Legal & General Life Insurance

It is one of the largest and longest-established life insurers in the UK, and its term assurance is a mainstream, well-proven product. For mortgage and family protection it is regularly among the more competitive options, the product is conventional and easy to compare, and it is a name your family will recognise if they ever have to claim on it.

Cover whose sum assured reduces over the term, designed to track a repayment mortgage down as the balance falls. Because the amount at risk falls each year, it costs less than level cover for the same starting figure. It suits repayment mortgages. It does not suit interest-only mortgages, or cover intended to replace income for a family, because in both of those cases the need does not decrease.

Yes, both alongside life cover and as part of a combined policy. As with any insurer, the thing that decides its value is the policy wording — which conditions are listed and, more importantly, how each is defined. The number of conditions is the least useful figure in any brochure, because a shorter list with broad definitions can pay out where a longer list with narrow ones does not.

On simple term assurance for someone in good health it is regularly among the more competitive mainstream options, which is a large part of why it writes so much of this business. What moves a premium further than the choice of insurer is the sum assured, the term and whether the cover is level or decreasing — worth getting right before comparing prices at all.

Yes, and it costs you no more than going direct — the commission comes from the insurer either way. What you get in addition is the comparison against the rest of the market, which is the part you cannot do from inside one insurer's website.

Yes. Writing at scale means L&G underwrites medical histories constantly rather than treating them as exceptions, and most applicants with a history are offered terms. What helps the decision is a well-presented application — dates, recent readings, treatment and what has been stable since — which is the part we handle for you.

Level cover keeps the same sum assured throughout, so the payout in year one is the payout in year twenty. Decreasing cover reduces over the term. The distinction is not about the insurer — it applies market-wide — and it is the single most common thing people get wrong when buying online, because decreasing looks cheaper without it being clear what has been given up.

Terminal illness benefit is included as standard on most UK life policies, paying the sum assured early where life expectancy is certified as under twelve months. It is worth confirming on your own documentation rather than assuming, and worth remembering if you already hold a policy and circumstances change — it is frequently overlooked by the people entitled to claim it.

Yes. Business protection arrangements such as relevant life, keyman and shareholder cover are part of the mainstream market, and L&G writes personal life, combined life and critical illness and income protection alongside them. Business cases are worth arranging with advice, because the tax treatment and the trust arrangements matter as much as the premium.

Straightforward applications in good health are often decided quickly, sometimes immediately on the answers given. What extends it is a request for a GP report, which typically adds a few weeks and depends on how quickly the surgery responds. That timescale is a function of the NHS practice rather than the insurer.