Aviva Life Insurance [REVIEW]

Who Are Aviva?

Founded in 1696, Aviva has been looking after customers for more than 320 years, helping them to prepare for the unexpected.

Today it is one of the UK’s largest insurance companies, providing insurance products to over 15 million customers.

It’s Life Insurance has a 5 star Defaqto rating and offers a range of policy types so cover can be tailored to your specific needs.

Aviva Life Insurance Policy Overview

• Flexible Policy
  A comprehensive Life Insurance policy which allows you to add additional cover based on your individual needs
• Unlimited Maximum Benefit
  Unlimited maximum Life Insurance benefit available, so you can pick a sum of your choosing
• Additional Critical Illness Cover
  Opt for Critical Illness Cover for an extra premium, which pays your full benefit if you develop one of 33 critical conditions
• Aviva DigiCare+
  Free handy online app linking you to services which help to prevent, detect and manage health issues. These include annual health checks, nutrition and mental health consultations, second medical opinion and virtual GP services.

What Does Aviva Life Insurance Cover?

As a leading provider of Life Insurance in the UK, there are some unique terms to Aviva’s Life Insurance cover in the UK.

Aviva Life Insurance+ is a comprehensive policy with many additional benefits.

This includes Aviva DigiCare+, offering gym discounts, annual health checks, telephone health helplines and more.

Josh Martin
Independent Protection Expert at Drewberry

Aviva Life Insurance Key Policy Factors

Aviva’s Life Insurance policy comes with several key policy factors that need to be taken into consideration.

Life Change Benefit

Like many insurers, Aviva provides a Guaranteed Insurability option, only they call it a Life Change Benefit. With this, you can increase your benefit without supplying medical evidence if you go through certain life events. The life events covered are:

• Marriage or a civil partnership
• Divorce, separation, or dissolution of civil partnership
• Becoming a parent
• Taking out a larger mortgage because you’re moving, buying a new home or making home improvements
• Receiving a pay rise of at least 20% because you’ve been promoted / moved to a new employer
• Seeing an increase in your rent due to your landlord putting it up or moving to a new rental property
• An increase in housing costs due to moving from paying rent to paying a mortgage.

You can increase your cover by the lower of:

• £200,000 (for level and decreasing cover)
• £8,000 per year for Family Income Benefit paid monthly
• The original cover amount you had at the start of the policy
• The amount your mortgage has increased by
• Your rent increase / your increase in housing payments when shifting from rent to a mortgage, multiplied by the number of months left on your Life Insurance (up to a maximum increase of £200,000).

Separation Benefit

If you have a joint policy and get divorced, separated, or dissolve your civil partnership, you can split it into two separate policies. Neither party will have to answer further medical questions, providing:

• The oldest person the policy covers is no more than 55 years old
• Aviva accepted your policy on standard terms
• You supply the evidence of your separation that Aviva requires and apply for the split policy within 90 days of the separation occurring
• You haven’t made any claims (except hospitalisation benefit, Children’s Critical Illness Cover or Upgraded Children’s Critical Illness Cover)
• The policy isn’t in a trust
• The new policies each meet Aviva’s minimum premium amount
• Your two separate policies end before each party’s 70th birthday.

Index-Linked Or Increasing Cover Available

Aviva lets you choose to take out your policy on an increasing basis. This helps ensure that inflation won’t erode the purchasing power of a potential claim over time. There are two options for an increasing policy:

• Index-Linked Benefit
  Your benefit rises each year in line with the Retail Prices Index (RPI) rate of inflation. It won’t increase more than 10% each year. To compensate for your larger benefit, your premiums will rise by inflation times 1.5.
• Fixed Increasing Cover
  With this option, your cover rises by either 3% or 5% each year. To compensate for your larger benefit, your premiums will rise by 4.5% or 7.5% annually depending on the fixed increase you choose.

Aviva notifies you each year before your increase takes effect. If you don’t want the increase to go ahead, you can opt out.

After opting out for 3 years in a row, Aviva will remove the increasing cover from your policy. It will remain level from then on, with no option to switch back to increasing cover later.

Bradley Fedarb
Independent Protection Expert

House Purchase Cover

Aviva’s Life Insurance+ includes House Purchase Cover at no extra cost. This provides you with free Life Insurance during the purchase of your new house. It pays out the lower of:

• £500,000
• The amount you’ve applied for
• The price of the property you’re buying.

Once Aviva receives your application, the cover will take effect. It will remain in place for the earliest of 90 days, your property completion date, or your policy start date.

Multiple Free Benefits, Plus Add More for an Extra Premium

Aviva has multiple free additional benefits as standard with Life Insurance, mostly under the DigiCare+ offering. We cover this in more detail below.

However, it also has a number of paid options you can add to the policy for an extra premium. This further increases how comprehensive the policy is.

Children’s Cover Included With Adult Critical Illness Cover

When you take out Critical Illness Cover alongside your Aviva Life Insurance, Aviva covers your child automatically. This protects all your children if they’re aged between 30 days and 18 years (21 if in full-time education).

Aviva Life Insurance Additional Benefits

Aviva Life Insurance offers some free additional benefits as standard. There are also some extra benefits you can add to the policy for an extra premium.

Aviva DigiCare+

Aviva DigiCare+ is included for free with all life insurance policies. It offers a wide range of support services including:

Bupa Anytime HealthLine

In partnership with Bupa, Aviva offers an unlimited 24/7 helpline staffed by Bupa nurses. You can ask them your medical questions on topic such as medication, health concerns, travel advice, and mental health.

The service is available to you, your partner and any eligible children up to their 18th birthday (age 21 if in full-time education).

Mental Health Support

Up to six video or telephone appointments with a qualified psychotherapist. These appointments can be shared between you, your partner and any eligible children up to their 18th birthday (age 21 if in full-time education).

Second Medical Opinion

If you develop a physical or mental health condition, you get access to a face-to-face second medical opinion from a UK-based specialist. They can look at your diagnosis or treatment plan and suggest potential improvements or alternatives.

The service provides up to two appointments per year. Again, these appointments are shared between you, your partner and any eligible children up to their 18th birthday (age 21 if in full-time education).

Physiotherapy

Access physiotherapy exactly when you need it. It includes an initial phone consultation, an online physiotherapy program, and up to three face-to-face sessions per condition, per year. You can use it up to twice per year for separate conditions.

Annual Health Check

Aviva provides a free annual health check-up via a finger prick blood test. They will send you a kit through the post, which you do in the comfort of your own home and send back for analysis. It picks up on 20 markers of potential disease, letting you get ahead of any health problems.

Nutrition Consultation

You can benefit from up to six consultations per year with a qualified nutritionist. These consultations can be shared between you, your partner and your children aged between 12 and 18 (up to age 21 if in full-time education).

This includes an assessment of current nutritional and lifestyle choices. Aviva’s nutritionists can give guidance on optimal eating plans and advise on changing relationships with food.

Gym Discounts

You’ll receive up to 25% off your gym membership at a range of UK gym chains, plus a number of independent outfits.

Bereavement Counselling

Aviva Digicare+ offers up to six video or telephone sessions with a qualified counsellor. You can use these sessions in the 12 month period following the death of a close family member. The counselling sessions are shared between you, your partner and your children aged between 16 and 18 years (up to age 21 if in full-time education).

Digital GP Consultation

This is an optional paid-for service, which provides up to three digital GP appointments per year. These appointments can be used by you, your partner and any eligible children up to their 18th birthday (age 21 if in full-time education).

The consultations are available via phone or video link. You can receive an appointment within 24 hours.

Fracture Cover

You can choose to add Fracture Cover onto your cover for an extra premium. This sees Aviva pay up to £6,000 if you suffer one of 18 specified fractures. You must have held the policy for 7 days before being able to claim.

You can make one claim per year; however, if you suffer multiple listed fractures at once, you can choose the one that offers the highest pay out.

Aviva excludes fractures sustained during:

• Mountain biking / BMX
• Boxing
• Cage fighting
• Martial arts
• Rugby / Gaelic football
• Horse-riding
• Motorcycle sports.

Aviva Life Insurance Global Treatment

Aviva’s Global Treatment is another optional add-on that costs an extra premium.

If you or your child develop a serious medical condition, Global Treatment works with Best Doctors to find world-renowned medical experts to offer you treatment.

You get a second medical opinion from a specialist doctor or surgeon, who’ll review your diagnosis and suggest treatment options. They’ll then arrange treatment overseas.

Aviva will pay up to £1 million per year for overseas medical treatment, and up to £2 million during the term of the policy. This is to cover treatment but also your travel and accommodation, including accommodation for you as a parent if your child is ill.

Extra Care Cover

Another optional add-on is Aviva’s Extra Care Cover, which also costs an additional premium. It’s only available for Life Insurance with Critical Illness Cover.

Adding this option means Aviva pays an additional £50,000 on top of your Critical Illness claim for a selection of severe, permanent conditions.

If you’re under 55, Aviva will pay out if you develop a condition that meets its definition of illnesses. Certain conditions are covered, including:

• Dementia
• Kidney / liver failure
• Parkinson’s disease
• Motor neurone disease
• Respiratory failure.

Activities Of Daily Living

Under the Extra Care Cover, Aviva will also pay out the additional £50,000 if you’re unable to do at least three activities of daily living. This will be paid regardless of your age, providing you’re left completely and permanently unable to do at least three of the below:

• Washing yourself
• Dressing yourself
• Feeding yourself pre-prepared food unaided
• Being able to control bowel or bladder functions without protective undergarments or surgical appliances
• Moving from one room to another on a level surface
• Being able to get on and off the toilet, in and out of bed to a chair or wheelchair, and back again.

Funeral Benefit

Aviva will advance up to £11,000 of your life insurance claim to cover funeral expenses or probate application fees. This can be paid to your family if your overall claim is tied up in probate or other legal delays.

How Does Aviva Life Insurance Compare?

We’ve highlighted some of the key features of Aviva’s Life Insurance below to help you compare it against other UK providers.

Excellent Free Additional Benefits

Aviva DigiCare+ is a great suite of additional benefits offering many free services as standard. This includes a number of services many other insurers don’t typically offer with Life Insurance. For example, physiotherapy, or mental health support.

Digital GP Appointments An Optional Extra

Several Life Insurance providers don’t tend to offer a digital GP service, either. While Aviva does, it’s not included in your policy for free. You must pay extra on top to access remote GP appointments. Even then, there’s a maximum of three appointments per year.

Many other Life Insurance providers which offer a remote GP service include it for free and don’t limit access to appointments.

Enhance Your Policy With Paid Extras

Aviva offers the opportunity to include paid extras such as Fracture Cover, which is rare on Life Insurance policies. You can also choose to pay extra for Global Treatment or Extra Care Cover, if preferred.

19 ABI+ Definitions for Critical Illness Cover

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) provides model definitions of critical conditions which insurers must follow.

However, these are only minimum standards. Many insurers go above and beyond for some conditions, offering what’s known as an ABI+ definition. That’s a definition better than that the ABI requires.

Aviva’s Critical Illness Cover uses 19 ABI+ definitions, one of the highest in the market.

£11,000 Funeral Benefit

If probate or other legal matters tie up your Life Insurance claim, Aviva will advance up to £11,000 of your benefit to cover funeral costs and probate application fees. £11,000 is the highest figure any insurer offers.

Online Trusts

Aviva offers an online trust service. This lets you write your Life Insurance into trust to protect the benefit from inheritance tax.

Free Child Cover With Critical Illness Cover

Aviva includes Children’s Critical Illness Cover free with adult Critical Illness Insurance. With some insurers, it’s an optional extra for an additional premium on top of what you pay to add adult cover.

Standard Child Cover Only For Children Aged 30 Days+

However, while Aviva’s children’s cover is free, it only covers children from 30 days old as standard. There are insurers which include cover for children from birth free as standard.

With Aviva, to cover children from birth (and to extend the death benefit to stillbirth from the 24th week of pregnancy), you must pay extra to upgrade the child cover.

Total Permanent Disability Cover Not Standard

As you may be aware, Total Permanent Disability cover is part of Critical Illness Insurance. It pays out if you become completely and irreversibly disabled through illness or injury that you can’t ever work again.

It’s an optional add-on to Aviva’s Critical Illness Cover for an extra premium. As such, it’s not one of the critical illnesses the policy covers as standard. However, some Life and Critical Illness Insurance providers incorporate Total Permanent Disability into their cover as standard.

How Much Does Aviva Life Insurance Cost?

To give you an idea of how much you can expect to pay for an Aviva Life Insurance policy, we’ve provided example premiums based on varying ages, with and without Critical Illness cover below.

To calculate these quotes we have assumed that the individual looking for cover wants £250,000 of cover, and:

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

Life Insurance Only

Life Insurance With Critical Illness Cover

Get Aviva Life Insurance Quotes & Expert Advice

With a vast number of options and different providers, getting the best Life Insurance deal can be tricky.

In addition to Aviva, there are a whole host of insurers to consider when narrowing down your options. For more information, you can read our comprehensive guide to the UK’s top Life Insurance plans.

We also have our online quote tool if you know what you want, and wish to apply directly. This will show you Life Insurance quotes for the leading UK providers. If at this point you need advice, please don’t hesitate to give us a call on 02084327333.

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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.