Legal & General Life Insurance [REVIEW]

Who Are Legal & General?

In 1836, Sergeant John Adams and five other lawyers formed Legal & General (L&G) in a coffee shop on London’s Chancery Lane.

As it approaches 200 years of experience providing insurance and other financial services, Legal & General has become a world leader in protection. It has more than 10 million customers and manages more than £1 trillion in assets worldwide.

Legal & General Life Insurance offers an unlimited maximum benefit, so you can choose exactly how much cover you need.

It’s one of the oldest and largest UK financial services providers and paid almost £400 million in Life Insurance claims in 2019.

Egle Blusiute
Independent Protection Expert at Drewberry

Legal & General Life Insurance

Policy Overview

• A comprehensive Life Insurance policy with an unlimited maximum benefit.
• Opt for Critical Illness Cover for an extra premium. This pays out your full benefit if you develop one of 31 critical conditions.
• Child cover comes automatically with adult Critical Illness Insurance. Moreover, it includes some unique features along with it.

Documentation

What Does Legal & General Life Insurance Cover?

Key Benefits With Legal & General Life Insurance

Unlimited Maximum Life Insurance Benefit

Legal & General does not limit the maximum amount of cover you can have with Life Insurance. You’re therefore able to pick as large a benefit as you need.

Guaranteed Insurability

Legal & General lets you increase your benefit without answering further medical questions if you go through certain life events. To take advantage of this, you must apply on or before your 55th birthday. For joint policies, this applies to the oldest insured person.

These events are:

• Marriage / civil partnership
• Birth / adoption of a child
• An increase in your earnings following a change in employment / promotion
• An increase in your mortgage on moving house / undertaking home improvements.

You must inform Legal & General within 6 months of the event. The maximum increase is the lower of 50% of your original benefit or £150,000, except for increases in your earnings or mortgage.

For an earnings increase, the maximum cap is your original benefit multiplied by the percentage increase in your earnings. For a mortgage increase, Legal & General caps it at the increase in your mortgage.

Split a Joint Policy

If you take out a joint policy and later divorce, dissolve your civil partnership or separate, Legal & General lets you split the joint policy into two single ones.

You must inform Legal & General within 6 months of finalising your separation. The maximum amount of cover for each new policy is the lower of £1 million or the original amount of cover on the joint policy.

Both new policies cannot extend past each party’s 70th birthday.

Child Critical Illness Cover Free With Adult Cover

Child cover is free as standard when you choose adult Critical Illness Insurance. This not only pays out if your child develops a critical illness between 30 days old and their 22nd birthday, but also in a number of other situations that makes it fairly unique.

For example, Legal & General’s child Critical Illness Cover offers £1,000 towards childcare with a registered childminder for a child under 5 years old in the 18 months after a parent gets a critical diagnosis.

Legal & General also pays a £5,000 hospitalisation benefit if your child suffers an accident leaving them with physical injuries needing at least 28 days in hospital.

Indexed Cover Available

To prevent inflation eroding the purchasing power of your benefit over time, Legal & General lets you index your benefit. This means it will rise each year in line with Retail Prices Index (RPI) inflation.

The maximum annual increase is 10%.

As your benefit goes up, your premiums will also rise each year by the rate of inflation multiplied by 1.5. So, for example, if inflation is 2% your premiums will rise by 3.5%.

Additional Benefits With Legal & General Life Insurance

Nurse Support Services

The main benefits free with Legal & General Life Insurance come under the Nurse Support Services umbrella. These offer advice and support from trained nurses on:

• Medical treatment
• Coping strategies and bereavement
• Getting a second medical opinion
• Mental health
• Support for carers
• Getting help at home after a hospital stay
• Caring for elderly relatives.

Accidental Hospitalisation Benefit

If you add Critical Illness Insurance, Legal & General offers an accidental hospitalisation benefit of £5,000.

This pays out if you suffer physical injuries as a direct result of an accident that leave you hospitalised for at least 28 consecutive days.

Advance Funeral Payment

Legal & General will advance up to £10,000 of your payout to a funeral director to cover funeral costs if probate delays your family receiving your benefit.

Key Comparison Points

Child Cover Standard With Adult Critical Illness Insurance

Child Critical Illness Cover comes free with adult cover. With some insurers, it’s an optional add-on for an extra premium on top of adult Critical Illness Cover.

As a result, Legal & General Critical Illness Insurance may therefore have an advantage over such insurers if you have children or plan to start a family in the future.

Unique Child Cover Features

Legal & General’s child cover offers unique features most other insurers don’t offer. For example, the standard child cover that comes with adult Critical Illness Insurance includes:

• £5,000 as a hospitalisation benefit if your child has an accident which leaves them with physical injuries requiring at least 28 days in hospital
• £1,000 towards childcare with a registered childminder for a child under 5 years old in the 18 months after a parent the policy covers gets a critical diagnosis
• A £100 family accommodation benefit (up to £1,000) for each night a child spends in hospital in the 3 months after they develop a covered critical condition.

Accidental Hospitalisation Benefit With Critical Illness Cover

Legal & General’s accidental hospitalisation benefit with its Critical Illness Insurance is fairly unique in the market.

14 Day Survival Period

With Critical Illness Insurance, every insurer has a survival period. This is the length of time you must live after your diagnosis for the insurer to pay a Critical Illness Insurance claim.

With Legal & General, this survival period is 14 days. There are insurers which allow you to claim providing you survive 10 days.

Terminal Illness Cover Only On Policies Which Run 2 Years+

Legal & General Life Insurance includes Terminal Illness Cover, which pays out your benefit early if you become terminally ill, only on policies which run for at least 2 years.

It is common among many other insurers Terminal Illness Cover to cease in the final 12 months of a policy. However,  Legal & General appears to be the only insurer that stipulates it is only available on policies with a minimum duration.

Minimal Additional Benefits Offering

While Legal & General includes Nurse Support Services for free, which offers help and support in a variety of areas, these are fairly minimal compared to some other insurers.

For example, there are insurers which include access to remote GP services and physiotherapy with Life Insurance.

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.

Why Speak to Us?

We started Drewberry™ because we were tired of being treated like a number.

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.

• There is no fee for our service
• We are an independent insurance broker who work with all the leading UK insurers
• You’ll speak to a dedicated expert from start to finish
• We are very proud of the 3027 and growing independent client reviews rating us at 4.92 / 5
• Claims support when you need it most.
• We are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. You can find us on the financial services register here 🧐
• 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.