Today, Legal & General are a well-known household name in the insurance industry. But their history dates all the way back to a 1836. Sergeant John Adams and 5 other lawyers formed the first incarnation of the company in a coffee shop on London’s Chancery Lane.
Almost 200 years later, Legal & General is now a world leader in protection. It has over 10 million customers and manages more than £1 trillion in assets worldwide.
Legal & General’s Life and Critical illness products have earned 5-star ratings from Defaqto. This is because they offer a very comprehensive product, which we’ve reviewed in detail below.
By reaching this page, you’re eligible for 2 months FREE cover when you arrange a new Critical Illness policy.
Simply fill in the form below to apply for your 2 months free discount or call us on 02084327333 stating the code VC2MF.
As you’d expect, all Critical Illness policies are designed to pay out a lump sum cash benefit if you suffer from a critical condition. Once a full claim is paid, the policy ends. But, if you make a partial claim or a child’s claim, your cover under the policy carries on.
In the table below, we’ve given a detailed summary of Legal & General’s Critical Illness Insurance.
Legal & General Critical Illness Coverage | |
|---|---|
Maximum Benefit | Critical Illness Insurance with:
|
Type Of Cover |
|
Minimum Entry Age | 18 |
Maximum Entry Age |
|
Standalone? | ❌ Combined Life & Critical Illness only |
Joint Cover? | ✅ Joint life first diagnosis only |
Premium Type |
|
Waiver of Premium | Optional |
Full Conditions |
|
Survival Period | 14 days |
Children’s Cover | Included as standard with adult cover. Children between 30 days and 18 years old (or to their 21st birthday if in full-time education) are automatically covered for:
| Critical Illness Extra (Optional Cover) |
Critical Illness Extra | An optional add-on for an extra premium, this pays:
|
Children’s Critical Illness Extra | An optional add-on for an extra cost. It covers children from birth rather than 30 days old for:
|
If you apply directly to an insurer, you’ll usually only get their core cover, which we never recommend. For only a few pounds extra per month, you can get far more coverage with a comprehensive plan.
Legal & General’s Critical Illness Extra plan is a great example of this. It offers partial claims for many more common, less severe conditions. With the core plan, you’d miss out on this extra protection.
So, what are the key things you need to know about Legal & General’s Critical Illness policy? We’ve picked out the main points to consider when choosing the right provider.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dfd5uG3JvYgIf you take out your policy through an advisor, you’ll be able to upgrade to Critical Illness Extra. It’s only available through an intermediary, but it offers a lot more protection. It will pay out fully on 17 extra conditions and offer a partial claim for 28 extra conditions.
Some of the extra conditions Legal & General will pay out a partial claim for include:
The cost difference between a ‘core’ and an ‘upgraded’ plan is usually within about £10 per month—often less. And because these conditions are more common, it’s possible you’ll need this extra level of protection.
When you take out a Critical Illness policy for yourself, any children you have are covered for free. The policy will pay out if your child is diagnosed with a critical condition between 30 days old and their 18th birthday. Legal & General’s Child Cover also pays out in some other ways that make it quite unique:
For those that need a policy with flexibility, Legal & General offers a Guaranteed Insurability option. This lets you increase your benefit without any extra medical checks after major life events. You can use it following:
You need to take up the Guaranteed Insurability option within 6 months of your major life event. The maximum amount you can increase your policy by is 50% of your original benefit or £150,000, whichever is lower. Although, changes to your earnings and mortgage have slightly different limits.
If your salary has increased, you can increase your cover by your original benefit multiplied by the percentage increase in your earnings. For example, if your original benefit was £100,000, and you received a 10% salary increase, you’d do 100,000 x 10%. This gives you £10,000.
And for a mortgage increase, Legal & General caps it at the increase in your mortgage.
EXPERT TIP 🤓
You need to use the guaranteed insurability option on or before your 55th birthday. If you have a joint policy, this will apply to the oldest person insured.
While no-one plans to separate from their partner in the beginning, it can happen. If it does, Legal & General lets you split a joint policy into 2 single policies.
You need to take up this option within 6 months of your separation. Each new policy will cover you for either £1 million or the original amount of cover—whichever is lower.
Another thing to be aware of is that each of the new single policies can’t extend past each person’s 70th birthday.
Legal & General also offers the option to index your benefit. This means that your cover increases with the Retail Price Index (RPI) rate of inflation. As a result, the value of your benefit won’t be lost over time. It’s important to note though that it won’t increase by more than 10% each year.
As you might expect, to ensure your benefit stays in line with inflation, your premiums will increase each year. They’ll go up by the rate of inflation multiplied by 1.5. For instance, if inflation rises by 2% in a given year, your premiums would increase by 3.5%.
When you take out a policy with Legal & General, you don’t only receive the agreed cover, you’ll also get access to some extra benefits. The good news is many of them come free of charge!
All Legal & General policyholders have access to Wellbeing Support. This offers a wide range of ‘umbrella benefits’ that give you practical and emotional support during difficult times. The service is provided by RedArc and it offers:
If you’re on the NHS waitlist for a certain kind of surgery, Legal & General will pay out your claim early. For a basic policy, the approved surgeries are:
With the Critical Illness Extra plan, a lot more surgeries are included. Legal & General will also pay out early for peripheral vascular disease, pulmonary heart surgery and ulcerative colitis.
This means that if you’re unable to work while critically ill, you don’t need to worry about waiting until after your procedure to claim. Instead, you can make ends meet with the advance benefit and focus on managing your health.
If Legal & General pay a valid Children’s Critical Illness claim, they send a personalised gift to your child. You’ll be able to let the claims assessor know your child’s preferences and agree on a suitable present. It’s then gift wrapped and sent to your home address to help deliver a smile at a difficult time.
With Legal & General’s Critical Illness Insurance, they’ll pay £5,000 if you’re hospitalised by an accident. To be eligible, you must have suffered physical injuries as a direct result of the accident, and be hospitalised for at least 28 consecutive days.
There are some additional benefits which are only available when you take out a policy through an adviser. With Legal & General, these are optional, and they’ll cost a little more each month.
We always recommend speaking to an expert who knows the market. That way, you get the highest level of coverage at the most affordable price.
Ben Brooks
Independent Protection Expert
When facing a potentially critical health issue, the waiting is often the hardest part. Knowing what you’re up against and having a plan to face it is so important.
Legal and General provide a Private Diagnostics service, giving you access to some of the top specialists in the UK. You’ll be able to use their diagnostic test centres to investigate your symptoms. This will be the case regardless of whether you’re referred for oncology, cardiology, or neurosurgery.
Including this benefit costs an extra £4.50 per month, on top of your policy premium.
For an extra £5.90 per month, you can include fracture cover. With this benefit, Legal & General pay out a smaller cash lump sum if you fracture a bone. The payout can help you recover from the fracture you’ve suffered.
It’s also important to note that in order to make a successful claim, the injury you sustain must be one that is specified in your policy. Minor fractures come with a smaller payout, whereas major fractures will pay out more, based on severity.
When you start your policy, you can choose to add on Waiver of Premium cover. With this, Legal & General will pay your policy premiums for you if you’re unable to work due to poor health.
It comes with a standard deferred period of 26 weeks. So, if you’re signed off work for more than 6 months, the premium waiver will kick in—regardless of whether you can make a claim on the policy.
When you’re choosing your provider, it’s important to understand how they stack up against the rest. So, we’ve outlined some key points to highlight how Legal & General compares to other insurers.
Some providers offer an unlimited maximum benefit for combined Life with Critical Illness Cover. However, Legal & General caps their critical illness benefit at:
These are still high benefit amounts that will probably be enough for most people. However, for those that do need more cover, or want an increasing policy, another provider may be more suitable.
With some insurers, children’s Critical Illness Cover comes as an optional add-on for an extra monthly cost. But with Legal & General, Child Critical Illness Cover is free when you take out cover for yourself.
If you don’t have—or plan to have—children, you may not need this. But if you are a parent or plan to become one soon, your children could benefit from this protection.
Legal & General’s child cover offers some unique elements that many other providers don’t offer. For instance:
Legal & General also offers Project Smile. This sends a personalised suitable gift to a child when their parent makes a children’s Critical Illness claim. In our experience, this is currently a unique feature in the market.
* With Children’s Critical Illness Extra, the limit increases to £3,000.
Legal & General offers a £5,000 accidental hospitalisation benefit if you’re in the hospital for 28 days after an accident. This is another feature we haven’t seen elsewhere in the market, which no other providers have matched yet.
Every insurer has a survival period for Critical Illness insurance. It’s the period of time you need to survive after your diagnosis in order to receive your claim.
While some providers have a survival period of 10 days, Legal & General’s survival period is 14 days. Although this isn’t a huge difference, it could impact some people.
Some providers offer a premium waiver included in the cover as standard. However, with Legal & General, it’s an option you can add for an extra charge.
Legal & General offers help and support in several areas through their free Nurse Support Services. However, these benefits might be considered fairly minimal compared to what some other insurers have on offer. Some providers offer access to remote GPs, medical screenings, and physiotherapy.
According to their most recent claim statistics, Legal & General has paid out 93% of Critical Illness claims, which is a high amount.
Like most providers, the top condition they paid claims on was cancer (65.8%), followed by heart conditions (13.4%) and strokes (7.7%).
Samantha Haffenden-Angear
Independent Protection Expert
In most cases, your budget will determine the level of cover you end up with. So, it’s important to have an idea of how much your cover may cost.
To give you an idea of cost, we’ve provided some examples below. These show the cost of a combined Life & Critical Illness policy at a variety of ages. The examples assume a person who:
Monthly Premiums | 30 Years Old | 40 Years Old | 50 Years Old |
|---|---|---|
£38.00 | £76.53 | £158.87 |
As you can see, the premiums go up steadily as we grow older. This is because of the increased risk of falling ill that comes with age.
It’s important to remember that these are just examples, and your actual costs could be quite different. It will depend on your personal circumstances, like your age, health status and lifestyle.
Critical Illness Cover can become pricey, but we understand that most people have a budget in mind for their protection.
We’ll always work hard to bring the price into your budget by tweaking the cover until it meets all your needs.
Alex Weir
Independent Protection Expert
When it comes to taking out a Critical Illness policy, Legal & General are one of many insurers you should consider. As you can see, they offer an impressive level of children’s cover. But people who aren’t parents may find a more suitable provider elsewhere. It all depends on your own unique needs.
On top of that, Critical Illness Insurance can be complicated. Each provider has different approaches to risk and their own definitions of critical conditions. So, having an expert on your side can make all the difference.
As a completely independent and impartial consultancy, we’ll research the whole of the market for you. Our friendly team will make an expert recommendation to suit your personal needs.
We started Drewberry™ because we were tired of being treated like a number.
We all deserve a first class service when it comes to issues as important as protecting our health and our finances. Below are just a few reasons why it makes sense to talk to us.
If you’d like to speak to a member of our friendly team, you can pop us a call on 02084327333 or email help@drewberry.co.uk.
Alternatively, if you’re confident you know what you are looking for, you can use our Critical Illness quote tool. This can help you compare the cost across the top UK providers.
Drewberry™ uses cookies to offer you the best experience online. By continuing to use our website you agree to the use of cookies including for ad personalization.
If you would like to know more about cookies and how to manage them please view our privacy & cookie policy.
