Royal London 360º LifePlan
Royal London 360º has added two new benefits to its whole of life international protection plan.
Term benefits are now available up to age 80, up from the previous limit of 65.
Long-term care is also now a standard feature and will be added to all existing policies, increasing the level of cover at no extra cost. Under this benefit, if the customer needs day to day care on a long term basis they can claim the critical illness lump sum to help pay for their long term care costs. The plan pays up to $7.5m (or other currency equivalent) on death or terminal illness. Critical illness cover can be added, as can term assurance and waiver of premium benefit.
Royal London says there are 12 other ‘added extras’. These include children’s critical illness cover, total and permanent disability and terminal illness benefit. Also available is accidental death benefit, which doubles the life cover, up to a maximum of $500,000.
Plus points: On one level these are relatively minor changes—term can now run to older ages and LTC is added as a CI benefit; However, the latter is particularly significant and likely to be adopted by onshore life assurers too; It is easy to think that international protection starts and ends with PMI. It doesn’t!; Choice of currencies.
Not so plus points: International protection remains a relatively niche market.
Website: http://www.royallondon360.com.
Rating (max 10): Innovation: 7. Overall: 7. Silver.