Royal London Life Insurance Review

Royal London Life Insurance Review

You will likely have seen advertisements for big mainstream insurers such as Vitality and Aviva when going about your day to day life. When looking for life cover, it makes sense that your first instinct might be to choose one of these well known brands. Royal London may not be as widely known as certain other mainstream insurance companies but they are one of the UK’s top insurance providers. 

Royal London provides insurance cover and financial services to people across the UK and has been doing so since 1861. They are the largest mutual life, investment and pensions company currently operating in the UK as of 2019. 

They are well known for helping to cover people with pre-existing medical conditions, with diabetes being a specialist area for them. They have even developed a specific type of cover for diabetics, to help people who may otherwise be declined cover or get charged ridiculous prices elsewhere. 

SUMMARY: In this independent review of Royal London life insurance, our aim is to give you all the relevant details you need about what Royal London do, how their life insurance policies work and potential benefits of placing your cover with them.  This can help you decide whether Royal London seems the best fit to protect your loved ones, or if you might be better looking to another provider for your insurance needs. 

About Royal London  

Royal London was established as a Friendly Society (formerly known as burial clubs), by Joseph Degge and Henry Ridge in February 1861. These societies were intended to help people fund a proper burial if they passed away, for a small cost per week. At this time, they were known as the Royal London Life Insurance and Benefit Society.  

The company expanded over the following years and made the decision to convert to a Mutual Society in 1908. This means they have no shareholders and so profits are continuously reinvested in the business, to help provide better quality products and services to their customers. 

Royal London has continued to grow in recent years, acquiring many other businesses including United Assurance Group in 2000 and Scottish Life in 2001. They have also launched more specialist protection and policies, being particularly well rated for life insurance for diabetics (a group that may otherwise struggle to find acceptable cover at a fair price). 

The main areas of business for Royal London are: 

• Life insurance  
• Critical illness cover
• Income protection insurance 
• Pensions 
• Retirement planning 

About Royal London life insurance

Royal London has been providing insurance products, investments, and pensions to people in the UK for over 150 years. Life insurance is one of their main products, with thousands of UK residents choosing to trust Royal London with protecting their homes and families. 

Here are some of the key features of Royal London life insurance policies: 

For more general information about life insurance, you can read our ‘MPO Life Insurance Guide’.

Royal London diabetes life insurance 

If you have diabetes, you may have found it difficult to get life insurance cover in the past or have been offered it at sky high prices. This is an incredibly frustrating reality, especially considering it is estimated there are over 4.8 million people living with diabetes in the UK.* 

Royal London spotted this gap in the insurance market and got to work on a solution, developing their specialist life cover for diabetics. Their team worked hard to make sure people with well managed diabetes can find the life cover they need at a fair price. 

This specialist cover has benefits such as: 

• More easily accessible for diabetics than standard life insurance policies 
• Cover can still be offered to applicants with high HbA1c readings 
• If you provide Royal London with an annual HbA1c reading, you may be able to reduce your premiums by up to 40% if your condition is improving 
• Your premiums will not increase from the start of cover 
• Quicker application process with less medical evidence required 

Learn more about pre-existing conditions life insurance and how you can save on life insurance when you have medical conditions.

Businesses bought by Royal London  

With Royal London having expanded massively since it was founded, there are many insurance and financial businesses that have been bought out and rebranded as Royal London.  

If you have bought a life insurance policy with one of these companies, you may now be covered under the Royal London group and will need to contact them regarding your policy.

Note: Even if you took out a policy many years ago, Royal London should be able to trace your policy details if the cover is still in place. The only exception to this is if you have claimed on your policy previously (e.g. critical illness claim), as claim records are only held for 6 years.

Royal London life insurance phone number  

If you wish to discuss a new or existing life insurance policy with Royal London, there are several ways to get in touch.  

For general enquiries you can fill in an online form, send a letter to one of the addresses listed here. Or call via one of the numbers listed below. 

Royal London life insurance contact number (general advice and customer service): 

Tel. 0345 602 1885 

Opening hours: Monday to Friday – 8am-6pm (excluding bank holidays) 

Royal London life insurance contact number for existing customers:  

If you need to change your policy details (due to a name change for example), you can do this online via the website or by calling one of the following numbers: 

For life insurance or over 50s policies bought directly with Royal London: Tel. 0345 050 2020 

For life insurance or over 50s policies bought directly with the Post Office: Tel. 0345 266 1484 

For policies bought with Royal London before 2004, Royal Liver, United Friendly or Refuge Assurance: Tel. 0345 050 2020 

For policies with Bright Grey or with Royal London through a financial advisor: Tel. 0345 6094 500 

For policies bought with Cooperative Insurance Services (CIS): Tel. 0345 605 7777 

For policies bought with Royal London Retail (formerly Santander/Abbey National): Tel. 0345 741 3002 

Royal London life insurance contact number for new customers:

You can get a quote for a new policy via the Royal London website directly but if someone else is paying for the policy on your behalf you will need to call: 

Tel. 0800 032 7781 

Opening hours: Monday to Friday – 8am-6pm (excluding bank holidays)

Royal London critical illness cover 

Another popular policy offered by Royal London is critical illness cover, which can be bought on its own or added to your life insurance policy. Royal London critical illness cover can be policy worth considering, as it pays out a lump sum if you were to be diagnosed one of 73 serious illnesses. 

Here are some of the main features of Royal London critical illness insurance: 

Learn more in our ‘Critical Illness Insurance Review’. We also have guides about how critical illness insurance works and how critical illness claims work for more information on this topic.

Royal London life insurance claims 

It is an extremely difficult time when a loved one passes away and insurers understand this, doing their best to support you through the process of a bereavement claim. It is not always easy to know how to start the process of a life insurance claim, so we have gathered together some information that should be helpful 

Below we have some details that may be of use to you if you need to claim on a Royal London life insurance policy.

How to make a Royal London life insurance claim 

There are certain details the Royal London life insurance team will need to process your claim. It is a good idea to make sure you have access to this information before contacting them. They will need to know: 

• The deceased’s name, date of birth and last known address 
• Their policy or plan number (if possible) 
• The death certificate (as the certificate number may be required) 
• The date they passed away 
• The name of the executor of the will (if there is one in place) 

They may also need to see: 

• A birth or marriage certificate 
• Any evidence of a name change (if applicable) 
• Evidence of your mortgage amount if relevant to the claim (decreasing cover) 
• Medical evidence to support the claim (if claiming terminal illness benefit) 

What happens next with your claim 

• If you have filled in the online notification of death form, you should be contacted within 5 working days via post or email 
• You will be sent a claim form to fill in and send back along with any requested documents 
• It is important to note you will need to continue paying the policy premiums until your claim has been approved to keep the policy active 
• Once the claim has been approved and Royal London has received all the relevant paperwork, you should receive the funds in 3-5 working days by BACS bank transfer 

Royal London life insurance claims contact details

If you have bought your life insurance policy or over 50s cover through Royal London directly, you can get in touch over the phone here: 

Tel. 0345 266 5400 

Opening Hours: Monday to Friday – 8am-7pm / Saturday – 9am-5pm / Sunday 10am-4pm 

You can also contact Royal London to start your claim by post: 

Customer Services 
Royal London House 
Alderley Park 
Congleton Road 
Nether Alderley 
Macclesfield 
SK10 4EL 

Royal London life insurance claims statistics 2021

Here are the most relevant statistics for Royal London insurance claims paid out in 2021. Royal London paid out a record £632million in protection claims with more than 84,000 claims. 

• Total paid out: over £174million (for life insurance and terminal illness benefit) 
• Customers paid out: over 2,000 
• Percentage of claims paid: 99.5% 
• Average pay out: £84,000 

Royal London life insurance trust 

With Royal London life insurance policies, you have the option of writing your policy into trust at no additional cost. You can do this with a new or existing policy and there can be great benefits to writing your policy into trust. 

The main benefits of a Royal London life insurance trust 

• Can be a cost effective alternative to a Will if not in place (usually free) 
• Can specify beneficiaries for your policy and trustees to carry out your wishes 
• Life insurance claim will pay out faster (due to avoidance of going through probate) 
• Can avoid or reduce Inheritance Tax (40%) 

Types of Royal London life insurance trust deed: 

• Royal London Split Trust (for single and joint policies): available as a discretionary trust or a bare trust 
• Royal London Gift Trust (for single and joint policies): available as a discretionary trust or a bare trust 
• Royal London Business Trust: only available as a discretionary trust 
• Royal London Relevant Life Policy (RLP) Trust: only available as a discretionary trust 

How to cancel Royal London life insurance 

People often believe that once a life insurance policy is in place, they cannot change or cancel their cover. Believe it or not, it can be simple to review your cover and even cancel your policy if needed. 

There are many reasons you may choose to cancel your life insurance policy, either because you no longer need it, are replacing it with a new policy or another reason entirely. 

With Royal London policies there are several ways you can cancel: 

• Cancelling your direct debit with your bank or building society 
• Calling Royal London directly at 0345 600 7788. 
• Writing a letter addressed to: 

Royal London House 

Alderley Park 

Congleton Road 

Nether Alderley 

Macclesfield 

SK10 4EL 

There is a 30 day period from when you receive your policy welcome pack where you are able to cancel and your premiums will be refunded. If you cancel after this 30 day period, your cover will cease but the premiums paid will be lost.  

Note: You cannot cancel your life insurance policy and keep your serious illness benefit. You can however cancel your serious illness benefit or any other additional cover and keep your life cover in place, if you need to reduce costs. 

Learn more about how to cancel your life insurance policy. Remember it is also possible to review and change your policy, to save money without having to cancel your cover completely.

Royal London life insurance free benefits 

Royal London offers several great benefits to its life insurance customers, free of charge.  

Some of these benefits include: 

• Terminal Illness Benefit is included with Royal London Direct and Advised Life Insurance policies. This will payout if you were to be diagnosed with a condition with a life expectancy of 12 months or less. 
• Access to HelpingHand support services is included with life insurance and critical illness cover policies 
• Option to increase cover without additional medical evidence is available in some circumstances 
• Dual life cover is available with Royal London (not available with all providers), and works similarly to joint cover except cover does not cease if one partner claims and each partner can have varying levels of cover. This is not available with every policy type though. 
• Underwrite Later is an option included with Personal Menu Life Cover and Whole of Life Cover. This can provide 6 months of cover from the moment your application is submitted (during the underwriting process), without automatically excluding factors like pre-existing conditions or dangerous hobbies. 

Royal London life insurance optional benefits

There are also additional benefits that can be added to Royal London life insurance policies at an extra cost: 

• Personal Menu Plan allows you to mix and match different types of cover into one policy and one monthly payment e.g. life insurance plus income protection insurance (the additional cover will add to the cost, but you will only have one direct debit rather than one for each cover type) 
• Serious Illness Benefit provides up to £350,000 cover if you or your child(ren) are diagnosed with one of six serious conditions (cancer, heart attack, stroke, multiple sclerosis, dementia or benign brain tumour). Similar to critical illness cover but illnesses are defined differently and pay outs can differ too. 
• Children’s critical illness cover whether standard or advanced can be added to a critical illness policy for an extra cost 
• Waiver of Premium will pay your monthly premiums if you cannot work due to illness or injury 
• Critical Illness Cover will provide you with a tax-free lump sum if diagnosed with a serious illness during the policy term. Royal London covers 46 conditions (100% payment) and 27 conditions (50% payment). 
• Income Protection Insurance can be added as an additional policy and is used to replace your income if unable to work due to illness of injury. Covers up to 65% of the first £15,000 of your pre-tax income and up to 55% of the remainder up to £250,000 per annum 

How to buy Royal London life insurance

There are several possible ways to take out a new Royal London life insurance policy to protect your home and family. You can:

• Speak to Royal London directly to apply
• Apply via an insurance specialist for extra support and guidance through your application. 

With something as important as protecting your loved ones, it can be a good idea to get qualified advice from someone who knows what they are talking about. That way you can be sure you are choosing the right cover and provider for your needs.  

You can also read more about buying life insurance and other topics in more of our MPO life insurance guides like:

• 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…

Royal London life insurance reviews 

Royal London life insurance reviews can be viewed on Feefo where you will see independent customer reviews from new and existing customers.  

Royal London is a recipient of a Feefo Platinum Trusted Service Award for 2022, indicating excellent customer service. 

Currently Royal London is rated 4.6 out of 5.0 stars on Feefo, with over 6,000 reviews. You can view these reviews or add your own on the Royal London Feefo page.

Royal London was also awarded:

• Best Protection Provider 2022 by Money Marketing
• Best Insurer for Protecting Hard to Cover Clients 2022 by Protection Guru

Resources

Royal London – Our 2021 claims experience

Finder.com – Life insurance statistics

Statista – Life insurance industry in the UK: Statistics & Facts