Legal & General Life Insurance
What are the benefits of insuring with Legal & General?
Learn about Legal & General insurance, with over 10 million customers and 180 years plus of experience and the benefits of insuring with Legal & General.
At first glance, Legal & General might appear to be a suave umbrella selling business, but what they actually do protects you from more than just a rainy day – they help you prepare for it.
The benefits of insuring with Legal & General present themselves in ways beyond the financial protection and peace of mind that comes with insuring your life and ensuring the future of your loved ones. Additional benefits from Legal & General you can expect as part of specific life insurance policies are:
- Umbrella Benefits services and additional benefits as accessible to every Legal & General policy holder
- Free life cover for those moving home
- Funeral benefit option (for over 50s insurance only)
- Terminal illness cover
- Wellbeing support (for over 50s insurance only)
- Accidental death benefit available during the application process, giving you that extra reassurance from the very get go
- The ability to make changes to your policy – increasing the cover or changing the term, without having to provide any additional medical information (something that many other insurers we work with offer, too.).
The future is unknown, but Legal & General provide an array of life insurance products and value-added benefits to those who know they want to prepare for it, whatever it might bring.
A brief introduction to Legal & General
Legal & General was established in 1836, born from the brains of six lawyers who decided to build a better society.
Thankfully they didn’t go down the “university javelin society” route, and instead pooled their expertise together to create what we know now as one of Europe’s top 30 largest insurance companies and asset management groups, Legal & General.
With over 180 years of experience and, as of 2022, 10 million plus customers spanning their array of services, Legal & General, in 2021, covered more families in the UK than any other provider, all from within their London headquarters.
What products does Legal & General offer?
Legal & General offer various types of life insurance policies, to suit a multitude of needs. These policies include:
Life InsuranceThe best thing you can do for the future of your loved ones is to protect it, to protect them, today. Taking out a Legal & General life insurance policy is the way to do just that. By paying a fixed monthly premium, as little as £5 a month (20p a day) for a specified duration of time called the term, your family will receive a cash lump-sum (known as the cover amount), should you pass away during that term.
To figure out how much life insurance you might need, Protect Line has created a life insurance calculator as guidance.
Decreasing Life InsuranceLegal & General decreasing life insurance, otherwise known as mortgage life insurance, is commonly taken out by those in the process of paying off a mortgage.
Decreasing cover is designed to act as financial protection for that mortgage, should you pass away or be diagnosed with a terminal illness before it’s paid off. It means your loved ones won’t be left with the burden of handling it.
The difference between decreasing life insurance and fixed life insurance is that the cover reduces as your repayment mortgage reduces. As you pay off your repayment mortgage each month and thus the total reduces, as does your cover, matching the figure remaining.
For more information on the ins and outs of decreasing life insurance/mortgage insurance, Protect Line have provided a comprehensive guide.
Critical Illness CoverLegal & General critical illness insurance is an add-on to either life insurance or decreasing life insurance.
Similarly to life insurance, you pay a monthly premium for the policy term, which pays out a lump-sum to you should you make a claim. Critical illness cover is there for those who want to protect themselves financially, should they ever become diagnosed with a critical illness that impacts their day-to-day life. It’s extra protection and peace of mind.
If you’re unsure on how to determine how much critical illness cover you might need, Protect Line has collated some of the main conditions classed as critical illness by the ABI to help.
Over 50s Life InsuranceLegal & General over 50s life insurance guarantees acceptance of anybody aged 50 and above, regardless of their medical history. No medical questioning involved.
This type of life insurance policy technically as no “period of cover” as it’s a whole of life insurance (sometimes referred to as “life assurance“) – meaning your loved ones are guaranteed a pay out, because this policy covers you up to your death.
Over 50s cover is a great way to account for future funeral costs and to provide that extra support for you family and their everyday living expenses after you’re gone.
Various other protection productsAs well as the many types of life insurance mentioned above, Legal & General also offer additional cover in the form of:
- Income protection
- Rental protection
- Pension and retirement funds
- Business protection
Umbrella cover to protect your home, your salary, your company, your future.
*Note: Not all types of cover listed above are available through Protect Line. Our specialists will be able to give you the options available to you and compare these against the insurers on our panel.
Get your Legal & General quotes here, and chat with our friendly team to help you decide what options are available to you.
10 Benefits of insuring with Legal & General
Legal & General offer a wide range of value-added benefits alongside their life cover policies. Many are available to all policy holders, whilst some are exclusive only to those with specified cover. These benefits are elaborated on below:
1. Legal & General access to Umbrella Benefits as standard
The Umbrella Benefits provided by Legal & General can offer practical and emotional support, in the form of four separate value-added services.
Included as standard are two benefits, intended to focus on physical and mental health. The first is the wellbeing support provided by RedArc nurses, who are renowned for their continual and astounding emotional support, providing personal nurses to all of those with a Legal & General policy. Their support is tailored to the customer’s needs, ranging from professional guidance throughout times of grief to general emotional and wellbeing support and check-ins. The second is the rehabilitation support service available, but only for those with an income protection policy and rental income protection.
The remaining optional Legal & General benefits that policy holders can choose from are fracture cover and private diagnostics.
For an additional £5.90 a month, fracture cover has your back should you break your back. If you were to become injured with a specific injury, you could claim up to an additional £7,500 per year (this doesn’t apply to sports-related injuries, however). This benefit comes as an add-on to for life insurance, critical illness cover, income protection and rental protection (terms and conditions apply).
For an additional £4.50, the private diagnostics add-on is available to those who need answers, and fast. When facing a potential serious illness, it’s critical to get the help you need, when you need it, which is why this optional extra provides access to some of the UK’s top consultants and diagnostic techniques, with results returned within just a few weeks.
2. Free life cover available with Legal & General life insurance
Free life cover is available at no extra cost to Legal & General customers with life insurance and decreasing life insurance policies – if they are moving home.
If you were to pass away between the exchange of contracts and completion of your property purchase, your loved ones will get either the sum assured, the amount of your loan, or £300,000, whichever is lowest. This is payable up to a maximum of 90 days.
Because moving home is already stressful enough – but losing the ones you make a home with is debilitating. Nobody needs financial worries on top of that.
3. Legal & General terminal illness cover
Terminal illness cover is automatically included in all life cover plans, at no additional cost.
Should you find yourself with the unfortunate news that you have less than 12 months left to live due to being diagnosed with a terminal illness, then Legal & General will pay out the full amount of your life insurance cover to you and your loved ones.
Though it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the priceless nature of your life, it can help you spend what time you have left doing what you love, with those that love you.
4. Accidental death benefit with life insurance policies
The accidental death benefit – though it sounds like a very peculiar thing to turn into a benefit – entitles you to cover, even whilst your life insurance application is being processed.
Taking out a life insurance policy is a very detailed and delicate procedure. If anything were to happen to you before your application was finalised, the cover would not be paid out. Thankfully, that’s where the Legal & General accidental death benefit steps in.
You’d be paid out the amount of cover you’d applied for within your policy, or £300,000 (whichever is lower), without the need for any medical underwriting, if you died due to an accident. It begins the second you submit your completed application form and lasts for up to 90 days, or however long it takes for your application to be accepted, denied, or postponed. This also applies if you withdraw your application.
5. You can make changes to your Legal & General policy without reassessment
A benefit of Legal & General, which applies to life insurance, decreasing life insurance and critical illness cover, is the ability to alter your policy. This is often referred to as a Guaranteed Insurability Option (or GIO) – which Protect Line has detailed in their GIO specific article – and is a standard of most insurers, allowing you to increase your policy without being reassessed.
Because, unlike your monthly premiums, life is rarely fixed. It ebbs and flows, with highs and lows, and sometimes you might need to alter your insurance policy accordingly.
Maybe you need to switch from monthly payments to annual, because bills swallow up your monthly wage, but you always get a hefty Christmas card full of cash each year that can cover the entire premium!
Perhaps you need to increase the cover amount you applied for because you’ve got two extra kids new to the family (and the cost of raising one child is an exponential expense – let alone two!).
Or you might even need to extend the term of your policy because you’ve just been bitten by a vampire and now your future is looking lengthier than you first imagined.
Whatever the reason, you could be eligible to edit your policy details should you need to. Eligibility criteria includes the following events:
- The birth of a child or legal adoption of a child or becoming the legal guardian of a child
- You get married or enter into a registered civil partnership
- You get divorced or dissolve a registered civil partnership
- Your earnings increase due to a new job or promotion
- You increase your mortgage because you’re moving home or undertaking major home improvements.
6. Legal & General funeral payment pledge
Up to £10,000 of advanced payment can be paid out early to families of life insurance policy holders, depending on each individual valid claim and circumstances, to ease them of the financial burden that comes with planning a funeral, something which often cannot be delayed. This payment is made directly to the funeral director.
7. Accident hospitalisation benefit with critical illness cover
Accident hospitalisation benefit is an addition to critical illness protection, at no extra cost.
If you’re admitted to hospital with physical injuries as a result of a recent accident, you can claim and receive £5,000 from Legal & General as that extra cushion of support you might need (though this benefit isn’t payable if a valid critical illness cover claim has already been made).
It won’t instantaneously heal you, but it’ll prevent any financial anxiety from making things worse.
8. Children’s critical illness cover alongside your own
We don’t like to think about kids falling ill, so we won’t talk about it for long. *Says in a whisper* but, with your own critical illness policy, your children are automatically covered too. And your cover also pays out, should the very worst thing happen and your child passes away. This benefit is included as standard, which is also true of most other insurers (however some offer it as an extra), because life is never lived fuller than when it’s lived by a kid.
They adventure like they’re immortal, don’t they? And they very well might be. But Legal & General have them covered, just in case they’re not.
Just ask William**, a self-employed dad and carer for his nan – who found out that his two-year-old daughter, Summer, had leukaemia.
The financial impact was immediate. Her treatment very quickly began to eat through William’s savings, meaning that affording rent, paying off his nan’s outstanding mortgage and keeping up with ever-increasing bills became an ever-increasing worry. William explains to the team at Legal & General:
“We had X amount of money when we went into the hospital, and within a week that was pretty much gone.”
Not to mention that looking after his nan, his daughter and his new removals business all at once added that extra strain of emotional turmoil on top of an already tough situation. It was an uncertain time. A bad time.
Until he made a claim on his critical illness cover. Fortunately, when William took out a mortgage earlier in his life, he had been advised by his financial advisor to take out the decreasing life type of life insurance and add critical illness insurance into the mix. And thankfully, he did.
“I think within a month, the money was in our account. We got a £15,000 pay out. It lasted long enough to get us through that situation. I don’t think we’d have anything left if it wasn’t for that initial pay out.”
Summer is now in remission, living out her days as sunny and bright as every two-year-old should be able to. William adds that,
“The long and short of it is, Legal & General really did sort our lives out.”
9. Legal & General over 50s funeral benefit option
If you have taken out a Legal & General over 50s fixed life insurance policy with the intention of your cover being put towards your funeral, then this funeral benefit option can be chosen as an add-on.
The funeral benefit means that, once your life insurance valid claim has been made, it will pay out automatically to Dignity Funerals Limited and a Dignity funeral director will take care of any funeral arrangements from there. This service comes at no additional cost, yet as an additional perk, Dignity will contribute a further £250 towards your funeral expenses.
10. RedArc wellbeing support with Legal & General protection plans
Legal & General understand that your emotions are tethered to not just your life, but the lives of those you love, too. Bereavement feels like a physical illness and a physical illness can feel like you’re mourning your own life in advance. These are tough things to face alone.
Which is why you’re not. Partnering with RedArc personal nurses, Legal & General offer any phone-based wellbeing services and support to those with life cover, critical illness cover, income protection, rental protection, business protection and whole-of-life protection. Whether that’s a phone call for advice, a check-in or just a kind word, RedArc nurses are on your side, and at your side, throughout the entire duration of your policy, beginning on day one.
“My husband had an over 50s life insurance plan with Legal & General. Unfortunately, my husband died in November. When I contacted Legal & General the staff were extremely supportive, knowledgeable and professional.” – an over 50s life cover customer testimonial from Legal & General**
Because Legal & General understand that when the worst happens, you need the best possible service you can get. You need somebody who knows how to help – and then does so.
**Note: All views expressed in the case studies are opinions and not intended to be financial advice or recommendations from Protect Line
Why should I insure with Legal & General?
Protect Line prides itself on being a non-advisory brokerage, intent on providing you with only facts and accurate data, so that you are better able to make an informed decision based on what you think your needs require.
That being said, here is a little more information on Legal & General that might be of interest:
- Legal & General won “Best Insurer for Protecting Clients Living in Rented Accommodation” at the 2021 Protection Guru Awards (weirdly, nothing to do with protecting gurus)
- It was also the Moneyfacts Winner of Life Insurance Provider of the Year (Direct) for 2023 at the annual Consumer Moneyfacts awards (for four years in a row!)
- In 2021, Legal & General paid out 97.9% of all life claims, amounting to £478 million paid
- Also in 2021, for critical illness cover, Legal & General paid out £209 million, helping 2,800 people and their loved ones
- Each day in 2022, Legal & General paid out an average of over £2.4m life insurance, income protection and critical illness claims (which is an increase of 5% on the year prior)
- Legal & General Signed up to The Protection Distributors Group’ (PDG) Claim Charter, reinforcing dedication to delivering the highest standards throughout the claim experience. And it is reflected within their reputation
Life insurance is really love insurance. For your chosen premium payment, your family is reaping a priceless reward. A grand gesture of love in the form of a promise, telling them that you’re there to protect them, even after you’re gone.
Get your Legal & General quotes today, to protect your family’s tomorrow
References:
- Legal & General benefits: https://www.legalandgeneral.com/insurance/life-insurance/additional-benefits/
- Europe’s 30 largest insurance companies: https://www.reinsurancene.ws/largest-30-european-insurers/
- About Legal & General: https://group.legalandgeneral.com/en/about-us/our-businesses/legal-general-retail
- Legal & General family coverage: https://www.legalandgeneral.com/cost-of-living/insurance/cost-of-living-life-insurance/
- Legal & General Umbrella Benefits: https://www.legalandgeneral.com/landg-assets/adviser/files/protection/umbrella-benefits/umbrella_benefits_adviser_guide.pdf
- Legal & General policy change criteria: https://www.legalandgeneral.com/insurance/life-insurance/additional-benefits/making-changes-to-your-policy/
- Legal & General funeral payment pledge: https://www.legalandgeneral.com/existing-customers/life-cover-support/#/path/Hidden-Labels/Additional-Info/1538493522/What-is-Funeral-payment-pledge.htm
- Legal & General accident hospitalisation benefit: https://www.legalandgeneral.com/insurance/life-insurance/critical-illness-cover/additional-benefits/accident-hospitalisation-benefit
- Legal & General critical illness cover customer, William, case study: https://www.legalandgeneral.com/insurance/life-insurance/critical-illness-cover/customer-testimonials/
- Legal & General over 50s funeral benefit option: https://www.legalandgeneral.com/insurance/over-50-life-insurance/funeral-benefit-option/
- Legal & General claimant testimonial: https://www.legalandgeneral.com/insurance/over-50-life-insurance/claimant-testimonials/
- Legal & General awards: https://www.legalandgeneral.com/insurance/life-insurance/guides/best-life-insurance/
- Legal & General claims data: https://group.legalandgeneral.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/legal-general-pays-out-a-record-883-million-retail-protection-claims-in-2022