Legal & General Life Insurance

Introduction

Founded in a Chancery Lane coffee shop in 1836, Legal & General plc is a leading insurer in the field of protection insurance, with more than 10 million customers worldwide in 2016.

As well as life insurance, they offer a range of pension and investment products.

Legal & General won the “Life Insurance Provider of the Year” award in 2015 from Personal Touch Awards.

In 2016 they paid out 98.6% of life insurance claims.

How Financially Strong is Legal & General?

Legal & General is one of the largest insurance companies in the UK.  Not only that, as a member of the FTSE 100 index it is also one of the biggest companies nationwide.

They held an Insurance Groups Directive surplus of £4 billion in 2011; this is over twice the regulatory requirement.

Legal and General’s assets under management exceeded £800 billion in 2016.

Life Insurance from Legal & General.  Your At-A-Glance Guide

Legal & General wins several awards for its customer service.

They offer a wide range of additional benefits with which to expand your life insurance cover.  Importantly, you’ll be able to amend your options during the lifetime if your policy to ensure that it is tailored precisely to your needs.

• Your policy will include terminal illness benefit automatically, at no extra charge.
• With a joint life policy from Legal & General, you will be able to divide the policy into two separate ones in the case of divorce or dissolution of a civil partnership. Also, you can do this if one of you takes over a mortgage or takes a new one out.  The terms of the policy will not change.
• Life insurance from Legal & General includes accidental death benefit. If you die from an accident while applying for your policy, your beneficiaries will receive a pay out.  This applies for up to 90 days after sending your application and the benefit will be up to £300,000.  There are a number of exclusions to this benefit, so contact us to find out more.
• This insurer offers family life benefit, which divides your benefit payments into monthly pay out amounts.
• With Legal & General you have a reducing life insurance option (payments over a fixed period of time, with decreasing pay out levels over the length of the policy). You will be able to choose your policy decrease rate.
• A combined life insurance and critical illness policy with Legal & General covers 38 illnesses. There are other insurers with a higher number of critical illnesses.
• Legal & General automatically adds additional critical illness benefit to your policy. This allows you to claim up to 25% of your benefit (maximum £25,000) if you are diagnosed with early stage breast cancer or low-grade prostate cancer.  This pay out will not affect your main benefit.
• You can index link your policy. In this case, Legal & General will increase your premiums by 1.5 times your benefit increase.  You will not be able to reject an increase in benefit without it being cancelled immediately.
• You must keep your policy up until your 29th birthday.
• You can add Total and Permanent Disability benefit to your life insurance cover. Legal & General may use either “own occupation” or “activities of daily living” as definitions of incapacity.  Most insurers use just one definition.
• If you choose reviewable rather than guaranteed premiums, they will be reviewed every 5 years and amended to reflect the value of your cover. However, they will not get more expensive as you get older, as L&G won’t value your premiums on your circumstances.  If the recommendation is an increase or decrease of less than 5%, your premiums will remain the same.

Overview of Key Policy Details – Legal & General

Policy Type	Life Insurance
Options	Level Term, Decreasing Term
Policy Coverage	Single, Joint  Life, First Event
Underwriting	Full medical underwriting.  You will know where you stand with your policy right from the start.
Premium Type	Guaranteed/Reviewable
Terminal Illness Cover	Included
Critical Illness Cover	Yes. Optional
Number of Critical Illnesses Covered	38 Total and Permanent Disability benefit included automatically 2 additional critical illnesses (max benefit of £25,000) included in cover
Children’s Critical Illness Cover	Yes Only 1 claim per child.  Cover will end after 2 claims Covered for 50% of your main benefit or £25,000
Indexation	Optional
Waiver of premium	Optional If employed, your waiver will use own occupation definition of incapacity. Not available if you are older than 55 at policy application
Minimum Entry Age	18 years
Maximum Entry Age	77 (67 for life & critical illness cover)
Guaranteed Insurability	Increase in your mortgage Career change or increase in salary Entering into or terminating civil partnership or marriage Birth or adoption of a child
Policy Exclusions	Self-inflicted injuries or suicide within 12 months of policy start date

Additional Benefits and Services from Legal & General

• Legal & General offers SmoothMove. If you buy a new house within 6 months of your policy start date, SmoothMove offers a 24-hour service to deal with any emergencies in your home.  Legal advice is also available.
• Accident Hospitalisation Benefit. If you are in hospital for more than 28 days, you will receive a benefit of £5,000.
• Child Accident Hospitalisation Benefit. If your child is in hospital for more than 28 days, you will receive a benefit of £5,000.
• Family Accommodation Benefit. 3 months after your child has been diagnosed with a critical illness, you will receive £100 every time you stay at the hospital (maximum £1,000)
• Child Funeral Benefit. If your child dies, this insurer will pay out £4,000 towards the cost of a funeral.
• Additional Critical Illness Cover. You will be able to claim for certain conditions without your life insurance benefit being affected.
• Nurse Support Services. If a loved one dies or your claim for critical illness or a terminal illness, you can have access to a range of advisory and support services by a qualified nurse.
• Optional Virtual GP. You will have access to GP services via phone or computer, as well as access to private prescriptions.