isn’t true for all Life Insurance providers, it doesn’t come free with your policy. You must pay extra on top to access remote GP appointments. Even then, there’s a maximum of three appointments per year.

Many other Life Insurance providers which offer a remote GP service include it for free and don’t limit access to appointments.

Enhance Your Policy With Paid Extras

Aviva offers the opportunity to include paid extras such Fracture Cover, which is rare on Life Insurance policies. You can also choose to pay extra for Global Treatment if you want.

19 ABI+ Definitions for Critical Illness Cover

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) provides model definitions of critical conditions insurers must follow.

However, these are only minimum standards. Many insurers go above and beyond for some conditions, offering what’s known as an ABI+ definition. That’s a definition better than that the ABI requires.

Aviva’s Critical Illness Cover uses 19 ABI+ definitions, one of the highest in the market.

£11,000 Funeral Benefit

If probate or other legal matters ties up your benefit so your family can’t access it immediately, Aviva will advance up to £11,000 of your benefit to cover funeral costs and probate application fees.

£11,000 is the highest figure any insurer offers.

Online Trusts

Aviva offers an online trust service. This lets you to write your Life Insurance into trust online to protect the benefit from inheritance tax.

Your adviser can therefore assist you with this during the application rather than you going through a separate process with paper documents and wet signatures later on.

Free Child Cover With Critical Illness Cover

Aviva includes Children’s Critical Illness Cover free with adult Critical Illness Insurance. With some insurers, it’s an optional extra for an additional premium on top of what you pay to add adult cover.

Standard Child Cover Only For Children Aged 30 Days+

However, while Aviva’s children’s cover is free, it only covers children from 30 days old as standard. There are insurers which include cover for children from birth free as standard.

With Aviva, to cover children from birth (and to extend the death benefit to stillbirth from the 24th week of pregnancy), you must pay extra to upgrade the child cover.

Total Permanent Disability Cover Not Standard

Total Permanent Disability Cover is part of Critical Illness Insurance. It pays out if you become so completely and totally disabled through illness or injury that you can’t ever work again.

It’s an optional extra with Aviva’s Critical Illness Cover for an extra premium. It’s not one of the critical illnesses the policy covers as standard. However, some Life and Critical Illness Insurance providers include this for free as standard.

Compare Life Insurance Quotes & Get Expert Advice

As you can see, when you compare Life Insurance providers and policies there are many points to consider. With so many factors and lots of different terminology at play, it can be tricky to do an accurate like-for-like comparison between providers.

We have a team of expert regulated advisers that are on hand to help you find the best life insurance for your circumstances.

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We all deserve a first class service when it comes to issues as important as protecting our health and our finances. Below are just a few reasons why it makes sense to talk to us.

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• Claims support when you need it most.

For help and fee-free Life Insurance advice, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Pop us a call on 02084327333 or email help@drewberry.co.uk.