BGL Group FiftyLife
FiftyLife is BGL Group’s guaranteed over 50s life insurance plan. BGL Group is the owner of life insurance provider Beagle Street and price comparison website comparethemarket.com.
The plan offers customers over 50 up to £10,000 of life insurance cover and claims to have lower prices than all other leading brands. Customers can buy policies quickly and easily, with no medical required, via a fully responsive website, or by telephone from UK-based customer service consultants based at the group’s contact centres.
FiftyLife is a guaranteed acceptance policy designed to provide a one-off lump sum cash payment on death. Key features include:
Available to UK citizens aged 50-84.
Cover: up to £10,000.
Cheaper than all other leading insurance providers: monthly payments from £3.85.
Monthly payments are fixed and will never go up.
No payments after age 90.
Funeral plan option available.
Full, immediate cover for accidental death: full cover after two years.
Seven-day UK-based phone support.
The only underwriting questions are to find out the customer’s age and whether they smoke.
The plan is being supported by TV advertising. TV ad links are:
Summer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcnpG82_ivs&feature=youtu.be
Autumn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUfMrctFW00&feature=youtu.be
Sunday lunch: https://youtu.be/K1CFMIwQtZo
The policy is underwritten by Covéa Life Limited.
BGL says FiftyLife aims to disrupt the traditional over 50s market by offering a simple, no-frills product with highly competitive pricing, that allows customers to secure cover in a matter of minutes. Its straightforward, user-friendly proposition has been designed in response to extensive customer research and is squarely targeted at customers’ core needs, offering standard, easy-to-buy cover to make it accessible to as many people as possible.
Comment: Critics who say life insurers never advertise only have to watch (mainly but not exclusively) daytime television to realise that’s not the case. Guaranteed acceptance policies and the related but different funeral plan market are both thriving and do help get the wider protection message across too.
The 50+ or guaranteed acceptance model is simple – whole of life cover with no underwriting, but instead non-accidental deaths are usually excluded for two years. They sell more on low cost than best value (indeed, most won’t compare value-wise with a fully underwritten plan at ordinary rates) but they sell because they are simple to understand and avoid consumer guestlisting (when the insurer says ‘no’ or tries to charge you more to enter their club). The low sums insured and premiums mean plans typically pay for or towards the funeral and not much more. Most such policies are bought direct.
BGL is a significant insurance player – its brands boast 8.5m customers between them – and this plan is what you might expect from such an experienced player. So, the plan is simple and well-explained. The cover is well explained and – most importantly in our view – premiums are capped so stop at age 90. That’s important as otherwise, the older you get, the worse value the policy provides and if you do stop paying in, you get nothing out on death.
So, FiftyLife is not really for sophisticated buyers (although you’d be surprised to see who does buy such cover) or those who want tens or hundreds of thousands of cover, but it’s simple and cheap (the cheapest, it says), is very easy to both buy and to understand and the little meerkats (scientific name: suricata suricatta – hey, we’re a very technical industry!) seem to like it, so what’s not to like.
Plus points: Simple understandable life cover; Accessible; Minimal underwriting; Easy to buy; Premiums stop at age 90; Immediate accidental death cover; Funeral benefit option; Premiums guaranteed not to increase (unlike most other types of insurance policy).
Not so plus points: No life trust option; Poorer value than fully underwritten life cover; No death benefit in first two years (unless death is accidental); No knobs and whistles; No mention of what is paid out (if anything) on death during the first two years; Option to view the policy terms and conditions (although T&Cs for the website itself are viewable) not offered online before getting a quote.
Website: http://www.fiftylife.co.uk.
Rating (max 10): Innovation: 7. Overall: 7.5. Silver
Tags: WL; BGL Group