This page contains a handy summary of AIG Life insurance all in one place
AIG Life Insurance Review
The American International Group or ‘AIG’ is a huge global company, providing life insurance services to protect families and businesses across over 70 countries worldwide.
Their UK life insurance branch AIG Life Limited, is one of the UK’s largest insurance providers with around 8 million customers currently. They provide life insurance, critical illness cover and more, being particularly well known for business life insurance.
In this independent review, we’re talking about who AIG are, the insurance products they offer and possible benefits to taking out your cover with them.
It is important to choose your life insurance provider carefully, as you are trusting them with providing yourself and your family with financial security and peace of mind.
AIG could be the perfect fit for you, or they may not be. The aim of this review is to help you figure this out. It is good to remember that there are many other great insurers to choose from if they seem a better option for the cover you need.
Why choose AIG life insurance?
AIG is a massive name in the UK insurance industry, even though they have only been operating in the UK within the last 70 years. This is impressive, as there are many other UK insurers with hundreds of years’ worth of experience and customer loyalty.
AIG have a variety of policies to choose from, including standard life insurance, over 50s cover and group life insurance. Their group life insurance is a policy type not many other insurers offer, with most policies limited to single or joint (2 lives) cover.
Group life insurance allows business owners to provide an entire group of their employees with life insurance cover. You can also provide your employees with group critical illness cover and group income protection if you wish to.
If you are a business owner, you may want to offer these policies as an added incentive to help keep employees and attract new ones. You can also take out relevant life insurance for yourself or key staff members through your business, which could cover you for up to 35 times your annual salary!
Additionally, AIG provides their customers with extra benefits such as Smart Health, an app which gives you convenient access to online GP services 24/7 365 days a year. You can use this for online doctor consultations, personalised fitness and nutrition plans and more. You can even let your spouse, partner or children use some of these services as well.
About AIG
AIG stands for American International Group, the parent company for the UK’s AIG Life Limited Insurance company. The roots of the company span across multiple countries, and in fact did not even begin in America.
Cornelius Vander Starr founded the company American Asiatic Underwriters in Shanghai, China, which eventually expanded and developed into AIG as we know it today. Their first American office opened in 1926, but they didn’t move to the UK insurance market until 1953. They first established themselves across countries such as Cuba (1937), Japan and Germany (1946) and Lebanon (1951).
They have also bought out other insurance companies including Sun America (1999), American General Corporation (2001), Ageas Protect (2014) and more, with their latest purchase being Validus Holdings (2018).
Main areas of business for AIG Life Limited (UK) include:
- Life insurance
- Critical illness cover
- Income protection insurance
- Business protection
- Over 50s life insurance
- Group cover (life, critical illness and income protection)
About AIG life insurance UK
AIG are one of the biggest insurance providers in the UK, helping to protect thousands of people’s homes, businesses, and families.
Deciding on which insurance provider is right for you is an important decision and can take some time. Our aim is to help you work our whether AIG seems like your best choice, by outlining some key facts and features of their insurance products.
Here are the AIG life insurance key facts:
| Policy type | Life insurance |
| Premium options | Guaranteed premiums (the amount you pay each month will stay the same for your whole policy) Reviewable premiums (the amount you pay each month can increase or decrease, depending on the policy you have chosen) |
| Cover options | AIG Level term life insurance (family protection, the amount of cover stays the same for the whole policy) AIG Decreasing term life insurance (mortgage protection, the amount of cover will decrease over the course of your policy as you pay off your mortgage) AIG Increasing life insurance (the amount you are covered for will increase each year, and the amount you pay each month will also be increased each year) AIG Guaranteed life insurance (also known as AIG guaranteed acceptance life insurance) AIG Life Insurance and Critical Illness Cover (combined policy) AIG Joint life insurance AIG Instant life insurance (guaranteed life insurance, no medical information required) AIG Life Start (a lower cost option to begin with but your monthly will increase by 3.5% each year) AIG Relevant life insurance (business) AIG Group life insurance (business life insurance to protect employees) AIG Over 50s life insurance AIG Whole of life insurance Family Income Benefit |
| Coverage type | Single life. Joint life (first death). Joint life (second death). Group life. |
| Terminal illness cover benefit | Is included with all AIG term life insurance policies and will pay out if you are diagnosed with an illness that has a life expectancy of 12 months or less |
| Waiver of Premium benefit | Can be included at an additional cost but you must be aged 54 or below when the policy is bought. This will pay your monthly policy payments for you, if you are unable to work for 26 weeks or longer due to illness or injury. |
| Indexation option (RPI) | You can choose to have the amount of cover (£s) you are insured for to increase every year. This can increase every year, by up to 5% of the amount you are insured for. |
| Age limits (minimum and maximum ages) | Minimum age 17 at policy start. Maximum age 86 at policy start. (cover must end before your 90th birthday, this applies to the oldest applicant if a joint policy) |
| Life insurance exclusions | Suicidal death within the first 12 months of the policy start date. (If an increase in the amount you are insured for (£s) was requested within 12 months of passing away due to suicide, this additional amount will not be paid) Terminal illness where the condition or illness you have doesn’t meet the criteria/rules set out in your policy documents. |
Find out more information about life insurance in our MPO Life Insurance Guide.
Contact AIG life insurance team
There can be times during the course of your policy where you might need to contact AIG. Things can come up and you may need to change some of your policy details, add or remove some cover or even just ask a question about your policy.
There are several ways you can contact AIG about your life insurance policy, which we have listed below. We know it can be time consuming to try and find the right phone number or contact details for what you need, so we have done this for you.
AIG life insurance phone number (advice and general enquiries)
Tel. 0345 600 6820
Opening hours: Monday to Thursday 8.30am-8pm / Friday 8.30am-5.30pm (Excluding Bank Holidays
AIG life insurance telephone number (existing customers)
For questions about how your policy works, or if you bought your policy through NatWest or Royal Bank of Scotland:
Tel. 0330 390 0510
Opening hours: Monday to Thursday 8.30am-8pm / Friday 8.30am-5.30pm (Excluding Bank Holidays
AIG life insurance UK phone number (incoming calls)
With a lot of phone scams around, it’s understandable to be wary of answering the phone to a number you don’t recognise.
If you have received calls from 01737 825000 or 01633745883, someone from AIG may have tried to call you about your policy.
Email AIG about life insurance
You can also request information about a new or existing policy via email by contacting:
Email: enquiries@aiglife.co.uk
Opening hours: Monday to Thursday 8.30am-8pm / Friday 8.30am-5.30pm (Excluding Bank Holidays
AIG life insurance address
If you want to write to AIG about your policy, you can send a letter to:
American International Group (UK) Limited
The AIG Building
58 Fenchurch Street
London
EC3M 4AB
AIG complaints contact details
If you are unhappy with the service you have received from AIG, you are entitled to complain. AIG have a process in place to try and resolve the complaints they get quickly and without causing you additional stress or hassle.
To submit a complaint:
Tel. 0345 600 6813
Email: complaints@aiglife.co.uk
Or write to:
AIG Life Limited,
PO Box 12010,
Harlow,
CM20 9LG
If you are still unhappy and wish to take your complaint further, you can contact the Financial Ombudsman Service at:
Tel. 0800 023 4567 or 0300 123 9123
Email: complaint.info@financialombudsman.org.uk
What is AIG group life insurance?
AIG offers an insurance product called group life insurance. Put simply, this is when a business owner could choose to protect their employees under one life insurance policy, that they pay for through the business.
Not all insurers will provide this type of policy that can cover more than 2 people. If you are a business owner looking to give current or new employees an attractive benefit, it could be worth looking what AIG have to offer.
The policies are flexible too, meaning you can take out as much or as little cover as you wish to, depending on budget. You can even cover your employees for up to 20 times their annual income.
AIG also give you the option of taking out group critical illness cover and group income protection insurance. Both policies can be useful to have in place, providing extra financial support to your employees if they were off work due to illness or injury.
AIG critical illness cover
Critical illness cover might be a policy you want to think about putting in place. Serious illnesses can happen unexpectedly, particularly as we get older. Critical illness cover will pay out a tax-free cash lump sum, if you are diagnosed with an illness covered in your policy.
Unlike other providers, AIG also have a product available called Key3 critical illness insurance. This is a simpler and lower cost version of critical illness cover, only paying out if you are diagnosed with one of the 3 most common reasons for critical illness claims (cancer, stroke or heart attack). This policy could be a good choice, if you want to protect yourself but your budget is more limited.
Some of the main features of AIG critical illness insurance are:
| Policy type | Critical illness insurance |
| Premium options | Guaranteed premiums (the amount you pay each month will stay the same for your whole policy) |
| Cover options | AIG level term critical illness cover (family protection, the amount of cover stays the same for the whole policy) AIG decreasing term critical illness cover (mortgage protection, the amount of cover will decrease over the course of your policy as you pay off your mortgage) AIG Increasing term critical illness cover (the amount you are covered for will increase each year, and the amount you pay each month will also be increased each year) CIC Start (a low cost alternative to full critical illness cover, the amount you pay each month will increase by 3.5% each year) Key3 critical illness cover (will only cover you for cancer stroke or heart attack.) |
| Coverage type | Single life. Joint life. Group life. |
| Illnesses covered by core plan option | 45 conditions covered overall AIG splits the conditions covered into 4 ‘groups’ depending on the type of condition. Group 1 conditions will equal a pay out of 100% of the amount (£s) you are covered for. Group 2 conditions will equal a pay out of 25% of the amount (£s) you are covered for or £25,000 (whichever is lowest). Key3 critical illness cover only will pay out for the 3 main reasons for critical illness claim (cancer, stroke or heart attack) Total permanent disability cover and waiver of premium can be added for an extra cost. |
| Illnesses covered by enhanced plan option | 50 conditions covered overall AIG splits the conditions covered into ‘groups’ depending on the type of condition. Group 1 conditions will equal a pay out of 100% of the amount (£s) you are covered for. Group 2 conditions will equal a pay out of 100% of the amount (£s) you are covered for or £35,000 (whichever is lowest). Pregnancy cover is also included which pays out £5,000 for pregnancy related conditions and complications. |
| Children’s Critical illness insurance core plan option | This covers the same condition groups as adult’s core cover plus child specific conditions (49 conditions). Group 1 conditions will pay out 50% of the amount you are covered for or £25,000 (whichever is lowest) Group 2 conditions will pay out 25% of the amount you are covered for or £25,000 (whichever is lowest) Also includes child life cover which pays out £5,000 if your child were to pass away. Also includes hospitalisation benefit of £100 paid out per night after the 7th night of your child being in hospital (up to a maximum of 30 nights). |
| Children’s Critical illness insurance enhanced plan option | 75 conditions covered overall Group 1 conditions will pay out 50% of the amount you are covered for or £50,000 (whichever is lowest) Group 2 conditions will pay out 25% of the amount you are covered for or £25,000 (whichever is lowest) Also includes child life cover which pays out £10,000 if your child were to pass away. Also includes hospitalisation benefit of £100 paid out per night after the 7th night of your child being in hospital (up to a maximum of 30 nights). Also includes birth defect cover which pays out £5,000 if you have a child born with a physical birth defect |
| Age limits (minimum and maximum ages) | Minimum age 17 at policy start. Maximum age 75 at policy start. |
| Critical illness insurance exclusions | You won’t receive a pay out for any conditions outside of what is covered by your policy or if you pass away within two weeks of being diagnosed. |
Find out more about about critical illness policies in our MPO Critical Illness Insurance Review.
You can also learn more about how to claim on your policy and how critical illness policies work in other MPO guides.
AIG life insurance claim
It isn’t nice to have to claim on life insurance, this being an added stress at an already hard time. Insurers know this and will try their best to make this process straightforward for you.
There are several reasons you might to claim, either for bereavement or claiming on your terminal illness benefit, if you have been diagnosed with a serious illness limiting your life expectancy to 12 months or less.
If you need to claim on an AIG life insurance policy, there are a few things it could be helpful to know before starting this process.
How to make an AIG life insurance claim
If you are claiming due to the death of a loved one, the first thing you will need to do is contact AIG to let them know the policyholder has passed away. You can do this over the phone, or via email depending on what is most convenient for you.
When claiming on an AIG life insurance policy, they will usually need the following information:
- The full name of the policyholder
- Their policy number (if you have it, it will usually be on policy documents or bank statements)
- Details of their trust (if they have one)
- Information from their death certificate (they can still begin a claim if you haven’t got this yet)
What happens next with your claim
- You may need to send over more supporting documents such as birth/death/marriage certificates, photo ID (passport or driving licenses) and a copy of a will, trust documents and probate documents.
- In some cases, they could need further medical information from a GP (if claiming on your policy’s terminal illness benefit)
- Once the claim has been submitted and you have sent through any documents requested, an AIG life insurance payout should usually be paid within 5 working days.
AIG life insurance claims contact details
To start a life insurance claim with AIG, there are several ways you can contact them:
Tel. 0345 600 6815
For overseas customers: 0044 1737 44 1815
Email: claimsteam@aiglife.co.uk
Opening hours: Monday to Thursday 8.30am-6pm / Friday 8.30am-5.30pm (Excluding Bank Holidays)
AIG life insurance claims statistics 2021
Here we have some statistics about AIG life insurance claims in 2021
- Total paid out: £306million (personal, business and group life)
- Customers paid out: 5,308
- Percentage of claims paid: 95%
- Most common reasons for claims: cancer (31%), respiratory conditions including covid-19 (24%), heart conditions (16%), covid-19 (13%)
AIG life insurance trust
If you have recently taken out an insurance policy, or even watched a TV show then you might have heard people referring to trusts or ‘trust funds’.
A trust is a way in which you can specify where an amount of money is going to, similar to a will. Many life insurance providers will give you the option of writing your policy into trust, so you can say exactly who you want to benefit from the policy pay out. The people who you state will benefit from your policy will be known as ‘beneficiaries’.
The main benefits of an AIG life insurance trust
- Can be a lower cost alternative to a will (usually free)
- Allows you to specify exactly who receives the money from your policy pay out (through AIG life insurance beneficiaries and trustees who make sure your wishes are fulfilled)
- Can avoid legal process like probate so beneficiaries (the people receiving the pay out from your policy) receive the money more quickly
- Can help you to avoid or reduce the Inheritance Tax your beneficiaries might have to pay (can be up to 40% of your money and assets)
Types of available AIG life insurance trust deed:
- AIG Bare Trust: a simple trust where you decide who benefits from your life insurance policy and what they are entitled to when you write the policy into trust – but you can’t change these details at a later point.
- AIG Discretionary Trust: this is a more flexible trust as you can change who benefits from your life insurance policy and how much they are entitled to at any time.
How to cancel an AIG life insurance policy
When you take out a life insurance policy, you are not tied into this for the rest of your life despite what the name might suggest. It is possible to review or even cancel your policy at any time.
There are many reasons you could choose to cancel your policy. These include switching to a provider offering better rates, changing the type of policy you have or even simply not being able to afford the amount of cover you have anymore.
To cancel your AIG life insurance policy, you have a couple of options for how to do this. You can:
- Cancel your bank payments or direct debit
- Get in touch with AIG directly (over the phone, by email or in the post)
If you cancel within 30 days of the policy start date, AIG will refund the premiums paid. The only exception to this is if they have paid out on your policy for any reason during those 30 days.
If you cancel your policy after this time, you won’t receive back any of the money you have already paid to AIG.
Find out more about cancelling your life insurance policy and how to review your insurance cover if you don’t want to cancel completely.
AIG life insurance benefits (included free)
There are several benefits you can get with an AIG life insurance policy, and below we have listed some that you can get – and without spending an extra penny!
- Terminal illness benefit is included at no extra cost with AIG life policies and will pay out if you are diagnosed with an illness resulting in a life expectancy of 12 months or less
- AIG Funeral Pledge will pay out £10,000 of the amount you are covered for in your policy towards funeral costs, even if the full claim is still being processed
- AIG Claims Support Fund is a discretionary fund which can pay out up to £300 towards supporting you with costs related to serious illnesses such as cancer
- Smart Health included with many AIG life policies gives you access 24/7 to video, online and telephone consultations with doctors, as well as nutrition and fitness services. This can be used by yourself, your spouse or partner and your children (up to the age of 21).
- Specialist bereavement helpline and children’s bereavement support via a partnership with the charity Winston’s Wish to support your loved ones if you were to pass away
- FREE probate helpline can help explain the probate process to your beneficiaries if they need to claim on your policy, to support them through any legal and financial questions (only accessible for group life insurance policies)
AIG life insurance optional benefits
AIG offer some more extra benefits with their policies, that you can add on for an extra cost:
- Waiver of premium can be added to a life or critical illness policy at an extra cost and this will pay the monthly costs of your policy for you, if you cannot work due to illness or injury for longer than 26 weeks.
- Critical illness cover can be added to your policy (or bought as a separate policy) and will pay out a tax-free cash lump sum if you are diagnosed with a serious illness covered by your policy. You can also add on enhanced cover or children’s critical illness cover, on top of the core cover.
How to buy AIG UK life insurance
If you haven’t bought life insurance before, it can seem a complicated or time-consuming process – particularly with so many different providers and policies to choose from.
If you have researched AIG and deciding they seem a good choice for your life insurance, there are a couple of ways you can take out cover. You can:
- Contact AIG’s life insurance team directly over the phone or email
- Speak to an independent insurance advisor
Speaking to an advisor can be a good option, if you’re not sure which policy or provider will work best for you. An insurance advisor can compare AIG life insurance quotes, as well as quotes from other providers, to make sure you are getting the cover you need for the fairest available price.
You can also find out more facts about buying life insurance in some of our other MPO guides. We have guides for topics including:
- How can I reduce my life insurance premiums?
- How much should I pay for life insurance?
- Should I review my cover?
- Do you need life insurance for a mortgage?
- How much life insurance do I need?
- And more…
AIG life insurance reviews UK
It can be sensible to look at independent reviews before choosing your life insurance provider, as it gives you an idea of how other customers have found their service and quality of products.
The UK’s main independent review site is Trust Pilot. AIG life insurance Trust Pilot reviews currently rate them as 3.0 out of 5.0 stars with 125 customer reviews, with 53% of their reviews being 5.0 out of 5.0 stars.
If you would like to read these reviews or add your own you can do so by viewing their TrustPilot page.
Resources
AIG – AIG Life pays more claims then ever before
Finder.com – Life insurance statistics
Statista – Life insurance industry in the UK: Statistics & Facts
