Zurich Life Insurance [REVIEW]

Who Are Zurich?

Zurich was founded in Switzerland in 1872 and is now one of the world’s largest companies. It operates in more than 215 countries and territories, and employs around 55,000 people worldwide.

As a leading multi-line insurer, Zurich provides many insurance and protection policies. You can also find a range of wealth-related services.

Zurich has won multiple awards for outstanding service and insurance products. Most notably, it has won consecutive awards from FT Adviser for its online customer service.

Zurich Life Insurance Policy Overview

• Unlimited Maximum Benefit
  Zurich offers an unlimited maximum Life Insurance benefit, so you can choose however much cover you need
• Multi Fracture Cover
  Multi Fracture Cover is available for an extra premium. This pays £2,000, £4,000 or £6,000 depending on your injury if you suffer a specified fracture or dislocation
• Additional Critical Illness Cover
  Opt to pay extra for Critical Illness Cover, which pays out in full if you develop one of 40 conditions
• Support Services
  Life Insurance policy holders get access to Zurich’s support services. A telephone helpline which is available 24/7 and offers help in four key areas: daily concerns, significant life events, emotional support and work.

What Does Zurich Life Insurance Cover?

Zurich’s purpose is to make sure your family will be taken care of should the worst happen. They deliver comprehensive Life Insurance to protect your family’s future. You can also add Critical Illness Cover for an extra premium.

Zurich is also heavily committed to its sustainability goals. It has partnered with Tree-Nation and pledged to plant one tree for every Life Insurance insurance policy bought.

Zurich Life Insurance is a comprehensive Life Insurance policy with an unlimited maximum benefit.

It also offers the flexibility of adding Fracture Cover for an extra premium. This is something few other life insurers offer.

Samantha Haffenden-Angear
Independent Protection Expert at Drewberry

Key Policy Factors

Zurich’s Life Insurance policy cover offers a number of key policy factors. It’s important you take these into consideration when taking out protection.

Unlimited Life Cover

Zurich Life Insurance policies have no limit on the maximum benefit available. That means you can choose a sum of your choosing as you require. If you combine it with Critical Illness Cover however, the £5 million limit will apply.

Milestone Benefit

Zurich calls its guaranteed insurability option Milestone Benefit or Special Event Benefit. This lets you increase your benefit without providing further medical evidence. You must use this option within 90 days of the milestone event occurring.

These milestone events include:

• Marriage or civil partnership
• Divorce, separation, or dissolution of a civil partnership
• Childbirth or adoption of a child
• Increasing your mortgage to purchase a home, move house or improve your home
• Increasing your salary by 10%+ after getting promoted or changing jobs.

The maximum benefit increase is the lower of £200,000 or your original benefit, except for mortgage increase or salary increase.

For mortgage increase, Zurich caps the benefit increase at the total outstanding mortgage on your main home. For salary increase, the most you can increase your benefit by is the percentage increase in your salary.

Separation Benefit

Zurich’s separation benefit can be utilised by couples who separate, divorce, or dissolve their civil partnership. It allows you to split your joint policy into two separate ones without further medical evidence.

Again, you’ll need to notify Zurich within 90 days of the separation event to use this option. Both people will need to agree, and meet the age and benefit limits stated in the policy conditions.

Choice Of Increasing Cover

With Zurich Life Insurance, you can opt for increasing cover. This sees your benefit rise each year so that inflation doesn’t erode its purchasing power.

You can choose for your policy increases to take place in one of two ways:

• Fixed Increasing Cover
  Your benefit will rise by your choice of either 3% or 5% each year. To compensate for this, your premiums will also rise. If you’ve chosen for your benefit to rise by 3%, your premiums will increase by 4.5%. If you opt for the 5% increase, your premiums will go up by 6.5%.
• Indexed increasing cover
  Your benefit rises each year in line with the Retail Prices Index (RPI) rate of inflation. The increase will be capped at 10% each year. To compensate for this, your premiums will rise by 1.5% for every 1% increase in your cover.

With increasing cover, your Life Insurance benefit cannot exceed £40 million. For Life with Critical Illness, your benefit cannot rise beyond £5 million (£2 million with Total Permanent Disability cover).

Additional Benefits With Zurich Life Insurance

Zurich doesn’t just offer life insurance that protects your family, it also offers some free additional benefits.

Zurich Support Services

Zurich Support Services aims to offer support for a variety of life events. It offers support via a telephone helpline, which is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The service is split into four key areas, offering help with:

• Daily Concerns
  Receive support in your job search, debt management, household bills, and consumer rights
• Significant Life Events
  Help with wedding planning, separation, divorce, bereavement, or moving home
• Emotional Support
  Assistance for anxiety, depression, living with illness or disability, or revisiting life goals
• Work
  You may also need support dealing with pressure or stress, workplace bullying or harassment, and employment rights.

Multi Fracture Cover

For an extra premium, you can choose to add Multi Fracture Cover to your policy.

This pays out either £2,000, £4,000, or £6,000 depending on the injury. It covers not just fractures but also:

• Certain dislocations approved by Zurich
• Ruptures to your Achilles tendon
• Tears in the cruciate ligament in your knee.

You can claim multiple times a year up to a maximum annual benefit of £6,000.

There are exclusions for injuries sustained during certain activities. BMX or mountain biking, boxing, martial arts, cage fighting, and rugby are all among the excluded activities.

Funeral Benefit

If probate causes a delay with the payout of your Life Insurance claim, Zurich will advance a funeral benefit. This means they’ll pay out up to £10,000 of your benefit to a funeral director or family member. This means your loved ones can arrange your funeral while probate is processed.

How Does Zurich Compare?

To help you compare Zurich’s Life Insurance cover against other providers, we’ve highlighted some key points below for you to consider.

Minimum Entry Age Of 16

Most other Life Insurance providers will only offer cover to those aged 18 or above. Zurich, however, lets you take out cover from the age of 16. This is the youngest minimum age you can apply, which makes Zurich a good option for younger people seeking insurance.

Advanced Surgery Payments

Some of the critical conditions and injuries Zurich covers are actually surgeries. For example, it pays out for aortic graft surgery, major organ transplant and heart valve replacement or repair. This is common among most insurers on the market.

However, Zurich pays out as soon as you’re on the NHS waiting list for your procedure. This means you won’t have to wait until undergoing the operation to receive your claim. Receiving your claim sooner rather than later is a competitive feature from Zurich.

Multi Fracture Cover Option

As mentioned, you can choose to add Multi Fracture Cover for an extra premium. Few other insurers offer this on Life Insurance. In fact, it’s more common on Income Protection policies.

On top of that, Multi Fracture Cover also includes cover for certain dislocations, ruptured tendons and cruciate ligament tears, not just fractures. This is unique among fracture cover offerings.

Minimal Free Additional Benefits

Zurich Support Services, which offers help and counselling for a range of issues, is actually a fairly minimal set of free benefits.

For example, many other insurers include access to digital GP services. You can also find more tangible benefits such as health checks, counselling, and physiotherapy.

No Child Cover As Standard

Children’s Critical Illness Cover is an optional add-on for an extra premium. It’s not included free as standard with adult cover.

While this does mean you don’t pay for a service you won’t use if you don’t have children, many other providers offer it free. If you have children or plan to grow your family, this is worth noting.

Pregnancy Complications Cost Extra

Not only is child cover an optional add-on, but it doesn’t cover stillbirth or foetal death in utero. You’ll need to pay extra for Critical Illness Select and include the Enhanced Children’s Benefit to get this coverage. It provides a payout of £5,000 from the 24th week of your pregnancy.

Total Permanent Disability Cover Not Standard

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

It’s not one of the conditions Zurich’s Critical Illness Cover includes as standard. You can pay an extra premium to include it with your policy. However, some Life and Critical Illness Insurance providers do include this free as standard.

How Much Does Zurich’s Life Insurance Cost?

To give you an idea of how much premiums may cost if you choose a Zurich Life Insurance policy, we’ve included some examples below.

To calculate these quotes, we’ve assumed that the individual applying for the policy wants £250,000 of cover, and:

• Needs a decreasing term to cover a mortgage
• Wants the policy for 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

Compare Life Insurance Quotes & Get Expert Advice

As you can see, there’s a lot to consider when you’re taking out a protection policy. With so many factors and lots of jargon, it can be tricky to make sense of your options. We’ve put together a comprehensive guide for you to compare different providers and policies.

Or, if you know what you’re looking for, feel free to use our handy online quote tool. You can compare quotes from all the leading providers and apply online.

Of course, you might find yourself with more questions than answers. If so, our team of expert regulated advisors are on hand to help. We can compare quotes and help you find the best life insurance for your circumstances.

Why Speak to Us?

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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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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.