Life Insurance
Life Insurance provides a financial pay-out to your loved ones if you die during the policy term.
What is Life Insurance?
You want to be sure your family will be looked after when you’re no longer around. Life Insurance lets you make that happen.
Also known as Life Cover these policies pay out a lump sum of cash upon your death.
You choose the amount that your policy pays out, as well as the length of time you’re covered for, putting you in control of the premiums you pay.
Why do I need Life Insurance?
Life Insurance helps give everyone peace of mind by cushioning the financial impact of tragedy. If you have people who rely on you for their day-to-day lifestyle, their standard of living could be in jeopardy if you were no longer here.
- Dependants like your children or spouse could use the payout to cover the costs of day-to-day living, education, rent, or just carrying on with life.
- Joint debts could also be cleared to relieve the burden on your surviving co-signatory.
- The costs of your funeral could also be covered, so your loved ones aren’t out of pocket.
Discover how your nearest and dearest could benefit from low-cost Life Insurance.
What types of Life Insurance are available?
Life Insurance is not a one-size-fits-all product. It’s important to understand the different types of cover available so that you’re getting the policy that’s right for you and your family.
Take a look at the two types of cover Beagle Street offers.
Level Term Life Insurance could be right for you if you want a policy which pays a set amount upon your death. The payout and your premiums are agreed when you set it up, and don’t change.
Read more about this type of cover in our guide to Level Term Life Insurance.
With Decreasing Term Life Insurance the amount of cover you choose will reduce over time and the payout you would receive in the event of your death decreases. It’s taken out for a fixed period of time, usually to cover a specific debt, like your mortgage.
Find out more in our guide to Decreasing Term Life Insurance.
What affects the cost of Life Insurance?
We make it simple to get covered, but there’s a lot going on behind the scenes. The cost of Life Insurance cover is calculated using different health and lifestyle factors, which combine to make sure you’re paying premiums on a policy that’s right for you.
Let’s break it down.
How much cover do you need?
This one’s nice and easy, the bigger the payout on your policy, the higher your premiums will be.
It’s important to work out exactly what living costs you would need to cover if you were to pass away and avoid paying over the odds for your policy. This could include your mortgage, dependents, debts and income. Don’t forget to take into consideration future life milestones like settling down or having children, where the cover could offer your loved ones a safety net if you died. Take a look at our guide to the circumstances and costs you could consider when deciding how much cover you need.
How long do you want Life Insurance for?
Longer policies are likely to carry higher premiums, since these increase the risk of you dying while still covered.
Again, think about what your cover is protecting and might protect in future. If you want to secure your children’s education, a policy that runs for 20 years could achieve this while they come of age. Anything longer and you could be paying too much.
What’s your health like?
Overall health is a big factor in how much you pay for Life Insurance premiums. A healthy person could end up paying less than someone out of shape.
Family medical history could also be included in your insurer’s decision, as well as the risk posed by your job.
With Beagle Street, we don’t require you to have a medical test when applying for Life Insurance. We do ask some questions about your health which help to inform our decision about whether we can offer you Life Insurance, but there are no tests and no information is required from medical professionals.
How old are you?
Age affects Life Insurance. The older you are, the higher your premiums could be, but it’s not quite as simple as that.
A younger person taking out a long-term policy might pay the same premiums as an older person getting shorter-term cover. But with age, you may be more likely to acquire an illness or condition which could mean pricier premiums. Be sure you strike the right balance.
Do you smoke?
Smoking is an expensive habit. In fact, it could even cost you more in Life Insurance premiums.
The good news is, if you’ve been completely smoke-free for 12 months or longer, Beagle Street class you as a non-smoker when it comes to working out what you pay. Bear in mind that e-cigarettes are classed as smoking products, so you’ll have to break the habit altogether to be viewed as a non-smoker. Remember, even if you take out a policy now as a smoker and later successfully kick the habit, your existing premiums can’t be changed to reflect your non-smoker status.
Find out more about smoking and Life Insurance.
Critical Illness Cover
Adding Critical Illness Cover to your Life Insurance policy means you receive a cash lump sum if you’re diagnosed with a recognised critical condition. It could help you secure a good quality of life while receiving treatment for a sudden illness.
Find out more about Critical Illness Cover from Beagle Street.
Child Critical Illness Cover
If your child becomes ill with a recognised critical condition, Child Critical Illness cover pays a lump sum to you to help support your family during that time.
Learn more about Child Critical Illness Cover.
Joint Policy
Convert your Life Insurance into a joint policy and protect two people, with a single payout occurring when the first policyholder dies. This could work out better for you and your partner compared to two single policies.
Whole of Life Insurance
Here at Beagle Street, we only offer Term cover, not Whole of Life cover.
This is a type of policy which covers you for life, known as Whole of Life Insurance. This is different to Term Life Insurance which only covers a fixed period of time. Whole of Life Insurance is also known as Life Assurance.
Frequently asked questions
If you have a non-fatal accident, Life Insurance will not pay out, it only covers you in the event of your death. Critical Illness cover may provide some protection if, as a result of an accident, you acquire a condition such as permanent blindness or deafness.
You can cancel your Life Insurance policy with Beagle Street at any time, we only ask you let us know and don’t just cancel your direct debit. Other providers might be less relaxed about cancellation, so check with them if you’re thinking of switching.
Life Insurance protects those who rely on you most from the financial impact of your death. If you’re no longer here to help them out, you can at least secure a cash lump sum that could help them to maintain their current quality of life. People typically choose to buy Life Insurance alongside big commitments such as buying a house with a mortgage, having a child, or getting married.
To get a quote from Beagle Street in as little as sixty seconds, you can use our quick quote tool, to get a quote by answering just six simple questions. If you’d prefer some help over the phone you can request a callback from our friendly UK-based team. You can get in touch by phone on on 0800 247 247 or try our Live Chat tool for an instant response. Our Contact Centre is available:
Mon-Fri 8am-9pm, Sat 9am-5pm,
Sun 10am-3:30pm,
Bank Holidays 9am-5pm
In return for monthly premiums, a Life Insurance provider will pay out a cash lump sum upon your death. Both the amount of that lump sum and the premiums are decided upfront, as well as the duration of the cover.
Life Insurance is not a savings or investment product. You are simply paying a monthly insurance premium to payout a lump sum in the event of your death. If you do not die before the end of the policy, there is no payout or money back.
Some Life Insurance providers will require the details of a medical exam from your GP as part of their application process. Others will just ask some questions to get a picture of your personal and family medical history.
Beagle Street provides Life Insurance with no medical required, although we will ask health and lifestyle questions about any existing medical conditions and if you have a family history of some specific illnesses. If you have an existing condition or illness it doesn’t mean you’ll automatically be refused a policy with Beagle Street.
Once your Life Insurance policy is set up, your premiums and cover remain fixed, so it can’t be amended. While you can’t alter the fine details of your existing cover, you could cancel one policy and set up another one. However, the premiums you’ve already paid won’t be refunded. Alternatively, you could purchase a second policy to top up your total cover.
When you set up Term Life Insurance, you decide how long it runs for. If that term runs out and you’re still alive, the policy simply ends, and you’re free to set up a new one. If you’ve outlived your policy, you won’t receive money back or a payout when it ends. Note that a new policy will be re-assessed from scratch based on your current medical status.
Life Insurance is approved on a case-by-case basis. If you have a pre-existing condition, talk to an insurer direct and see if they’re able to offer you a policy. If not, there could be other specialist insurers who focus on people with your condition. All of this will depend on your unique circumstances.
Life Insurance is not a one-size-fits-all product. It’s important to understand the different types of cover available so that you’re getting the policy that’s right for you and your family.
Take a look at the two types of cover Beagle Street offers.
Term Life Insurance is a type of policy which only runs for a length of time (a term) agreed between yourself and the insurer. It’s the type of cover offered by Beagle Street. Compare this to Whole Life Insurance, which runs until you die or cancel the policy.
The most common types of Life Insurance could guarantee fixed premiums, although this is something you should check before you enter into an agreement. Some insurers may provide ‘reviewable premiums’ as well as guaranteed premiums.
Beagle Street only offers fixed premiums on our policies.
You can get a rough idea of how much Life Insurance cover to take out by weighing up your current annual financial commitments and multiplying that by the length of time you want to be covered for. Seek financial advice if you want a more precise estimate of the policy size that’s right for you.
Joint Life Insurance policies are fairly common, allowing partners to apply together, with cover that pays out when the first of them dies. This has some pros and cons compared to taking out two single policies, so you should discuss it with your partner and your insurer.
Not directly. Life Insurance from Beagle Street pays out a lump sum. However, if the policy is written in trust, it gets paid to your trustees, who can pass the money onto your beneficiaries on a monthly basis if that’s what you’d prefer.
If you die during the policy term, who the payout goes to depends on the arrangements you’ve made for after your death.
If you’ve taken out a joint policy with your partner through Beagle Street, the lump sum will be paid to them and the policy ends.
If you have a Will, the lump sum forms part of your estate and is paid to the executor to distribute as you’ve stipulated in your Will.
If you don’t have a Will, the lump sum will be subject to the rules of intestacy. This is a complicated process where the law decides who will inherit a deceased person’s estate (including a Life Insurance payout).
If you’ve written your Life Insurance policy in trust, the lump sum is paid to the trustees to distribute to the beneficiaries of the trust.
It’s important that you set up your wishes for after your death in advance, and check that they’re correct, as Beagle Street is not responsible for issues or disputes arising from payouts.
If you’ve taken out Critical Illness Cover with Beagle Street and develop a covered condition during the policy term, the lump sum will be paid directly to you.
If you’ve taken out Child Critical Illness cover, the lump sum will be paid to the parent or guardian who took out the policy.
Life Insurance payouts are not subject to tax, but they do count towards the size of your estate if the policy isn’t written in trust. This could make you liable for inheritance tax. If your policy is written in trust, then the payout does not count towards the inheritance tax threshold.
Critical Illness Cover provides a tax-free lump sum if you develop a covered condition during the policy term.
Our aim is to make getting Life Insurance easy and stress-free:
- Take out a policy online in less than 10 minutes.
- Get a free Will when you take out a policy with us.
- We’re rated ‘Excellent’ by our customers on TrustPilot.
- 99.1% of claims were paid in 2017.*
- We regularly search official records to ensure we’re not holding any money which will help your loved ones if you’re recently deceased.
- Keep all your policy documents in one place when you create an online account.
Take a look at all the reasons to use Beagle Street.
* Beagle Street is backed by Scottish Friendly Assurance Society who, in 2017, paid 99.1% of all their Life Insurance claims.
Still have questions? Talk to our team to find out more.
Read our Life Insurance Guides
Want to learn more about Life Insurance from Beagle Street? We’ve got a digital library of sources to help you make the right choice.
