Level Term Life Insurance Guide Discussion

Sandtree

There is a risk of over thinking things, particularly for long term insurance like Life cover.

If you were to die in 29 years time, are you aware who will be the owner of L&G at that time? Or whichever alternative insurer you are considering? Will the regulatory landscape look the same then?  Do you know the claims process then?

Look back just over 30 years ago in general insurance and you’d have to buy from a broker, you’d go or possibly phone the guys on the high street and a claim would start with them sending you a raft of forms to fill out and then someone would come out to visit. Now you get quotes on line from a hundred insurers and brokers including your supermarket within seconds online from the UK and overseas... you’d be hard pressed to find a personal lines broker on most high streets. Claims can even be done by submitting photos from your smartphone directly to the engineer who approves the repairs remotely.

Review sites naturally attract more negative reviews than positive, L&G reviews will be from a range of their products... you wont get too many Life policyholders coming back after a claim to leave a review!  The bigger you are and the more you promote yourself as being customer champion etc the more negative reviews there will be... simple combination of volume and expectations.

Ensure you understand the policy T&Cs, that it meets your needs and you’re buying from a reasonably well established, UK regulated insurer... Even if you were to buy from a different insurer for all you know L&G may well acquire the book of business from them in 5 years time so limited value in getting too worked up

dunstonh

 i choosed L&G beacause i have a very good impression about them, without actually reading anything about them.

If you are just talking about life assurance with no bolt ons (so no critical illness cover or income protection) then there is little difference between the providers.  They key is to get guaranteed premiums (not reviewable or renewable).

If you are including CIC or IP then you need to start thinking a bit more as L&G have typically had versions of their product that focus on certain parts of the market and you may or may not fall within that.

Now having some spare time i tryed looking on trust pilot and websites reviews and I am scared a little bit, they have a looot of bad reviews. Should i be worry?

No.  Trustpilot is not a reliable way to gauge the quality of a provider or a product you have.

Insurers will have hundreds or even thousands of versions of products over time.  Some people may hold a particularly naff version whilst others may hold an absolute gem of a version.    Some insurers have multiple distribution channels and will adjust their product to suit each channel. One may be cost focus but have quality options removed.  The other may be quality focused but cost more.    Trustpilot doesnt tell you what version someone has.   Maybe they got angry as a claim was rejected because their version didn't cover it.   They chose to buy a budget option but are blaming the insurer.

The other thing is that insurers don't generally care about trustpilot reviews.   They know full well that people who are unhappy tend to go out of their way to say so whilst others that are happy wont post a thing.       Some companies are so focused on trustpilot reviews that they badger people to put a review in place just after purchase.   They very time someone is likely to give a good review.    Indeed, a certain "modern" retailer of life assurance with a very high trustpilot score has a generally poor quality product.   They haven't been around long enough to get a volume of negative reviews from people claiming on the policy and finding out they are not covered and they try and swamp out the bad by getting as many positive as possible.

Where I am meandering to is that Trustpilot is not at all reliable when it comes to financial services (and probably many other areas too).   Many of the people making the reviews are just not knowledgeable enough or in the position to really say what a company or their products are like.

Weighty1

dunstonh said:

 Indeed, a certain "modern" retailer of life assurance with a very high trustpilot score has a generally poor quality product.   They haven't been around long enough to get a volume of negative reviews from people claiming on the policy and finding out they are not covered and they try and swamp out the bad by getting as many positive as possible

I'm DEAD interested to know who you mean........or have I just hit the nail on the head?

busicat

Hi John, great to see you coming back with your report in how it went! Very interesting. As I piped up before and remember you saying this cover is to deal with IHT and I see you've gone "Non-advised", apologies if this is obvious to you, but have you put the policies under trust and added a trustee who can get the money promptly? If yes, excellent!

If not, and for the info of others reading this: the proceeds will add to your IHT bill and your personal representatives may well be unable to get the money until probate is granted maybe many months later. Even worse, if you're leaving everything (or at least the policies) to your partner and are unmarried and without a will - they won't be entitled to the money at all.

All insurers can provide a trust form for free if you ask, though some are easy then others to use!

(You need one that's described as discretionary or Flexible assuming you want it to allow for future changes in circumstances needing beneficiary changes.)

busicat

johnspence1 said:

Hi
I posted looking for advice a few months ago and thought that posting my experience in obtaining cover might prove useful to others. I started the process in April obtaining quotes and refining my requirements some advisors were telling me they were independent but I was sceptical I finally found significantly lower premiums using moneyminder buy online flat fee. Moneyminder were very good to deal with although because of the virus it was months rather than weeks setting up the first policy with L&G for 10yrs. When it was set up I started the second policy with Aviva for 13yrs it was much quicker  to set up September/October.
The paperwork from both L&G and Aviva was around 50 pages although I only needed to input maybe 30 pages then emailed the forms back to moneyminder who submitted it to the appropriate insurer.
The differences in premium over the lifetime of the policies depending on face to face advised and   non advised was +50-60% 
I think reading the information on these forums asking for advice gave me the confidence to go down the non advised route will save me about £7500 in premiums over the terms of both policies which certainly was an incentive.

John

My 2:30 comment is in reply to this, from John

busicat

adrian84 said:

For me setting up the policy was very easy, took maximum 20 minutes, most important is if L&G are a good comoany or shoulf i go fir another one with better level of customer service, reviews and  payout. My biggest fear is if something bad happens i will let my family with more problems and they will have to go to great lenghts to claim with L&G or even worse get refused in claim for who knows what reason.
Also you made a very good point now instead of making 200k i could have split the amount in 2 and make insurancr with 2 companies.

Hi Adrian, agreeing with the other posters, no need to worry about who you've taken the cover with, BUT to ensure all goes well at claim, the most important thing is to ensure you set the policy up right so it goes to exactly who you intend and without probate (and without possibly being the only thing to force them to apply for probate!)

So if you've taken a policy on just your own life with just you as the policyholder as well, you're probably best putting it in trust for your family, with your partner as a trustee (the one who signs for the money - and keeps it if they're the sole beneficiary aswell, or shares it round if the money's to go to other beneficiaries).

As I've just said to John, you can get a form from the insurer and you need one that's described as discretionary or flexible, assuming you want it to allow for future changes in circumstances needing beneficiary changes. (If you're not married or civil partnered, it's essential to name your other half in the trust as a beneficiary for them to be allowed to have the money - cohabitees are not listed in the general list of potential beneficiaries in most current forms.)

johnspence1

busicat said:

johnspence1 said:

Hi
I posted looking for advice a few months ago and thought that posting my experience in obtaining cover might prove useful to others. I started the process in April obtaining quotes and refining my requirements some advisors were telling me they were independent but I was sceptical I finally found significantly lower premiums using moneyminder buy online flat fee. Moneyminder were very good to deal with although because of the virus it was months rather than weeks setting up the first policy with L&G for 10yrs. When it was set up I started the second policy with Aviva for 13yrs it was much quicker  to set up September/October.
The paperwork from both L&G and Aviva was around 50 pages although I only needed to input maybe 30 pages then emailed the forms back to moneyminder who submitted it to the appropriate insurer.
The differences in premium over the lifetime of the policies depending on face to face advised and   non advised was +50-60% 
I think reading the information on these forums asking for advice gave me the confidence to go down the non advised route will save me about £7500 in premiums over the terms of both policies which certainly was an incentive.

John

My 2:30 comment is in reply to this, from John

Hi busicat yes both policies are held in trust

taratreetops

On answering the medical section on term insurance whether one has had asthma, I am wondering why underwriters think asthma is the same as copd. As Ive been told by my broker that is what comes up on the screen when asthma is typed in.As the conditions are different why is this happening.? My broker said he would score out copd and put asthma instead and said he had made the insurers aware of this.When the form came through from the insurers for me to check my answers,have you ever had asthma the answer was No.It seems odd that I do have mild asthma, yet because the underwriters system wont accept this condition only copd. Im not really happy with this but my broker insits its quite normal.Could I have some clarification on this please as I am concerned tht in the event of a payout it could be rejected because of the No answer.

busicat

taratreetops said:

...When the form came through from the insurers for me to check my answers,have you ever had asthma the answer was No. ...

This is probably nothing to worry about (as mild asthma isn't an underwriting worry), but this process doesn't sound great. (What if you had severe asthma?!)  Is this for life cover only and which life insurer is it? Depending whcih one, I may be able to find out and they may have something to fix here.

Weighty1

taratreetops said:

On answering the medical section on term insurance whether one has had asthma, I am wondering why underwriters think asthma is the same as copd. As Ive been told by my broker that is what comes up on the screen when asthma is typed in.As the conditions are different why is this happening.? My broker said he would score out copd and put asthma instead and said he had made the insurers aware of this.When the form came through from the insurers for me to check my answers,have you ever had asthma the answer was No.It seems odd that I do have mild asthma, yet because the underwriters system wont accept this condition only copd. Im not really happy with this but my broker insits its quite normal.Could I have some clarification on this please as I am concerned tht in the event of a payout it could be rejected because of the No answer.

I don't believe your broker if I'm honest!!
I've used all insurers systems hundreds of times and they ALL recognise asthma and COPD as different conditions as they can be wildly different.
I wouldn't worry about not getting a payout in the event of a claim as generally COPD is seen as a more serious condition BUT they would definitely have been able to record it accurately.  Asthma is probably in the top 10 conditions which I disclose most commonly so it would be ridiculous that they are saying it's not recognised.

Which insurer is it you were applying to?

Also, in some instances it can be necessary to email the underwriters with additional info, however, whenever I do this I copy the client in as well so that they can see exactly what has been written to ensure it is accurate.  I wouldn't be happy with having info disclosed by a third party but not being privy to it.

You are right to not be happy, I think.