Scottish Widows Life Insurance

Policy Documents

Scottish Widows Life Insurance Overview

Scottish Widows Life Insurance is backed by the heft of Lloyds Banking Group, the third-biggest bank in the UK by assets as of March 31, 2017.

• Scottish publish their Life Insurance Payout rates and have some of the highest. In 2016, they paid out on 99.4% of Life Insurance claims.
• As well as automatically including cover for children with Critical Illness Cover, Scottish Widows will pay out a one-off benefit of £5,000 in the event of that death of a child.
• Scottish Widows Life policies automatically include Terminal Illness Cover and Total Permanent Disability Cover.
• Scottish Widows offer Life Cover and Critical Illness Cover as a Family Income Benefit.
• Scottish Widows allow you to choose the interest rate of your Decreasing Life Insurance cover, which can be anything between 0% and 18%.
• Scottish Widows have a maximum and minimum limit for their Life Insurance cover.

 Scottish Widows Policy Conditions

Drewberry’s Scottish Widows Review

Scottish Widows make their policies highly flexible by providing a range of policy options that can be changed at nearly any time, even after your policy has started.

Key Comparison Points

• When you choose indexation, Scottish Widows will increase your premiums by 1.4 times your benefit’s percentage increase. Other insurers will match the increase of your benefits and premiums rather than applying a premium increase in excess of your benefit increase.
• Scottish Widows only covers 49 critical illnesses, with 8 of these illnesses entitling you to only a proportion of your benefit. Other insurers can offer as many as 80 critical illnesses.
• While some insures have a predetermined decrease rate for their Decreasing Life Insurance polices, Scottish Widows allow you to tailor your Life Insurance policy to the terms of your mortgage. You can choose any interest rate from 0% to 18% to match your mortgage. On the other hand, however, there are insurers that don’t use any predetermined rate of decreasing cover, allowing you to decide exactly when your insurance cover will reach zero.
• If you add waiver of premium to your policy, the standard definition of incapacity that they use is Own Occupation. This means that as long as you are not well enough to return to your own occupation, they will continue to waive your premiums.

Additional Benefits & Services

Scottish Widows Care

With all Scottish Widows Life Insurance policies, they give policyholders and their families access to a free nurse advice service provided by RedArc, known as Scottish Widows Care.

If the policyholder or any of their family members have experienced or are experiencing a traumatic situation, they can contact a personal nurse. Personal nurses are able to provide support for serious illness, bereavement, trauma, disability and recovery after being discharged form hospital.

If the situation requires, a personal nurse is also able to provide a face-to-face second medical opinion from a UK-based specialist or a course of therapy if you are diagnosed with a serious illness.

Accidental Death Cover

For up to 90 days while your application is being assessed, you will be covered in the event of accidental death before your application has been either accepted or rejected. Your benefit amount for your Accidental Death Cover can be up to £250k or the sum-assured that you applied for if it is less.

Free Mortgage Cover

This additional cover is included automatically and covers you for up to 90 days while you’re in the process of buying a new home. Between the day of finalising your contract until the start date of your mortgage, you can receive up to £1,000,000 in Life Insurance cover and £500,000 for Critical Illness cover. Exclusions apply to this benefit and not everyone will be eligible to claim.

Children’s Life Cover

This is automatically included with all Scottish Widows Life Insurance policies with Critical Illness Cover. If your child is under the age of 22, a one-off payment of £5,000 will be paid in the event of their death.

Scottish Widows Life Insurance: FAQs

We try to find out everything there is to know about the policies we advise on to ensure that we are in the best position to match you with the most appropriate policy. Below, we have answered a few frequently asked questions given to us by our customers about Scottish Widows Life Insurance policies. If you need any further help, please do not hesitate to call us on 02084327333.

Samantha Haffenden-Angear
Independent Protection Expert at Drewberry

Q. What’s the difference between the critical illnesses and the ‘additional critical illnesses’ covered by my policy?

A. If you are diagnosed with a critical illness from the main list consisting of 41 conditions, you will be entitled to the full benefit amount. If you are diagnosed with one of the 8 ‘additional’ conditions, however, you will be entitled to either 25% of the claim amount or a maximum of £25,000.

Q.  Do Scottish Widows’ Joint Life policies work on a ‘joint life, first death’ basis?

A. Yes. If you take out a Joint Life Insurance policy from Scottish Widows, it will only pay out upon the first death before ending. However, Scottish Widows will allow the surviving partner to renew the policy on a single person basis to cover themselves.

If they apply for a new policy within 3 months of their Joint Life policy ending, Scottish Widows will reinstate the policy with all of the same terms to cover the surviving person, with only the premiums of the Life Insurance policy being changed.

Need Expert Life Insurance Advice?

As you can see, there are a lot of points to consider when comparing insurers. With so many factors in play, it can be time-consuming to pull up key information across every single insurer in the market, so why not ask an adviser for help?

Why Speak to Us…

We started Drewberry because we were tired of being treated like a number and not getting the service we all deserve when it comes to things 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 independent and impartial
  Drewberry isn’t tied to any insurance company, so we can provide completely impartial advice to make sure you get the most appropriate policy based solely on your needs.
• We’ve got bargaining power on our side
  This allows us to negotiate better premiums for you than you going direct yourself.
• You’ll speak to a dedicated expert from start to finish
  You will speak to a named expert with a direct telephone and email. No more automated machines and no more being sent from pillar to post – you’ll have someone to speak to who knows you.
• Benefit from our 5-star service
  We pride ourselves on providing a 5-star service, as can be seen from our 3155 and growing independent client reviews rating us at 4.92 / 5.
• Gain the protection of regulated advice
  You are protected. Where we provide a regulated advice service we are responsible for the policy we set-up for you. Doing it yourself or going direct to an insurer won’t provide this protection, so you won’t benefit from these securities.
• Claims support when you need it the most
  You have support should you need to make a claim. The most important thing when it comes to insurance is that claims are paid and quickly. We are here to support you during the claims process and make sure it’s as smooth and stress free as possible.

If it is all getting a little confusing and you want to talk you through your options to make sure you find the most suitable cover please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Pop us a call on 02084327333 or email help@drewberry.co.uk.

Michael Barrow
Independent Protection Expert at Drewberry