The Top 10 Best Life Insurance Companies in The UK. Definitive Guide 2020

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The Top 10 Best Life Insurance Companies In The UK Are:
- Legal & General
- AIG
- Aviva
- Zurich
- Vitality
- Royal London
- LV (Liverpool Victoria)
- Beagle Street Life Insurance
- AEGON
- Scottish Widows
Legal and General

Legal & General paid out £313m in Life claims in 2017 across 9004 claims, the equivalent of 25 claims a day. The figures mean the insurer paid 98% of all life insurance claims that year.You can find a handy decreasing term life insurance calculator on their website which can be used to determine the level of cover you’re going to need based on your personal requirements. Legal and General have a 5 star Defaqto rating for their level term life insurance product. Please feel free to visit our dedicated Legal and General life insurance page for more information.
Legal and General Pros
- Affordable cover: The life insurance policies from Legal and General start at £6 per month. This is quite a bit cheaper than many other providers, and this trend carries on as you look at pricier policies.
- 91 Critical Illness Definitions: Only with critical illness extra
- 5 Star Defaqto Rating: Meets or exceeds the benchmark set by Defaqto
- Included benefits: Legal and General have carefully chosen a range of benefits that can be very valuable to their customers. Accidental death and terminal illness cover can make your life insurance pay out in circumstances which wouldn’t usually be allowed.
- Fast cover: Your cover starts as soon as you make your first payment, and this will usually only be broken if you die as the result of suicide or fail to make payments against your policy.
- Additional benefits available: Along with the benefits included with Legal and General life insurance, you can also add things like critical illness cover to your policy, protecting you and your loved ones if you find yourself too ill to support yourselves.
Legal and General Cons
- Fewer Payouts: It can often be tricky to get a life insurance provider to pay out when the circumstances of someone’s death break the rules. Legal and General are stricter than their counterparts when it comes to this, and you have to be careful.
- Rigid Options: Unlike many other life insurance providers, Legal and General only offer one product in this area, and work to tailor it to your situation by adding and removing things from your policy.
- Loadings: They do tend to like very healthy people and are fast to load a premium for someone with medical history.
AIG

AIG Life paid 99% of life claims in 2017. AIG Life has revealed that it paid 99% of life claims (up from 96% in 2016) and 93% of CIC claims (up from 92.3% in 2016), with the highest pay-outs sitting at over £5m for life, £765,000 for CIC and £459,000 for terminal illness.Up to £10,000 of funeral cover is included with all of AIG’s policies. AIG can also help to cover medical transport and treatment costs, though this is at their discretion and may be limited to a set budget. More information or quotes AIG life insurance please click here.
AIG Pros
- Instant Cover: AIG provides their life insurance cover from the moment your application is accepted and you make your first payment, ensuring that you are covered as soon as possible.
- 5 Star Defaqto Rating: Meets or exceeds the benchmark set by Defaqto
- Good for over 50’s life insurance – Those aged between 50 and 54 can get up to £300,000 Life insurance without medical evidence.
- Varied Options: AIG offers a range of different life insurance policies, from term-based options with critical illness to policies which will cover which also covers your family.
- Leading Child Support: Nothing will scare a parent more than the idea of their child being left alone in the world. AIG have teamed with Winston’s Wish to provide support to bereaved children.
AIG Cons
- No Direct Sales: AIG don’t sell their policies directly, and this means that you have to see a financial advisor or have your life insurance provided by your employer if you want to work with AIG.
Aviva

Aviva paid out 98.9% of Life Insurance claims (including Terminal Illness Cover) in 2017 with upt to 16,178 clients. … The third-most common cause of death last year for Aviva’s Life Insurance was respiratory illnesses, which accounted for 5.9% of deaths. Cancer made up 41.5% of claims.Aviva like to boast “We’re taking action on climate change” by being an award-winner for reducing our environmental impact, and for inspiring action on climate change
Aviva Pros
- Significant Cover: Aviva offers policies with cover for as much as £5 million which can be paid out as a lump sum. This is a lot more than many other companies, though it will make your premium much higher if you decide to go for a policy this large.
- 5 Star Defaqto Rating
- Flexible Cover: Aviva lets you choose how long your policy should last, giving you the chance to tailor your cover to your situation. For example, some parents will only want cover as long as their children are young, and might not want to keep paying once they’ve left home.
- High Age Boundaries: Many life insurance companies won’t accept older people. Aviva can cover you until you’re 90 years old, this is 20 years more than a lot of other providers in the UK.
Aviva Cons
- Term-Based Only: Aviva only offers term-based policies, and this means that you will only be covered for as long as you’re paying your policy. This isn’t uncommon, but they don’t offer any options which go beyond your policy’s period, even as an add-on.
Zurich

Zurich’s latest life insurance claims paid are 99.7% with over 90% of critical illness claims also paid last year.
Zurich Pros
- Extremely High Payout Rates: Zurich are more compassionate than many of the other companies on the market, and are proud to shout about the fact that they approve around 99% of their life insurance claims.
- 99 Critical Illness Definitions: Under their Zurich select policy.
- 5 Star Defaqto Rating: Meets or exceeds the benchmark set by Defaqto
- 42 Critical Illness Conditions: Childrens cover available
- Affordable Cover: Cover with Zurich starts at £5 per month, making their services affordable for even the most cash-strapped households. Of course, this will go up as your cover improves.
- Lots Of Options: From protecting your children to keeping yourself afloat after suffering a bone fracture, Zurich offers a huge range of optional extras which can be added to your policy at any time.
Zurich Cons
- Term-based Only: Much like Aviva, Zurich only offers term based support, and this means that you might not get a pay out if you die once your policy has been paid in full.
- Standard Features As Extras: Many of the optional extras available with Zurich come as standard on other plans. This lowers the value of the policy you get, and means that you may have to pay more to get everything you need.
Vitality

The Vitality Serious Illness Cover pays out a cash lump sum if you’re diagnosed with a serious illness. Unlike a typical critical illness plan, we pay out for the less severe conditions as well as the more critical ones
Vitality Pros
- Healthy Living Rewards: Being rewarded for living a healthy lifestyle is something which everyone should be able to get behind. Vitality is one of the only life insurance providers in the UK to offer rewards for keeping yourself in good shape.
- 5 Star Defaqto Rating: Meets or exceeds the benchmark set by Defaqto
- Excellent Reviews: Vitality has consistently high reviews on pretty much every platform around the web. This shows that their customers are happy, and this can be a good indication that they are the right company for you.
- High Payout Rates: More than 99.8% of claims made through Vitality are accepted, and this is far higher than many of the other companies on the market. This ensures that your loved ones will get the help they need, no matter how you die.
- Over 100 illnesses covered: Most conditions covered in the market!
Vitality Cons
- Expensive Extras: All of the extras which come with Vitality come at a high cost. Their cheapest options will cost more than £9 per month, making them almost double the price of other policies on the market.
- Low Start Premiums: Sometimes their low start policies can seem cheap at the beginning but may cost you more in the long term
Royal London

We go better than gold…platinum! We’ve won a Gold Trusted Service award for three years in a row, which now gives us a Platinum Trusted Service award. That makes us very proud to be recognised by Feefo as providing exceptional levels of trusted service.
Royal London Pros
- Tailor Made Policies: Royal London has a dedicated Advised Life Cover service which is designed to help you to get exactly the cover you need. This may take some time, but will give you the chance to add a huge range of extras which other companies don’t provide.
- Instant Cover: Unlike other insurance providers, Royal London will start providing cover from the moment your application is accepted, rather than when you make your first payment.
- Feefo Reviews: Excellent customer service
- Specific Conditions: Royal London offers a range of services which are designed to support those suffering with conditions like diabetes and heart attacks, ensuring that you cover works for you.
Royal London Cons
- Restricted Options: While they’ve worked hard to provide cover which supports a range of different conditions, Royal London can be quite restrictive when it comes to other conditions.
- Expensive Cover: As a more traditional option, Royal London can be very expensive for those looking for budget cover. The more support you take on the better value your policy will end up being.
LV

99% of claims were paid in 2019. These figures include claims paid for Life Insurance, Terminal Illness and Lifetime+.
LV Pros
- Medical Support Freebies: Getting medical support from your life insurance provider is very rare, and LV have worked extremely hard to provide excellent service in this area with free access to LV= Doctor.
- 5 Star Defaqto Rating: Meets or exceeds the benchmark set by Defaqto
- Affordable Policies: LV is one of the more affordable life insurance providers out there, with their policies aimed at those on normal incomes. This enables anyone to get the cover they need from a company like this.
- Discounted Services: When you buy life insurance with LV, they will also provide you with a range of discounts on their other services. This can make things like driving and securing a business much cheaper.
- Claims paid within 3 days – Once a final decision has been made.
LV Cons
- A Large Company: While being a large company isn’t always a bad thing, it means that providers like LV will always have large volumes of customers to deal with. This can have an impact on the support you get from them.
Beagle Street

Beagle Street Pros
- Low Premiums: Starting from just £5 per month, Beagle Street offers some of the cheapest policies on this list. This ensures that you only have to pay for what you get with their services.
- Excellent Customer Support: With customer support teams trained by the Samaritans, few companies can offer the same compassion as Beagle Street. This is easy to see when you get in contact with them.
- Free Will Writing: Will writing can be a stressful and unpleasant process. Beagle Street can take this out of your hands, and won’t charge anything for the service as long as you have one of their life insurance policies.
Beagle Street Cons
- Limited Options: While they will provide more than enough for most people, Beagle Street doesn’t offer quite as many options as many of the other providers on the market. This makes it hard to tailor their plans to your needs.
- 3 Star Defaqto Rating
AEGON

In 2019 we paid 96% of life protection claims. Over the past three years, we’ve paid, on average, 97%.
Aegon Pros
- Tailored Policies: Having your life insurance tailored to you will ensure that you’re only paying for what you need, while also keeping you covered in every area. It can be easy to miss things out of your policy without this support.
- Additional Options: Like many of the other providers on this list, Aegon offers loads of different additional options which can be added to your policy, from income protection to critical illness cover.
- 5 Star Defaqto Rating: Meets or exceeds the benchmark set by Defaqto
- No Information: As their policies are tailormade, Aegon can’t give you much information before you start the application process. This makes it hard to get an idea of what the whole thing will cost by the time you’ve built your policy.
Scottish Widows

Last year, (2018) 99.3% of life claims and 94.1% of critical illness claims were paid out by Scottish Widows, according to the insurer’s latest claims statistics.
Scottish Widows Pros
- Vast Experience: Having been in the insurance market for so long, Scottish Widows are able to build policies which are relevant and don’t waste any of your money. As a big part of this, they can use their expertise to offer advice and support before you start your policy.
- Good Support: While they are a large business, Scottish Widows has proven itself to be a very good support provider. Not only are their phone lines usually fast to respond, but they also offer live chat and call backs.
- 5 Star Defaqto Rating: Meets or exceeds the benchmark set by Defaqto
Scottish Widows Cons
- Limited Flexibility: Being a more old-fashioned company, Scottish Widows don’t provide the same flexibility as other companies. They only have a couple of different policy options, and it can be hard to find add-ons for them.
Comparing Critical Illness
This is a minefield as there are so many variations on offer. Life insurance is pretty straight forward. You are either alive or dead! With critical illness there are lots more options. We will make a seperate post on this at a later stage but for now please use our simple reference below.
Some information may be out of date as its changing all the time..
The Best Life Insurance for Over 50s

Overs 50s can sometimes struggle to get cover under normal policies.
So What Is The Best Life Insurance UK?
The best life insurance companies for those under 50 is a little bit easier. You can base the policy you pick on your budget and the features you want. Being younger will also mean more options and a cheaper price. Hence why it’s better to buy when you are young. Each of the companies this article has covered are well trusted. But it’s critical that you weigh up your options and compare them with one another. A cheaper policy isn’t necessarily better value. Paying more for your life insurance could give your broader range of cover suited to your needs. We would always recommend to do your own research. Use a comparison site (like us) to compare life insurance and get the best prices etc. Life insurance can be an invaluable tool. While it’s never nice to think about dying, it’s always a smart move to have provisions in place. There are a lot of things in the world which can do you harm, but those who will suffer the most will be the people who care about you. Life insurance won’t ease their grief, but it will certainly take stress and pressure out of this already difficult time.THIS ARTICLE IS PROVIDED TO THE BEST OF OUR KNOWLEDGE. PLEASE CONTACT US IF YOU SEE ANYTHING WHICH IS WRONG. POLICIES CHANGE ALL THE TIME SO MAKE SURE TO CHECK WITH THE PROVIDER. ALTERNATIVELY YOU CAN CALL AND SPEAK TO ONE OF OUR QUALIFIED ADVISORS.
Jody is the Managing Director and founder of My Key Finance Ltd. He has over 16 years experience as a protection adviser and is an authority within the UK business protection market. Jody has written articles for Business Matters Business Directory, and been featured in Forbes. As editor and Author of our blog Jody is hoping to educate and advise people with more in depth details and information on the various subject relating to the protection market.