Relevant Life Insurance

Our Relevant Life Insurance policy offers your business clients a number of benefits:

• Choice of covers – life cover or life and employee significant illness cover.
• Flexible cover amounts and policy term.
• Cover options – clients can select level or increasing cover and include total permanent disability with life and employee significant illness cover.
• Specialist team of financial and medical underwriters – plus an online 'virtual underwriter' for immediate decisions.
• Free life cover of up to £1 million during the application process through our Business Protection Promise.
• Straightforward claims process backed by our dedicated UK-based claims team.
• Online Trust journey with our Discretionary Trust for Relevant Life Insurance.

Please note that Relevant Life Insurance provides cover only and has no cash-in value at any time.

For more details, including full terms and eligibility criteria, please read our Relevant Life Insurance policy summary and policy conditions.

This is a summary of what’s available with Relevant Life Insurance. For full terms and details, please see the policy summary and policy conditions.

 

Your clients can choose from:

• Life cover only – pays out on death or on diagnosis of a terminal illness that meets our definition
• Life and employee significant illness cover  – pays out on death, diagnosis of a terminal illness that meets our definition, or if an employee suffers a covered significant illness that meets our definition and results in their retirement or anticipated retirement.

Life cover premiums are guaranteed for the duration of the policy. Premiums for life and employee significant illness cover can be guaranteed or reviewable.

 

They can then choose if they want the cover type to be:

• Level  – the cover amount and the premiums stay the same throughout the policy term.
• Increasing  – your clients can choose from fixed (3% or 5%) or index-linked (Retail Prices Index) increasing cover to help protect against inflation. Premiums will also increase each year by 1 and a half times the cover increase – so, for example, a 3% rise in cover would increase the premium by 4.5%. If RPI increasing cover is selected and RPI is zero or negative, there’ll be no change to cover or premiums that year. The maximum increase in your cover amount will be 10% each year.

Additional benefits:

• Life change benefit  – if the employee’s circumstances change, they may be able to take out more cover without us asking further health and lifestyle questions.
• Business Protection Promise  – if we can’t make a decision on an application straightaway, we’ll provide life cover of up to £1 million free of charge whilst we look into the case.
• Continuation benefit – if the life covered leaves their employment then:
  • The policy can be transferred to the life covered’s new employer; or
  • The policy can be cancelled and the life covered can take out a new life only policy free of medical underwriting.

Also available at an extra cost:

• Total Permanent Disability  – available on life and employee significant illness cover. It can pay a lump sum if the employee meets our definition of total permanent disability. 

The policy is suitable for covering employees or directors of limited companies.

The policy isn’t suitable for covering sole traders, equity partners of a Partnership or equity members of a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP). But it can be used to cover their employees.

 

To apply for a Relevant Life Insurance policy:

• the employer needs to be based in the UK
• the employee – the life covered – needs to be a permanent resident of the UK.

Please see the Relevant Life Insurance policy conditions for the full eligibility criteria.

 

Relevant Life Insurance is designed for clients who want:

• to provide life cover for their employees with the option of protecting against the financial consequences of our specified illnesses
• cover for a specified term
• to anticipate IHT liabilities.

 

It’s unlikely to be suitable for clients who want:

• an investment-linked arrangement
• whole of life protection
• cover with a cash-in value.

Things to consider:

• level of cover required
• existing levels of cover
• employees’ health, financial liabilities and for how long they’ll need cover.

 

Possible alternatives:

• group life insurance
• self-insurance for the employee
• whole of life policy for the employee.