Royal London Pegasus Whole of Life Plan
As part of its rebranding to bring everything under the Royal London label, the insurer has now relaunched the old Scottish Provident Pegasus whole of life plan, but has maintained the Pegasus tag.
The plan itself is a simple whole of life plan that pays out on death or on diagnosis of a terminal illness. The plan can also include waiver of premium benefit.
Cover can be level or increasing and premiums can be guaranteed or reviewable. Cover Increase Options allow the sum insured (for those accepted on standard terms) to increase by up to the lower of half the original cover or £200,000 without further medical evidence on getting married/divorced, having or adopting a child, mortgage increase or an increase in salary. Cover can also be increased under the IHT Cover Increase Options and Business Cover Increase Options.
Where someone is not accepted on standard terms e.g. because of their lifestyle and they change that lifestyle they can ask Royal London to review the terms of their cover under what the insurer calls a Lifestyle Review.
The plan includes access to the Helping Hand service for the customer (including any spouse/partner/children). This provides tailored support from a nurse adviser and access to a medical and legal helpline.
There are no standard exclusions, except that death resulting from self-inflicted injury in the first year of the plan is excluded. Cover lapses if a premium remains unpaid after five weeks. The policy has no cash-in value at any time.
Royal London also produces a useful four page sales aid called ‘On closer observation – The need for Whole of Life’.
Comment: Royal Life has been busy rebranding and the popular Pegasus plan is the latest to go through this exercise. In some ways it’s surprising to see the Pegasus sub brand continue, although that brand did build up a reputation for innovation over a great many years.
The plan itself is fairly typical and offers guaranteed or reviewable premiums, optional waiver of premium and a range of guaranteed increase options. The Helping Hands service is valuable too – and may prove to be of much more value than people expect at outset.
There’s nothing that’s very innovative in the relaunch but the Royal London brand is a strong and growing brand and the essence of this plan is probably that it does exactly what you expect it to simply and without fuss anyway.
Plus points: Rebrand of the old Scottish Provident Pegasus plan; Simple whole of life cover; Helping Hands service can provide help when it is needed; The Lifestyle Review service could be useful to some rated customers later on.
Not so plus points: Little that is new or innovative; No surrender value at any time; Reviewable premiums can take account of a very wide number of factors in setting any new premium rates.
Website: http://www.royalondoncom.
Rating (max 10): Innovation: 7. Overall: 8. Gold
Tags: WL; Royal London.