What is life insurance?
Life insurance helps give your family financial protection should you pass away within the policy term. It lets you leave a lump sum behind – helping your loved ones maintain their living standards or pay mortgage costs.
In most cases, you can get life insurance even if you have medical conditions – you just need to tell us about them when we ask.
You can use it to cover one person (a single policy) or two people (a joint policy). It will only pay out once. So when we’ve paid a claim, the policy will end.
The benefits of our life insurance
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Claims you can count on
We paid out 99.3% of life insurance claims in 2023 Footnote [1]
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Aviva DigiCare+ app
This gives access to annual health checks, mental health counselling and nutritional support. See more about the app ^
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Quick and simple cover
Most customers get a quote and decision in just over 5 minutes
How does life insurance work?
Our cover is term life insurance and will pay out a sum of money if you die – or if you’re diagnosed with a terminal illness as we define it, and you’re not expected to live more than 12 months. Here are a few things to think about before choosing your cover.
And if you’re unfamiliar with the language of life insurance, look up any terms you don’t understand in our life insurance glossary.
Do you need life insurance?
Take the time to think about how much money your loved ones might need to keep their standard of living if you were to pass away. This might include costs such as bills, mortgage repayments, school fees and any other debts you might need to repay.
How long do I need cover for?
Think about how long your dependants will need your financial support.
Joint or separate life insurance policy?
If you and your partner would like combined cover, you can take out a joint policy. This pays out once and won’t provide cover for the second person after the first person passes away.
Another way would be to each take out a separate policy. So once we pay out for one person their policy will end – but the second person’s policy will continue.
Discover more in our article about choosing between joint and separate policies.
Learn about the ins, outs and in-betweens of our life insurance in our video.
Do you already have life insurance with us?
- View your policy on MyAviva
- Try the MyAviva app
- Make changes to your policy
- Make a claim
- Help and support
Why get life insurance?
Having life insurance is probably the most important thing you can do to help protect the ones you love. When you die, your policy can leave money for those you leave behind. This means:
- Fewer bills – help to pay off the debts they have left, such as a mortgage
- Peace of mind – help reduce your family's money worries at what can be a difficult time
- Provides some financial support to help your family carry on without you
How much cover will I need?
It’s worth totting up how much loved ones might need to pay off a mortgage or keep up repayments, settle any debts and cover general living costs. We have a tool to do just that.
Choosing your life cover
We offer two different types of life cover: decreasing cover and level cover.
Mortgage protection - decreasing cover
You might choose this type of cover to help your loved ones pay off a repayment mortgage or long-term loan if you pass away at any time during the policy term.
The cover lasts for a specific length of time, and your monthly premiums are fixed, unless you make any changes to your policy.
The value of what you’re paying off gradually decreases over time, and so does the cover. That’s why it usually costs less than level cover.
Read more about term life insurance.
Family protection - level cover
Choose a lump sum to leave behind for your loved ones, and select how long you want your cover to run for. You’ll then pay the same amount each month until your policy ends.
This lump sum can help to maintain the living standards of loved ones. It could be used to pay off an interest-only mortgage, or go towards general living costs and monthly outgoings, such as rent.
Protecting your cover from the effects of inflation
You can choose to make your cover amount increase in line with inflation. This means that your monthly payments may rise, and ensures the lump sum won’t be worth less in the future because of the rise in the cost of living.
If you choose this option, the maximum annual increase would be 15% to your premium and 10% to your cover Footnote [2].
Are you eligible for life insurance?
To apply for cover, you must:
- Be in the UK, with a legal right to live there. You must consider your main home as being in the UK. You must have no current intention of moving anywhere else permanently. The UK does not include the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man or Gibraltar
- Be aged between 18 and 77
- Answer all questions we ask you truthfully
In most cases, you won’t need a medical exam. But if we do ask you to have one, we’ll cover the costs.
What our life insurance covers
If you pass away during the term of your policy, we’ll pay out a cash lump sum – it’s as simple as that.
What’s covered
What’s not covered
Policy documents
See a full list of what’s covered in our policy wording.
Life Insurance Plan policy summary (PDF 104 KB)
How do I get a life insurance quote?
We only need a few details from you to get started. If you need help with your quote at any point, give us a call.
We need to know:
- whether you’d like family or mortgage protection
- how much cover you need
- how long you need it for
- whether it’s for you or someone else
- if you want to add critical illness cover
- your personal information such as your name, email address and date of birth
- if you smoke
Or call us free
0800 068 5549
Monday to Friday 8:00am - 6:00pm
Weekends and bank holidays: Closed
Calls may be monitored or recorded. Calls to 0800 numbers from UK landlines and mobiles are free. Our opening hours may be different depending on which team you need to speak to.
Aviva DigiCare+
When you take out a new life insurance policy, you can access health and wellbeing services through the Aviva DigiCare+ smartphone app, provided by Square Health – and it won’t cost you extra. Once your life insurance policy with us is active, you can download the app and register your details. Mobile data charges may apply.
You can then use it to connect you with clinicians, nutritionists, therapists and more – which means taking positive steps towards a healthier lifestyle can be as easy as picking up your phone.
- Annual health check
- Nutrition support
- Mental health support
- Second medical opinion
- Bupa Anytime HealthLine
- Bereavement support
So the tools you need to help you eat better, feel better and keep well are always on hand.
Please be aware that the benefits of the app don’t form part of your cover, and they could change or be removed, in the future. ^This is a non-contractual benefit Aviva can withdraw at any time. Terms and conditions and the privacy policy for the Aviva DigiCare+ can be found within the app. Of course, the main reason for taking out a policy with us is financial protection, you shouldn’t take out a policy for Aviva DigiCare+ alone.
Life insurance FAQs
How do I tell you about a death?
Can I cancel my life insurance at any time?
How long will it take to get a payout on a claim?
Does your life insurance policy cover terminal illness?
What's the difference between life insurance and over 50 life insurance?
Why choose us for life insurance?
We're proud our cover's 5 Star Rated by trusted industry expert Defaqto.
Looking for more cover?
We have a range of options to help you protect your family’s future.
Critical illness cover
Over 50 life insurance
Free Parent Life Cover
Take care of your loved ones with an Aviva Trust
Our trusts give your more control over who your money goes to once you’re gone and will usually be exempt from Inheritance Tax Footnote [3].
Life insurance articles and resources
Get insight and useful info on protecting you and your family.
