Legal And General Life Insurance Review 2024

Legal & General is one of the UK’s leading financial services companies, offering a range of insurance products including life insurance. Founded in 1836, Legal & General has been protecting families for over 180 years. They are rated highly by independent experts like Defaqto, and are the UK’s number one life insurance provider based on new life insurance sales.

In this comprehensive review, we’ll take a deep dive into Legal & General’s life insurance offerings, examining their key features, costs, policy options, additional benefits, and how they compare to other leading insurers. We’ll also look at real life insurance reviews from customers to see how Legal & General measures up in terms of customer satisfaction and claims handling.

Key Features

Some of the key features of Legal & General life insurance include:

• Flexible cover options: Legal & General offers a variety of life insurance products to suit different needs and budgets, including level term, decreasing term, increasing term, whole life, and over 50s plans.
• Guaranteed premiums: Your premiums are guaranteed to stay the same for the duration of your policy, unless you make changes.
• Terminal illness cover included: If you’re diagnosed with a terminal illness with a life expectancy of less than 12 months, Legal & General will pay out your full sum assured early.
• Free life cover: When you take out life insurance to cover your mortgage, Legal & General provides free life cover for up to 90 days while your application is being processed.
• Guaranteed insurability: For certain life events like marriage or childbirth, you can increase your cover without further medical information.

Is Legal & General Life Insurance Any Good?

Legal & General consistently receives high ratings from independent financial experts and customers alike. They hold a 5-star rating from Defaqto, the highest possible rating, demonstrating the comprehensive quality of their life insurance.

In terms of life insurance payout rates, Legal & General has an excellent record. In 2022, they paid out £509 million in life insurance claims, helping over 12,500 families. This demonstrates their commitment to being there for customers when they need them most.

Legal & General also offers some attractive additional benefits with their life insurance at no extra cost, like accidental death benefit while your application is being processed, and terminal illness cover. They also provide support services like Care Concierge for later life care planning.

Life Insurance Reviews

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When considering life insurance, it’s important to look at real customer reviews to see how insurers handle claims and customer service in practice. On Trustpilot, one of the largest customer review platforms, Legal & General has a rating of 3.8 out of 5 stars, indicating generally positive customer experiences. Here are some examples:

• “Great communication and advice from the pension team. Explained situation well. Documents sent out in a timely manner. Once they received the documents back they acted very quickly and I received my money quicker than what they had originally stated. Great service. I was very pleased.” – Mr & Mrs Sparks, Trustpilot
• “I have been making some changes to my personal pension and found the forms complicated to fill in. I have rung various help lines at different times and without exception every single person I have spoken to has been calm, pleasant, polite, clear and helpful.” – Burnsey, Trustpilot
• “I’ve been with the company for years and have always found them to have good policies at reasonable rates. No problems contacting them and they have always answered queries clearly.” – Mrs R-J, Trustpilot

Of course, no insurer is perfect and some customers did report issues like delays with claims. However, the vast majority of Legal & General life insurance reviews are positive.

Life Insurance Policy Summary

Here is a summary of Legal & General’s core life insurance products (information correct as of March 2023):

Life Insurance

• Payout: Fixed lump sum
• Premium: Guaranteed, from £5/month
• Term: 1-50 years
• Max age at entry: 77
• Max age at end of policy: 90

Legal & General’s standard Life Insurance pays out a fixed lump sum if you pass away during the policy term. You choose the payout amount and how long you want the cover to last. This can be a good option for covering an interest-only mortgage, providing family protection, or covering an inheritance tax bill.

Decreasing Life Insurance

• Payout: Decreasing lump sum
• Premium: Guaranteed, from £5/month
• Term: 5-50 years
• Max age at entry: 74
• Max age at end of policy: 90

With Decreasing Life Insurance, the payout reduces over time, usually in line with a repayment mortgage. Premiums stay fixed. This tends to be a cheaper option than level term cover as the risk to the insurer reduces over time. Use a decreasing life insurance calculator to work out how much cover you need.

Increasing Life Insurance

• Payout: Increasing lump sum
• Premium: Reviewable
• Term: 2-50 years
• Max age at entry: 77
• Max age at end of policy: 90

Increasing Life Insurance is designed to protect the policy against inflation. The payout increases each year in line with the Retail Prices Index (RPI) to a maximum of 10%. Premiums also increase annually, by RPI times 1.5, capped at 15%.

Whole Life Insurance

• Payout: Fixed lump sum
• Premium: Guaranteed
• Term: Whole of life
• Max age at entry: 80

Whole Life Insurance pays out a fixed lump sum whenever you pass away, with no time limit. Premiums are usually higher than for term insurance as a payout is guaranteed. This can be useful for providing a legacy or covering funeral costs.

Over 50s Life Insurance

• Payout: Fixed lump sum, £1,508 to £6,044 for £20/month premium
• Premium: Fixed based on age and payout
• Max age at entry: 80
• Premiums stop at age: 90

Over 50s Life Insurance guarantees acceptance without a health questionnaire, if you’re a UK resident aged 50-80. You choose a premium between £5 and £75 per month, which determines your fixed payout. Payouts are lower the older you are, as the insurer expects to pay out sooner.

Life Insurance Cost

The cost of life insurance depends on the type of policy, how much cover you need, how long for, your age, health and lifestyle. Generally, the younger and healthier you are, the cheaper your premiums.

Here are some example quotes for £200,000 of level life cover over 20 years for a healthy non-smoker, correct as of March 2023:

If you have pre-existing health conditions like diabetes or depression, or lifestyle factors like a high BMI or smoking, you can expect to pay more for life insurance. Some insurers may even decline cover. However, Legal & General aims to offer cover to 95% of applicants.

Critical Illness Cover

Critical Illness Cover can be added to a life insurance policy for an additional cost. It pays out a lump sum if you’re diagnosed with one of the specified critical illnesses covered by the policy and survive for at least 14 days after diagnosis.

Legal & General’s Critical Illness Cover includes nearly 40 conditions such as cancer, heart attack and stroke. They also provide additional payouts for less severe illnesses like early stage cancers.

Children’s Critical Illness Cover is included as standard, covering your children for up to £25,000 or 50% of your payout amount.

Standalone critical illness cover is not available – it must be combined with life insurance.

Terminal Illness Cover

If you’re diagnosed with a terminal illness and given less than 12 months to live, Legal & General will pay out your life insurance early. There’s no additional cost for this – it’s included as standard.

However, a terminal illness payout would replace the eventual death payout, so if you did pass away your loved ones would not receive an additional payment. Terminal illness cover also can’t be claimed in the last 12 months of your policy term.

Additional Benefits

• Accidental death benefit: From the moment Legal & General receive your application, you’re covered for accidental death for up to 90 days, for free.
• Waiver of premium: For an additional cost, you can add waiver of premium to your policy. This means you won’t have to pay your monthly premiums if you can’t work for medical reasons, but you’ll still be covered.
• Wellbeing Support: Legal & General provide a 24/7 health and wellbeing helpline giving you access to trained nurses for health support and advice, at no extra cost.
• Care Concierge: This service provides guidance on later life care options for you or your loved ones, including how to access and pay for care.

Life Insurance With Free Gift

Legal & General often runs promotions offering free gifts like Amazon vouchers or retail gift cards when you take out a policy. For example, at the time of writing, they were offering a £110 Amazon gift card if you applied for life insurance before 24 March 2024.

These offers can provide a nice bonus, but make sure you compare the underlying cover and price with other insurers to ensure you’re getting the best life insurance for your needs. Don’t choose an insurer based on a freebie alone.

Life Insurance In Trust

Putting your life insurance in trust means that when you pass away, your payout goes directly to your chosen beneficiaries rather than into your estate. This can help avoid inheritance tax (if applicable) and probate delays.

Legal & General offer a free online trust tool to help you put your life insurance in trust easily. This is especially worthwhile if your estate may be liable to inheritance tax, or if you want to keep your life insurance payout separate from the rest of your assets.

Life Insurance Claims

Legal & General aims to pay claims as quickly as possible. When a loved one passes away, you can notify Legal & General by phone or email. They will provide a dedicated claims handler to support you through the process.

The main documents required are the death certificate, policy details and your identification. Once Legal & General have everything they need, they aim to pay claims within 5 working days.

In 2022, Legal & General paid out over 95% of life insurance claims, showing their strong commitment to paying claims. They also offer a funeral pledge where they can pay up to £10,000 of the claim amount early to help with funeral costs.

Compare Life Insurance Quotes

When shopping for life insurance, comparing quotes from multiple insurers can help you get the best deal. Prices can vary significantly between providers based on their underwriting and target customer demographics.

At Life Cover Quotes, we make it easy to compare life insurance. Simply provide a few details about yourself and the cover you need, and we’ll connect you with our panel of FCA-regulated partner brokers who will search the market for the most competitive quotes for you.

We work with leading UK insurers including Legal & General, Aviva, AIG, Royal London, Zurich and more, so you can compare a range of options. Our quote service is fast, free and there’s no obligation to take out cover.

When comparing life insurance, consider:

• The type and length of cover
• The payout amount
• Whether premiums are fixed or reviewable
• Additional benefits like critical illness cover
• The policy exclusions and limitations
• The insurers claims payout record

Taking all these factors into account, along with the premium prices, will help you find the best life insurance policy for your individual needs and budget.

Conclusion

In summary, Legal & General is a leading UK life insurer with a strong track record, wide range of flexible policy options and excellent added benefits. Their high Defaqto rating and positive customer reviews demonstrate the quality of their cover and service.

If you’re looking for reliable, comprehensive life insurance, Legal & General is well worth considering. Their Increasing Life Insurance offers a good way to future-proof your cover, while their Over 50s Life Insurance can provide valuable later life protection without medical underwriting.

Of course, as with any financial product, it’s important to compare your options and make sure you understand the cover and exclusions before taking out a policy. Use our life insurance calculator to work out how much cover you need, then compare quotes from Legal & General and other leading insurers to find the best life insurance policy for your needs and budget.

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