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.

Fast forward almost 200 years and they now have more than 10 million customers and manage more than £1 trillion in assets worldwide.

Through their experience and expertise, they’ve become a world leader in protection.

Legal & General Life Insurance Policy Overview

• Comprehensive Cover
  Legal & General offer a comprehensive Life Insurance policy with an unlimited maximum benefit
• Additional Critical Illness Cover
  You can opt to add on Critical Illness Cover for an extra premium. Doing so will pay out your full benefit if you’re diagnosed with one of 37 critical conditions
• Children’s Critical Illness Cover
  Child cover is automatically included with the Critical Illness Cover. This includes some unique features such as a funeral benefit for any of the policyholder’s children
• Umbrella Benefits
  Legal & General life insurance policies come with a range of free additional benefits such as second medical opinion, mental health support, diagnosis understanding and later life planning.

What Does Legal & General Life Insurance Cover?

As you’d expect, Life Insurance policies are designed to pay out a lump sum if you die before the end date. Legal & General offers a few different kinds of Life Insurance.

• Level Life Insurance – pays out a fixed amount if you die within a certain period of time.
• Decreasing Life Insurance – the cover decreases throughout the term of the policy. This is often connected to a repayment mortgage.

You also have the option of adding Critical Illness Insurance onto your policy. This allows you to claim in the event that you either die, or receive a critical diagnosis.

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 97% of Life Insurance claims in 2021.

Legal & General Life Insurance Key Policy Factors

Legal & General’s Life Insurance policies come with several key policy factors that need to be taken into consideration.

Unlimited Maximum Life Insurance Benefit

As you can see, there are many features to Legal & General’s life insurance which make it very comprehensive. With no upper limit to the amount of insurance you can have, you can take out as much cover as you need.

Guaranteed Insurability

If you need to increase your cover, Legal & General allows you to do so with a Guaranteed Insurability option. This means you can increase your benefit without further medical underwriting if you go through certain life events:

• Marriage or civil partnership
• Birth or legal adoption of a child
• An increase in your earnings following a change in employment or promotion
• An increase in your mortgage on moving house or 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

There’s always a chance that those who take out a joint policy may later divorce, separate, or dissolve their civil partnership. With Legal & General’s life insurance you can split a joint policy into two single policies in these circumstances.

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.

Free Child Critical Illness Cover

Child cover is free when you take out Critical Illness Insurance for yourself. This pays a valid claim if your child develops a critical illness aged between 30 days old and their 18th birthday. It also pays out in a number of other situations that make it fairly unique:

• Children in full-time education are covered up to their 21st birthday
• £1,000 towards childcare with a registered childminder for a child under 5 years old within 18 months of a parent receiving a critical diagnosis
• £5,000 if your child suffers an accident that leaves them with physical injuries, requiring 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%.

The Life Insurance options you choose will depend on many factors. Your age, homeownership status, and medical history will all need to be considered.

As experts in our field, we can take a lot of the hassle out of the equation for you. Contact us on 02084327333 or email help@drewberry.co.uk and we can help you find the best option for your needs.

Rauri Taylor
Independent Protection Advisor

Additional Benefits

On top of Legal & General’s standard cover, there are some extra benefits that are included.

Accidental Death Benefit

This covers you in the event that you die from accidental causes during your application for cover. You’re covered for up to 90 days from when Legal & General receive your application.

If you die from accidental causes during this time, they’ll pay out a claim. The amount paid will be for the amount of cover you’ve asked for, up to a maximum of £300,000.

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.

Advanced Funeral Payment

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

Umbrella Benefits Under Wellbeing Support

Legal & General Life Insurance policyholders get access to Wellbeing Support, a service provided by RedArc Assured Limited. This provides a range of practical and emotional assistance when you need it the most. The support services include:

• Practical & Emotional Support
  If needed, you can be assigned a dedicated nurse who can provide practical and emotional support as often and for as long as you need
• Second Medical Opinion
  If diagnosed with a serious health condition you can get a second medical opinion from another medical professional. This can provide additional support and guidance at a stressful and overwhelming time. You can either receive reassurance that you’re on the best course of treatment, or recommendations for alternative options
• Mental Health Support
  Long-term support for a range of mental health conditions including stress issues, anxiety, depression or trauma including specialist counselling if appropriate
• Recovery From Illness Or Injury
  Manage your recovery after illness or injury with return to work coaching, lifestyle advice, and additional services such as physiotherapy and speech therapy
• Diagnosis Understanding
  If you were to be diagnosed with an illness, you can use RedArc to answer any questions you may have about the diagnosis itself and what the next steps are in terms of treatment
• Dietary & Lifestyle Support
  Advice on dietary and lifestyle topics such as, staying healthy, avoiding illness, and minimising the risk of becoming unwell
• Serious & Chronic Illnesses Management
  You can receive guidance and advice on what the best ways of managing illness are and the treatment which are available to you.
• Later Life Planning
  Information on government services, retirement housing and finances to help you plan your future.

Private Diagnostics (Additional Cost)

Getting answers quickly is so important when you are faced with a potentially serious health issue.

Legal and General’s Private Diagnostics service will give you access to some of the UK’s top specialist consultants. If you are referred for cardiology, oncology or neurosurgery, you’ll also have access to their diagnostic test centres to investigate your symptoms.

This additional benefit does however come at an extra cost of £4.50 per month.

Fracture Cover (Additional Cost)

If you were to fracture a bone, such as wrist, collarbone or skull, Fracture Cover would provide you with a cash lump sum which you can put towards recovery.

This additional benefit comes at an extra cost of £5.90 a month. It’s also important to note that in order to make a successful claim, the injury you sustain must be one that is specified in your policy.

How Does Legal & General Life Insurance Compare?

To help you understand if Legal & General’s Life Insurance is right for you, we’ve outlined some key points to highlight how it compares to other providers.

Child Cover Standard With Adult Critical Illness Insurance

Child Critical Illness Cover comes free when you take out Critical Illness Cover for yourself. With some insurers, child cover is an optional add-on for an extra premium.

If you want Critical Illness insurance, any children you either have, or plan to have, could benefit from this cover. As a result, Legal & General could have an advantage over other insurers.

Unique Child Cover Features

Legal & General’s child cover offers unique features most other insurers don’t offer. This includes the £5,000 hospitalisation benefit, £1,000 childcare support and £100 family accommodation benefit.

Accidental Hospitalisation Benefit With Critical Illness Cover

Legal & General offers an accidental hospitalisation benefit with its Critical Illness Insurance. This is fairly unique in the market and hasn’t yet been matched by other providers.

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 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. However, this option is only available on policies which run for at least 2 years.

It is common among many other insurers for 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

Legal & General includes Nurse Support Services for free, which offers help and support in a variety of areas. However, these extra features are fairly minimal compared to other insurers. For example, there are insurers which include access to remote GP services and physiotherapy with Life Insurance.

How Much Does Legal & General Life Insurance Cost?

Often your level of cover can be dictated by your budget, so it is important to have an idea of how much your cover may cost. As an example, we’ve calculated monthly premiums based on varying ages, with and without Critical Illness cover below.

To calculate these quotes we have assumed that the individual looking for cover wants £250,000 of cover, and:

• Needs decreasing cover
• Wants a policy term of 25 years
• Is in a low risk, office-based role
• Has no pre-existing conditions
• Is a non-smoker.

Life Insurance Only

Life Insurance & Critical Illness Cover

Get Legal & General Life Insurance Quotes & Expert Advice

Legal & General are just one of a number of insurers who offer Life Insurance in the UK. If you’d like to know more about the other top providers we’ve written a comprehensive guide reviewing the best UK life insurers.

As we all have unique personal circumstances, having an expert on your side can make all the difference. We can compare quotes across the whole of the market and make sure you set-up your cover correctly.

If you would like to speak to one of our team you can call us on 02084327333 or email help@drewberry.co.uk.

Alternatively if you are confident you know what you are looking for you can use our Life Insurance quote tool. This can help you compare the cost across the leading UK providers.

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 award winning 🏆 independent insurance broker who works with all the leading UK insurers
• You’ll speak to a dedicated expert from start to finish
• We are very proud of the 3763 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 🧐

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.