Aviva Free Life Cover
Five years ago, in 2009, Aviva became the first UK life insurer to offer free life cover to new parents. It offered a free one year term insurance policy with a sum insured of £10,000. Now, it has revamped the offering, increasing the sum insured to £15,000 for both parents for each child. Policies are also available up to the child’s fourth birthday. The cover still lasts just one year and to get it, parents simply register online (http://www.aviva.co.uk/life/free-parent-life-cover/) or phone 0800 404 6465 or contact their financial adviser. No payment is taken, and Aviva does not ask for any bank or credit/debit card details.
Comment: A child loses a parent or sibling every 22 minutes in the UK, according to Aviva. Too many of those parents ‘hadn’t got round to’ taking out sufficient cover even to pay for their own burial. Instead, some at least will get little more than the State’s £2,000 Bereavement Payment – not enough to pay for even half of the average burial costs today.
Aviva’s plan is not an alternative but it is a ‘starter’ and, for IFAs, enables them to get some cover for parents while the IFA then arranges to find out what cover they need and then set it up for them.
Such gestures are also part of the wider and necessary initiative to show the industry as caring and human, rather than as a faceless financial machine driven solely by greed whose job appears to take money and fight paying out on any claims. Stereotypes, yes, and wrong, yes, but also how too many people still see the industry.
Of course a higher sum insured would be great and so would a longer term, but that’s not the point. This product must undisputedly be the best value life insurance available, because it’s free! If it encourages parents to think about their financial responsibilities a bit more, it will be doing its job well and we commend the product and the initiative.
Plus points: Oh so simple life cover; Lasts 12 months; Available to parents with children up to age four; £15,000 sum insured; No bank details required.
Not so plus points: Only lasts a year; No substitute for having full cover.
Website: http://www.aviva.co.uk.
Rating (max 10): Innovation: 7. Overall: 9. Platinum
Tags: Term insurance, Aviva