Royal London Personal Menu Plan
Since dropping the Bright Grey and Scottish Provident brands in 2014, Royal London has been able to select the best bits of both brands and present arguably a more coherent protection insurance brand that builds on the legacy of an £84.5bn group that employs almost 3,000 people and is now the largest mutual life, pensions and investment company in the UK.
This plan can include the following covers:
Term insurance.
Critical illness cover. Covers 54 conditions of which 44 are full payment and ten are additional payments (which pay the lower of 25% of the benefit or £25K). Sixteen of the CI conditions have an ABI+ definition. Children’s cover covers them from birth to age 21 for 50% of the full insured amount up to a max of £25K.
Income protection. Up to 55% of earnings up to a maximum of £250K a year.
Unemployment cover. Up to 55% of earnings up to a maximum of £36K a year. Pays up to 52 or 104 weeks. Not available standalone.
Waiver of premium (sickness or unemployment versions). The sickness version offers a choice of 4, 8, 13, 26 or 52 weeks deferred. The unemployment version pays for up to 52 or 104 weeks.
Free cover before the plan starts in some circumstances.
The plan also includes the Helping Hand service.
The plan also includes a mortgage repayment guarantee, life cover reinstatement option (after a CI claim) and free CI cover during underwriting. Additional support services include a personal nurse adviser service; face-to-face second medical opinion; equipment and medical aids; bereavement counselling; home visits with an appropriate healthcare specialist, and legal assistance.
Premiums can be guaranteed or reviewable every five years. Cover can be level, increasing or decreasing (in line with a repayment mortgage at a particular interest rate.
Comment: Menu plans can help customers save money by enabling them to select which elements of cover they want and how much of each, all under one plan. Royal Life’s version goes further than most, and includes IP as well as CI cover plus optional unemployment cover too. There is also a good support service backing up the purely financial benefits.
The big downside of menu plans is their complexity and the simple fact that if you include all the cover you want, the end premium may end up being too great. That’s not a criticism of any particular plan, but one reason why some advisers (and customers?) still prefer to keep cover types separate and choose the best provider of each.
Royal London’s online support looks very good and includes a range of sales aids as well as customer and technical information.
Plus points: Comprehensive menu cover for individuals; Choice of cover types to include; Optional unemployment insurance and WOP; Good range of choices without over-complication; Well-written literature.
Not so plus points: Menu plans are inevitably quite complex; It may be cheaper/better to choose the best provider for each cover type.
Website: http://www.royallindon.com.
Rating (max 10): Innovation: 8.5. Overall: 8.5. Gold
Tags: Menu; Royal London