AIG Life Insurance [REVIEW]

Who Are AIG?

AIG Life Limited is the Life Insurance branch of US insurance giant American International Group Inc (AIG). It operates in the UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man and Gibraltar.

With roots dating back to 1919, AIG has today become a global organisation, serving clients in more than 80 countries worldwide.

It is currently the largest US-headquartered Life Insurance provider in Europe.

AIG Life Insurance Policy Overview

• Comprehensive Policy
  A comprehensive Life Insurance policy which offers several free support services
• Unlimited Maximum Benefit
  No limit on the maximum Life Insurance benefit available, so you can pick a sum of your choosing
• Additional Critical Illness Option
  Add Critical Illness Cover for an extra premium, which pays your full benefit if you develop one of 23 critical conditions
• Smart Health
  Access a range of free addtional benefits through Smart Health including 24/7 GP services, fitness and nutrition plans, second medical opinion and online health assessments.

What Does AIG Life Insurance Cover?

AIG’s Life Insurance policy offers many additional features that make their policy unique. Before taking cover out it’s important to understand what these are.

AIG’s ‘YourLife’ Insurance is a comprehensive Life Insurance offering. It has many free additional benefits via AIG’s Smart Health programme.

For those on tighter budgets, AIG also offers the ‘Life Start’ policy. With this option, the premiums start lower and then increase with age.

Rauri Taylor
Independent Protection Expert at Drewberry

AIG Life Insurance Cover Key Policy Factors

AIG’s Life Insurance policies come with several key policy factors that need to be taken into consideration.

Guaranteed Insurability

AIG lets you increase your benefit without further medical underwriting if you:

• Get married, or enter a civil partnership
• Have or legally adopt a child
• Increase the amount of your mortgage.

The maximum available increase cannot be more than the lower of £75,000, or 50% of your original benefit. If the increase is for a mortgage, the increased benefit cannot be larger than your mortgage increase.

You can request an increase in your benefit more than once. However, the total sum of all increases must not be more than the original sum assured or £150,000, whichever is lower.

Separation Benefit

If you divorce, separate, or dissolve your civil partnership, you can split your joint AIG Life Insurance into two single policies. You must apply within 6 months of the separation in order to be eligible. You’ll also need to supply AIG with any evidence they require.

The total combined benefit of the two new single policies cannot be more than 100% of the sum assured under the previous joint cover.

Increasing Cover Available

If you choose increasing cover, AIG will increase your benefit by 5% each year. Your premiums will also go up, but you should be aware that the increase rate will be higher. This is because premiums are dependent on your age and the remaining policy term.

You have the option to switch from Increasing Term Insurance to Level Term Insurance at any time. If you do so, you can opt back in to the annual increase on the same terms as before.

Unlimited Maximum Benefit

AIG doesn’t cap the benefit available for Life Insurance or Critical Illness Cover. Even if they offer unlimited Life Insurance, most providers tend to cap the Critical Illness benefit.

Multiple Free Additional Benefits

AIG’s extra benefits through Smart Health are one of the most comprehensive packages available. This feature provides access to several services that can support your ongoing health and wellbeing.

Additional Benefits

As well as offering comprehensive Life Insurance Policies, AIG also offer a range of free additional benefits.

Smart Health

The additional benefits available with AIG Life Insurance revolve around Smart Health. This offers a range of free benefits, including:

24/7 Digital GP

You can book a phone or video call with a remote GP any time, day or night, 365 days a year. The service aims to offer an appointment within 2 hours of you requesting one. You can also receive prescriptions straight away.

Fitness and Nutrition Plans

Smart Health offers help and advice on exercise regimes and nutrition programmes. You can choose a 4 or 8 week tailored fitness plan to help you reach your goals. This comes with weekly meal planning ideas to support you on your journey.

The recipe plans come from qualified nutritionists. They provide tailored nutrition plans for a range of dietary requirements. This helps you maintain a healthy body weight and can lower the risk of health issues caused by a poor diet.

Mental Health Support and Counselling

Smart Health gives you access to a team of mental health professionals, including psychologists who can provide you with counselling.

It aims to help with mental health concerns such as anxiety, depression, and stress-related issues. You can access up to four tailored therapy sessions with an expert.

Health Check

AIG Smart Health also offers an online health assessment so you can find out important health metrics such as your BMI and cardiovascular risk profile.  AIG’s Smart Health Experts can provide personal recommendations and next steps based on your assessment to help you live a happier and healthier live.

Best Doctors

You can access a second medical opinion from leading clinicians through AIG’s Best Doctors service. It can be used for yourself or a family member if you’re experiencing health symptoms and are worried you aren’t getting the right treatment or diagnosis.

Winston’s Wish

AIG partners with Winston’s Wish, the UK’s leading child bereavement charity. They provide much-needed support for children after losing a parent or sibling.

Funeral Pledge

Through their Funeral Pledge, AIG commits to advancing up to £10,000 of your life insurance claim to pay for funeral costs. The advance can be paid out to either a funeral director, or to your family if the claim has been agreed but is tied up in probate. Your loved ones can use the advance to cover funeral costs or pay for probate application fees.

How Does AIG Life Insurance Compare?

When taking out any policy it is important to compare different providers against each other. This is because they will all offer slightly different things.

Smart Health Provides Excellent Free Additional Benefits

The free Smart Health suite of extra benefits is one of the most comprehensive support services offered with Life Insurance.

Online Trusts

AIG offers an online trust service. This means you can write your Life Insurance into a trust online to protect the benefit from inheritance tax.

Setting up a trust once your policy is up and running can be a lengthy process involving legal paperwork and wet signatures.

Instead, a Protection Adviser can help with this during your application process. We can set this up smoothly and save you hassle later.

Samantha Haffenden Angear
Independent Protection Expert

Minimum Entry Age of 17

For most Life Insurance providers, the minimum entry age is 18, but for AIG it’s 17. This makes them a great option for younger individuals seeking Life Insurance.

Child Cover Not Free With Critical Illness Cover

Many other insurers include Children’s Critical Illness Cover for free when you take out Critical Illness cover for yourself. However, Children’s Cover isn’t free with AIG, and instead requires an extra premium.

This could be an advantage for those who don’t have children, as you won’t pay for cover you don’t need. But you might need to pay extra if you either have, or plan to have children, and want them to be covered.

High Child Death Benefit

While child Critical Illness Cover isn’t included for free with adult cover, the child death benefit AIG offers is £10,000. This includes children stillborn after 24 weeks gestation. This is one of the highest child death benefits in the market.

Total Permanent Disability Cover Not Standard

Total Permanent Disability Cover is part of Critical Illness Cover. It pays out if you become completely and totally disabled due to illness or injury, and cannot work again.

With AIG, it’s not included as a critical illness under the policy as standard. For an extra cost, you can opt to include Total Permanent Disability cover with AIG Critical Illness. There are other Life and Critical Illness Insurance providers that include this as a standard critical condition.

No Complete Claims Statistics

AIG has not published full claims data on either Life Insurance or Critical Illness Cover for the past few years.

While it publishes figures for total claims paid, it does not publish the percentage of claims it has paid out. As a result, AIG is less transparent about claims paid than most other Life Insurance providers.

How Much Does AIG Life Insurance Cost?

There are many things that will impact the cost of a Life Insurance policy. Your age, occupation and medical history will all be taken into account.

We’ve provided an example below to give you an idea of how much an AIG Life Insurance policy could cost you. To calculate these quotes, we’ve assumed that the individual is looking for £250,000 of cover, and:

• Needs a decreasing term to cover a repayment mortgage
• Wants a 25-year policy term
• Is in a low-risk office based role
• Has no pre-existing health conditions
• Is a non-smoker.

Life Insurance Only

Life Insurance With Critical Illness Cover

Compare Life Insurance Quotes & Get Expert Advice

As you can see, there are many points to consider when choosing the right Life Insurance policy. With so many factors and lots of different terminology at play, it can be tricky to do an accurate like-for-like comparison between providers.

You can check out our comprehensive guide on how to compare Life Insurance providers for extra guidance. Or, if you know what cover you need, feel free to use our quick online quote tool to get an initial idea of costs.

We have a team of expert regulated advisers that are on hand to help you find the best life insurance for your circumstances.

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For help and fee-free Life Insurance advice, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Pop us a call on 02084327333 or email help@drewberry.co.uk.