Scottish Provident and Bright Grey are changing branding to Royal London

bright grey logo
Bright Grey has been a sub-brand of Royal London for some time, and is now being fully rebranded under the parent brand.

Opinion: Bright Grey has been a pretty good protection provider, historically with competitive rates for life insurance, Critical illness cover, and income protection. Also was an early provider of “relevant life”  life cover for small businesses and sole traders, as well as  mainstreambusiness protection.

 

 

scottish provident logo

Likewise, Scottish Provident has been part of the Royal London group for some years now, and that brand is also going with effect from today, December 1st 2015, and replaced by Royal London’s.

Opinion: Scot Prov was a popular provider of protection, and years ago even provided some personal pension contracts. It’s most famous product was probably its “Pegasus” Whole of Life cover, which sold well as its early premiums (always reviewable) were low. However, as many are now finding, the trouble with reviewable premium WOL policies is they start to go up at an alarming rate as you get older. I have seen many forced to ditch the policies in later life as the premiums become unaffordable. It pays to look at guaranteed rate WOL policies, if indeed WOL is what you really want (in my opinion its main use is within IHT and estate planning). A good talk with a good adviser often sorts out the best way to go when face with this situation.

royal london logo

Whole of Life insurance zz.zzz.zzz

OK some topics aren’t exactly exciting but this is supposed to be a financial blog after all.

Carrying on with the direct offer by post theme, Legal and General recently sent me an offer for whole of life insurance. The deal is that I am guaranteed to be accepted, but if I die from natural causes in the first two years it doesn’t pay. Also, if I lived to the age of 90, I don’t have to pay premiums thereafter but the cover remains in place.

Looking at the rates on offer, compared to standard rates I can obtain in the market, I see that as a healthy non-smoker, I can obtain more than double the cover with Legal and General themselves on the same type of plan for the same price. However, that route involves underwriting and a lengthy application form.

So whilst a plan like this is poor value for a healthy person, I guess it could well be attractive to somebody in less than good health, so long as they are not at death’s door.

And if you sign up you get £50 worth of M&S vouchers as a “birthday gift”. Yippee. Only it will take at least three months to arrive. 

So to re-cap, if you’re not in good health, want to insure your life, and fancy a socks and underwear shopping spree, you might want to sign up. But I recommend that you speak to an IFA first, as the simple route isn’t always the most economic.