Biggest Over 50 Life Insurance providers in the UK

The ones that provide their own products:

• SunLife – are the biggest over 50s life insurance brand in the UK selling over more policies than all the other life insurance providers put together !  They guarantee to pay every claim and have the lowest starting premiums of all the providers.  They are also the only major company to offer to stop your payments before 90 years old depending on how old you are when you start the plan.

• Legal & General – another big insurance brand with a well featured product and keen pricing for non-smokers. They offer non-smoker rates too.

• Royal London – a largely unknown brand until they started putting those crazy medieval adverts of TV.  They offer a well featured product with a unique feature that lets you stop paying in once you are half way through your policy payments. A great feature if you run in to money troubles but reduces the payout if you opt for it.  Like Legal and General Royal London offer non-smoker rates.

• Shepherds Friendly – as the name says this is a friendly or mutual society, run for the benefit of its members. A well featured product with access to bereavement services to help guide you through some of the practical tasks that need to be done after someone dies.

• American International Group – is a global insurance organisation which includes a UK business known as AIG in the UK.  You won’t see them advertising their Over 50 Life Insurance on anywhere as they only sell through third party brokers – some of whom are listed below.  Their product is well featured and keenly priced.  Not all the versions of the AIG product sold through brokers are the same so be careful to compare features and prices – our comparison service makes this easy.

Our Opinion On Providers

Always buy from a big brand that you trust.  We’ve list above the biggest Over 50 Life Insurance UK providers, there are more out there but if you decide to go with one of those make sure that they are financially sound, have a well featured product and are priced well.  Typically going direct to one of these providers will mean you get the best deal available from that provider.

The ones that sell other providers products and take a commission:

• British Seniors – oddly named given they are an Aussie business selling an American insurance companies (AIG) product!  So if you can get past the slightly disingenuous brand name then the product is well featured. It has an odd Cash In feature that allows you to get some money back after you have made a certain number of years payments – not a decision to take lightly and one you that may well end up with you being out of pocket as a result – so certainly not on its own a reason to buy from British Seniors.

• Post Office – sell the Royal London but with different (arguably worse) features and at higher prices.  They don’t differentiate between smokers and non-smokers which is good for smokers.  If you want the Royal London product then you may be better off going directly to Royal London – you can see how the products compare on our comparison page.

• Sainsburys Bank – sell the Legal and General product and give you nectar points when you buy through them.

• Chuchill – are in the process of switching to the AIG product from Legal and General and haven’t published the details of their new product just yet.

• Asda – sell an Over 50s Life Cover product provided by Liverpool Victoria (LV=)

• Independent Insurance Brokers – there are also lots of independent brokers offering their services for free on the internet.  They often ask you complete a quote request form and will then call you back to talk you through your options.  They typically won’t give you any advice or even an opinion to help you make up which product is best for you – they will simply talk you through the options available so you can make the choice.  Always ask them how much commission they are earning and if you are feeling cheeky ask them to give you some of their commission – always worth a try, it is your money after all !  Examples include, LifeSearch, SaveOnLife, Reassured, ActiveQuote, MoneySuperMarket, MoneySavingExpert, Compare The Market, Go Compare, Hannah, Uswitch this list is endless.  Before you use an independent broker then we suggest you look at their reviews on sites such at TrustPilot.

Our Opinion On Brokers

There are two kinds of brokers – the ones where they provide a third party product but advertise the product under their own brand, for example, British Seniors and Post Office.  These type of providers may be selling a product that is different to the real product providers product and may have worse features and even cost more – so be careful and always check – our comparison service makes this easy.  They will typically only offer products from a single product provider.

The other type of broker is one that typically advertises themselves as an insurance broker or comparison service.  These companies typically work with several product providers to offer a range of quotes from different providers and are paid a commission on each sale they make by the product provider.  They won’t give you advice but they can be very helpful in explaining the different features of each product and they can tell you how prices compare.