Are you looking for life assurance to help protect your loved ones?
Skipton Building Society have teamed up with Legal & General to provide you with life assurance and critical illness cover.
What is life assurance?
Legal & General's life assurance policy is designed to pay a lump sum to your loved ones in the event of your death and allows you to make sure your family is protected during the policy term. You choose the amount of cover you need and the length of time you want to be insured for. Your premiums will never change (unless you change the amount of cover held under the policy or alter the plan), allowing you to budget with confidence.
You need to read the Key Features Document carefully before buying a policy. This provides details of the circumstances under which the policy would not pay out. The full terms and conditions are in the policy documents which will be sent to you when the policy starts.
Do I need life assurance?
Whether you need life assurance and the amount you need will always depend on your personal circumstances. Often people just consider their outstanding mortgage, but you also need to think about how much your income, or the unpaid work you do at home, contributes to your household.
Legal & General research found that the value of the work that Mums do around the home is £32,812 a year, that's 40% higher than Dads, who come in at £23,296.
Ideally, your life assurance should be able to pay off any loans, replace enough of your income to cover utility or foods bills, childcare and clothing costs, or your contribution to the household until your dependants are self-sufficient.
If you are unsure about how much life cover you may need, please speak to one of our in branch advisors for guidance.
Things you need to know
- Legal & General's life assurance policies are available to UK residents who are between the ages of 18 and 78 at the start of the policy. You can set up the policy to last between 1 and 40 years, although it must end before your 80th birthday.
- It's essential that you give Legal & General all the information we ask for during the application and that it's accurate. If you fail to mention something like a medical condition, for example, they may not pay out in the event of a claim.
- Life insurance plans are not investment products. They have no cash in value at any time. Also, if you stop paying the premiums before the end of your policy, your cover will end after 30 days and you will not get anything back.
- After you apply, you must tell Legal & General if any of the following change between completing your application and when your plan starts:
- family history
- medical disclosures
- occupation
- travel or residence (except holidays)
- pastimes
- alcohol consumption
- start smoking
- use of recreational drugs
If you don't tell Legal & General about changes to any of the above, it could mean your policy won't pay out and they may need to cancel your policy.
Premiums
- The main factors that affect the amount you pay for cover are your age, sex, occupation, smoker status, health, the level of cover you need and type of contract that you choose. Normally, the older you are, the higher the premium. Your individual height, weight, medical history and lifestyle are all assessed.
- Premium payments include all expenses and life cover starts from just £6 per month depending on your individual circumstances and needs. Premiums are guaranteed - you pay the same throughout the term of the policy unless you change your cover.
- If you decide to include critical illness cover in your plan, you can choose between guaranteed or reviewable premiums. If you choose reviewable premiums, these are reviewed every five years and could increase or decrease.
- If you want to increase the level of cover at any time, you may be able to do so without further medical questions by using your guaranteed insurability option. There are certain terms and conditions for increasing your cover, which are outlined in the Key Features Document. Please read it carefully.
- Legal & General's life insurance policies include terminal illness cover at no extra cost, which means that your policy could pay out if you are diagnosed with a terminal illness, rather than when you die. Full details of Legal & General's terminal illness cover are included in the Key Features Document.
- If you take out life insurance with Legal & General, you have the option to pay your premiums monthly or annually. If you decide to pay annually you will receive a discount, giving you cheaper life insurance.
Why is Skipton working with Legal & General?
In times of financial uncertainty, it's important to know that you're taking out life cover with a company that will still be around in years to come.
You can be confident that Skipton has made every effort to ensure we work with a provider you can trust.
Legal & General provide high quality life insurance, mortgage life insurance and critical illness cover at competitive prices and consistently receive awards that acknowledge this.
In 2010 Legal & General received the Financial Advisor Life & Pensions Awards for Term Assurance and Critical Illness Provider of the year, as well as being named Best Life Protection Provider at the Money Marketing Awards, for the 6th year in a row.
On top of winning awards, 1 in 5 of the individual term and critical illness policies taken out in the UK in 2009 were sold by Legal & General.