Legal & General
Legal & General Life Insurance and Protection
Legal & General is one of the UK’s long-established financial services companies and offers a broad range of personal and business protection products.
Its current protection range includes life insurance, critical illness cover, income protection and whole-of-life insurance, alongside business protection such as Relevant Life, Key Person Protection, Share Protection and Executive Income Protection.
At Kerr & Watson, we can compare Legal & General with other suitable protection insurers to establish which provider, policy features and underwriting approach are most appropriate for your circumstances.
Could Legal & General be the right protection provider for you?
Legal & General can be particularly relevant if you are looking for an established insurer offering a broad range of personal or business protection, with options covering your family, income, mortgage or business.
At Kerr & Watson, we compare Legal & General with other suitable protection insurers to establish which provider, level of cover and policy structure are most appropriate for your circumstances.
Who Are Legal & General?
Legal & General has been protecting customers since 1836 and is a major UK financial services business.
Within protection, Legal & General provides insurance for individuals, families and businesses.
Its current personal protection range includes:
- Life insurance
- Critical illness cover
- Income protection
- Family and Personal Income Plan
- Whole-of-life insurance
It also provides a substantial range of business protection products.
Having a wide range of products does not automatically mean Legal & General will be the most suitable insurer for everybody.
Our role is to compare the available policies based on what you need to protect and your individual circumstances.
Legal & General Life Insurance
Life insurance is designed to provide a financial payment if the insured person dies during the policy term.
The payment could potentially help:
- Repay a mortgage
- Replace lost household income
- Support children or other dependants
- Pay household bills
- Repay debts
- Provide longer-term financial security
Legal & General allows life insurance to be structured in different ways depending on what you are trying to protect.
This can include level or decreasing cover, with critical illness protection also available as an option.
Level Life Insurance
Level life insurance provides a fixed amount of cover throughout the policy term.
If you arrange £300,000 of level life insurance, for example, the insured amount would normally remain at £300,000 unless the policy is changed.
This can be appropriate where the objective is to leave a fixed lump sum or protect borrowing that does not reduce over time.
Decreasing Life Insurance
Decreasing life insurance is commonly used alongside a repayment mortgage.
The amount insured reduces throughout the policy term, broadly reflecting how the outstanding mortgage balance is expected to fall.
This can provide a cost-effective way of protecting a repayment mortgage where clearing the mortgage is the main objective.
Terminal Illness Cover
Legal & General currently includes terminal illness cover with eligible life insurance policies.
This is designed to allow the life insurance benefit to be paid early where the insured person meets the policy’s definition of terminal illness.
As with all protection benefits, the exact definition contained within the policy is important.
Family and Personal Income Plan
Legal & General also offers its Family and Personal Income Plan.
Instead of providing one large lump sum, this type of cover can provide a regular monthly benefit following a successful claim.
This can be useful where the objective is to replace ongoing household income rather than simply repay a mortgage.
For example, the money might help with:
- Mortgage or rent
- Food
- Household bills
- Childcare
- School costs
- Other regular family expenditure
The plan can also be combined with critical illness protection.
Whether a lump sum or regular income is more appropriate will depend on your financial circumstances and what you want the insurance to achieve.
Legal & General Critical Illness Cover
Critical illness cover is designed to provide a financial payment if you are diagnosed with one of the serious medical conditions covered by the policy and meet the insurer’s definition.
Legal & General currently provides two broad levels of critical illness protection:
- Critical Illness Cover
- Critical Illness Extra
Critical Illness Extra provides a wider level of protection and additional payments for certain conditions.
A critical illness payment could potentially help with:
- Repaying or reducing a mortgage
- Replacing lost income
- Household expenditure
- Private treatment
- Rehabilitation
- Changes required to your home
- Allowing a partner to reduce their working hours
Comparing Critical Illness Policies
When comparing critical illness insurance, simply counting how many conditions an insurer lists does not necessarily tell you which policy is better suited to you.
It is also important to consider:
- The medical definitions
- Full payment conditions
- Additional payment conditions
- Children’s cover
- Total permanent disability options
- Other policy benefits
Legal & General offers both standard and enhanced critical illness options, which allows the level of protection to be balanced against the premium available.
We can compare these features with other insurers rather than basing a recommendation solely on the headline number of conditions.
Children’s Critical Illness Cover
Children’s critical illness cover is included within Legal & General’s current critical illness proposition, with an enhanced children’s option also available for an additional cost.
A successful claim could help parents deal with the financial consequences of a child becoming seriously ill.
This might include:
- Taking time away from work
- Reducing working hours
- Travel to treatment
- Accommodation
- Childcare for other children
- Additional family expenses
As with adult critical illness insurance, a claim depends on the medical definition within the policy being met.
Legal & General Income Protection
Legal & General also offers income protection.
Income protection is designed to provide a regular monthly payment if illness or injury prevents you from working and causes a loss of income.
For many people, their ability to earn is one of their most important financial assets.
Your mortgage, household bills and other commitments usually continue even when your salary stops.
Legal & General currently offers two main individual income protection structures:
- Income Protection Benefit
- Low Start Income Protection
Both are designed to provide financial support if you become unable to work, but their premium structures differ.
Income Protection Benefit
Legal & General’s Income Protection Benefit provides income protection with premiums that do not normally change during the policy term unless you make changes to the policy.
The policy can be structured around factors including:
- How much income you want to protect
- When payments should begin
- How long a claim can continue
- Whether cover increases over time
This allows the policy to be matched to your existing financial arrangements.
Low Start Income Protection
Legal & General also offers Low Start Income Protection.
This starts with a lower premium, with the cost increasing as the policyholder gets older.
It shares many features with Legal & General’s standard income protection but uses a different premium structure.
A lower starting premium does not necessarily mean a policy will cost less over its entire term.
We can explain the difference between premium structures so that you understand both the immediate and longer-term cost.
Choosing an Income Protection Deferred Period
The period between becoming unable to work and your insurance starting to pay is known as the deferred period.
Legal & General offers several deferred-period options.
The appropriate choice depends largely on what financial support you already have.
For example, somebody receiving several months of employer sick pay may be able to choose a longer deferred period.
Someone who is self-employed with little or no sick pay may need cover to begin sooner.
Before making a recommendation, we can consider your:
- Employer sick pay
- Savings
- Partner’s income
- Existing insurance
- Monthly expenditure
and structure the policy accordingly.
Staged Sick Pay
Some employers reduce sick pay gradually.
For example, an employee might receive full salary initially before dropping to half pay.
Legal & General’s Income Protection Benefit can include a stepped-benefit option, allowing different benefit amounts to begin after different deferred periods.
This can allow the insurance to work alongside an employer’s sick-pay arrangement rather than duplicating it.
Short-Term and Long-Term Income Protection
Income protection can also differ according to how long an eligible claim is paid.
Legal & General provides options for limited claim periods as well as longer-term income protection.
A shorter claim period can reduce the cost of cover but also creates the risk that payments could stop while you remain unable to work.
Longer-term protection can provide greater security following a serious illness or injury but will normally cost more.
We can help you compare the two approaches.
Income Guarantee
Income can change over time, particularly for self-employed customers, contractors or people who change working hours.
Legal & General’s current income protection proposition includes an Income Guarantee designed to provide a degree of certainty over the benefit payable if earnings have reduced by the time a claim is made.
This can be relevant when comparing policies for people whose earnings are not completely fixed.
The precise benefit available depends on the policy terms and circumstances at claim.
Income Protection for Self-Employed Customers
Income protection can be particularly important for somebody who is self-employed.
A self-employed person may have little or no contractual sick pay.
If they cannot work, their income could therefore reduce quickly while household and business costs continue.
Legal & General may be one of the insurers we consider for self-employed customers.
However, we would still compare its proposition with other providers because insurers can assess income, occupation and medical history differently.
Wellbeing and Rehabilitation Support
Legal & General includes additional support services alongside its protection range through its Umbrella Benefits proposition.
Current services include:
- Wellbeing Support
- Care Concierge
- Rehabilitation Support Service
Wellbeing Support and Care Concierge are available with eligible protection policies, while Rehabilitation Support is included with income protection from the point of claim.
These services can provide practical and emotional support alongside the financial benefit provided by the insurance.
However, additional services can change over time.
We therefore would not recommend Legal & General solely because of these features. The underlying insurance remains the priority.
Legal & General and Pre-existing Medical Conditions
Having a medical condition does not automatically mean that you cannot obtain protection.
Legal & General considers applications according to the individual circumstances presented.
Depending on your health and the type of insurance requested, an insurer could:
- Offer standard terms
- Increase the premium
- Apply an exclusion
- Request further medical information
- Postpone an application
- Be unable to provide a particular type of cover
Different insurers can assess the same medical condition differently.
This is why it can be important to carry out research before applying if you have a pre-existing medical condition.
Rather than publishing detailed medical acceptance limits, which can change and depend heavily on individual circumstances, we can investigate the current position when advising you.
Legal & General and Occupations
Occupation is another important consideration, particularly for income protection.
The insurer will normally need to understand what you actually do rather than simply your job title.
This may be especially relevant where your work involves:
- Manual duties
- Working at height
- Driving
- Machinery
- Military duties
- Aviation
- Other higher-risk activities
Legal & General can consider a wide range of occupations, but acceptance, pricing and policy terms will depend on the individual circumstances.
Our internal research also shows why checking the exact duties matters rather than making assumptions based on the occupation name alone.
We can compare Legal & General’s approach with other insurers before deciding where an application should be placed.
Legal & General Business Protection
One area where Legal & General has a particularly broad proposition is business protection.
Its current range includes:
- Key Person Protection
- Key Person Income Protection
- Share Protection
- Business Loan Protection
- Relevant Life Plan
- Executive Income Protection
These products are designed to protect different financial risks within a business.
Key Person Protection
A key person is someone whose contribution is particularly important to a business.
This might be:
- A director
- A salesperson
- A technical specialist
- A senior employee
- Someone responsible for important customer relationships
If that person dies or becomes seriously ill, the business may suffer financially.
Legal & General’s Key Person Protection can provide a financial payment following a successful claim to help the company deal with areas such as lost profits, recruitment costs or disruption.
The amount and structure of cover should be based on the financial impact of losing that particular individual.
Key Person Income Protection
Legal & General also offers Key Person Income Protection.
Rather than covering death or critical illness, this is designed to pay the business a monthly benefit if an insured key employee becomes unable to work because of illness or injury.
This can help a business manage the ongoing financial impact of a key employee being absent for an extended period.
Share Protection
Share Protection is designed to help the remaining business owners purchase the shares of a partner, shareholder or member following a covered event.
Without appropriate planning, shares could potentially pass to beneficiaries who have no involvement in the business, while the remaining owners may not have the funds available to buy them.
Legal & General’s Share Protection can help provide the finance required following death, terminal illness or, where selected, specified critical illness.
The insurance normally needs to work alongside appropriate legal agreements and trusts, so specialist legal advice may also be required.
Business Loan Protection
Business borrowing can create a significant financial risk if the person responsible for supporting or guaranteeing that debt dies or becomes seriously ill.
Legal & General’s Business Loan Protection is designed to help a business repay eligible borrowing following a successful claim.
This could potentially include:
- Commercial mortgages
- Business loans
- Director’s loans
- Other qualifying business borrowing
The appropriate cover will depend on the structure of the borrowing and who within the business is responsible for it.
Relevant Life Insurance
Legal & General also offers a Relevant Life Plan.
Relevant life insurance is an individual life insurance policy arranged and paid for by an employer for an employee.
The employee can include a company director.
It is often considered by smaller businesses wanting to provide an individual death-in-service benefit without establishing a full group life scheme.
The policy must be structured correctly and placed into an appropriate Relevant Life trust.
Relevant life insurance can have tax advantages compared with an employee paying personally for life cover, although tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and legislation can change.
Appropriate tax advice should be obtained where required.
Legal & General Executive Income Protection
Legal & General currently also offers Executive Income Protection.
This is designed for businesses wanting to protect an employee’s income if illness or injury prevents them from working.
Unlike personal income protection, the business owns and pays for the policy.
Following a successful claim, the monthly benefit is paid to the business and can then be used to continue providing sick pay to the insured employee.
Depending on the arrangement, cover can take account of areas such as:
- Salary
- Dividends
- Certain benefits
- Employer pension contributions
- Employer National Insurance contributions
This can make Executive Income Protection particularly relevant for directors and key employees of limited companies.
Your own internal protection notes also identify Legal & General as one of the providers considered for Executive Income Protection.
Why Consider Executive Income Protection?
Directors of owner-managed businesses can sometimes have limited personal sick pay protection.
A director may also receive income through a combination of salary and dividends, which can make personal income protection more complicated.
Executive Income Protection allows the business itself to provide the protection.
It can therefore be worth considering alongside personal income protection when advising company directors.
The tax treatment of premiums and claim payments depends on how the arrangement is structured, so appropriate tax advice may be required.
Whole of Life Insurance
Legal & General also currently offers a Whole of Life Plan.
Unlike ordinary term insurance, which ends after a selected number of years, whole-of-life insurance is designed to continue for the remainder of the insured person’s life provided the policy remains in force.
Whole-of-life insurance can sometimes be considered for:
- Estate planning
- Providing an inheritance
- Funeral costs
- Inheritance tax planning
However, it is a specialist form of protection and is not automatically appropriate simply because somebody wants life insurance.
Where inheritance tax planning is involved, legal and tax advice may also be required.
How Much Does Legal & General Protection Cost?
There is no standard price for Legal & General protection.
Premiums can depend on factors including:
- Your age
- Health
- Smoking status
- Occupation
- Lifestyle
- Amount of cover
- Policy term
- Type of insurance
- Optional benefits
Income protection also depends on factors such as your earnings, deferred period and how long claims can be paid.
Business protection can depend on the insured person, amount of cover and structure of the business.
Rather than relying on generic example premiums, we can obtain personalised quotations from Legal & General and other suitable insurers.
Is Legal & General the Right Insurer for Me?
Legal & General can be worth considering because of the breadth of its personal and business protection range.
However, a broad product range does not automatically mean it is the most suitable insurer for your individual circumstances.
When advising you, we can consider:
- What you need to protect
- The amount of cover required
- Your budget
- Your medical history
- Your occupation
- Existing employer benefits
- Existing insurance
- Policy definitions
- Underwriting
- Additional benefits
- Business circumstances where relevant
Another insurer may provide a more appropriate combination of cover, features or underwriting.
Why Use Kerr & Watson for Protection Advice?
Protection advice involves more than comparing monthly premiums.
At Kerr & Watson, we can:
- Establish what you need to protect
- Calculate an appropriate level of cover
- Review existing protection
- Consider employer benefits
- Research suitable insurers
- Carry out pre-application underwriting research where appropriate
- Compare policy features and definitions
- Compare premiums
- Explain our recommendation clearly
- Complete the application
- Help throughout the underwriting process
For business owners, we can also consider whether personal protection, business protection or a combination of both is appropriate.
We are not tied to Legal & General, so we can compare its proposition with other suitable insurers.
Speak to Kerr & Watson About Legal & General Protection
Legal & General offers one of the broader protection ranges available in the UK, covering areas such as life insurance, critical illness, income protection and whole-of-life insurance.
It also provides an extensive business protection proposition including Relevant Life, Key Person Protection, Share Protection, Business Loan Protection and Executive Income Protection.
That breadth can make Legal & General worth considering in many circumstances, but it does not mean it will automatically be the right insurer.
At Kerr & Watson, we can compare Legal & General with other suitable protection providers and recommend cover based on your needs, medical history, occupation, budget and wider circumstances.
Whether you are protecting your mortgage, family, income or business, speak to Kerr & Watson and we can help you understand your options.
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