Life insurance is now cheaper than it has been for ten years, due to increased competition between the top 10 general insurance and pensions groups, which together provide 80% of life cover written in the UK, according to the Association of British Insurers (ABI).Â
Furthermore, not only new customers, seeking to insure themselves for the first time, stand to gain from the more competitive environment and cheap life insurance policies.
Those who have a life insurance policy already in place can be pleasantly surprised if they check with their financial adviser to examine the latest deals available. The fall in the price of life insurance over the past 5 years alone has meant that it can be cheaper for a consumer to take out a new life policy, rather than continue with an old one – despite the fact that the policyholder is now older.Â
Rewards for healthy lifestyle choicesÂ
Furthermore, advances in nutritional knowledge are changing the way that insurers look at lifestyle issues, and healthy lifestyle choices are now beginning to have a positive impact on the price of premiums.Â
People who do not eat meat, for example, are now regarded as being 40% less likely to suffer from certain forms of cancer, and are also 30% less likely to suffer from heart disease*. As a result, they are increasingly regarded as a desirable customer by insurers and benefit from cheap life insurance.
The UK insurer Animal Friends, for example, is now co-operating with Liverpool Victoria to offer premiums to vegetarians that are on average 6% cheaper than competitors.Â
*Source: Animal Friends Insurance Ltd.
