Exploring the Features and Benefits of Barclays’ Life Insurance Products

Barclays Life Insurance product offerings include:

• Life Term
• Mortgage Life Insurance
• Over 50s Life Insurance

Barclays Life also provides critical illness (as underwritten by Legal & General) for mortgage holders.

Why Go with Barclays?

Here are some reasons to go with Barclays:

• More optional benefits. Barclays’ Life Term and Mortgage Life Insurance products provide more optional benefits to provide the Person Insured with more comprehensive life protection. A number of these options are designed so that they may or may not have the same term as the original cover, allowing one more freedom to pick and choose the options (as well as the length of cover for a specific benefit).
• Availability of family decreasing term. This decreasing term cover ensures that one’s young family has the income they need in the event of the Person Insured’s death. Because the annual income to be provided decreases every year, premiums are low and are very affordable for young families.
• Guaranteed acceptance. Over 50s Life Cover is offered on a guaranteed acceptance basis. No need to undergo medical exams.

Quick Facts

Plan Details

Types of cover. Life cover has three types, depending on the need of the Person Insured:

• Level term cover. The cover remains constant throughout the life of the policy. Terminal illness is only payable up to the year before the policy ends.
• Decreasing term cover. Mainly to cover repayment mortgage loans, the sum insured decreases yearly in the same way that the mortgage loan is decreased.
• Family decreasing term cover. This is a special type of decreasing cover which is designed to pay back the lost income (caused by the death of the breadwinner) to the family for a specified number of years. The decrease over the term of the policy is dependent on how much annual income the Person Insured wants to cover and how many years the annual income will be provided.

Payment of Benefit. The policy pays out the sum insured (depending on the type of cover) for the death, terminal illness or critical illness of the Person Insured. Once the sum insured is paid, the cover stops and there will be no further payments on the policy. For mortgage life cover, the policy is guaranteed to cover the outstanding loan, subject to terms and conditions.

Joint cover. Level term and decreasing term can be taken on a joint life first death basis.

Additional Benefits/Options

Terminal illness. This is paid out when the Person Insured is diagnosed as having a terminal illness. This means that the Person Insured is not expected to survive for more than one year due to the advanced stage or incurability of his illness. Once this benefit is paid, the policy will cease to be effective and no further claims can be made on the policy.

Critical Illness Cover. For mortgage life cover, this provides another instance by which the Sum Insured will be paid out. This pays out the sum insured when the Person Insured is diagnosed of a covered critical illness.

Other details:

• Covered critical illnesses include:
• Alzheimer’s disease
• Aorta graft surgery
• Aplastic anaemia
• Bacterial meningitis
• Benign brain tumour
• Blindness
• Cancer
• Cardiomyopathy
• Coma
• Coronary artery bypass grafts
• Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
• Deafness
• Dementia
• Encephalitis
• Heart attack
• Heart valve replacement or repair
• HIV infection
• Kidney failure
• Liver failure
• Loss of hand or foot
• Loss of speech
• Major organ transplant
• Motor neurone disease
• Multiple sclerosis
• Multiple system atrophy
• Open heart surgery
• Paralysis of a limb
• Parkinson’s disease
• Primary pulmonary hypertension
• Progressive supranuclear palsy
• Removal of an eyeball
• Respiratory failure
• Stroke
• Systemic lupus erythematosus
• Third-degree burns
• Total and permanent disability
• Traumatic head injury

Additional benefits:

• Children’s Critical illness Cover. This is a free benefit available for the children (natural, stepchildren, or legally adopted) of the Person Insured. These children should be aged 30 days to 18 (or 21 if they are in full time education). This cover pays out 50% of the sum insured, subject to a maximum of £25,000.
• Ductal carcinoma in situ of the breast or low grade prostate cancer. This cover pays out 25% of the sum insured, subject to a maximum of £25,000.

Payment for claims on the above additional benefits will not affect the main benefit.

Protection Promise (Underwriting Cover). Free life cover given when the life insurance application is being evaluated. During the period the Protection Promise is effective, it will pay the Sum Insured upon the death or terminal illness of the Life Insured.

Other details:

• Maximum cover is the smaller of:
  • £1,000,000
  • The sum insured of the life insurance plan being applied for
• The maximum limit is for all applications with the company.
• The period of coverage is until:
  • 90 days from the date the application is received by Barclays
  • 10 days after Barclays approves the application
  • The day that the application is postponed or declined
  • Anytime it is withdrawn by Barclays
  • For mortgage covers, the cover will start when there is an exchange of contract and a date of completion is submitted to Barclays. The cover will end on the date of completion, 90 days from the date the protection promise was effective or the date the mortgage cover begins, whichever is earlier.
• There will be no payouts for death due to a pre-existing medical condition or due to suicide.
• The cover will be rendered invalid if it can be shown that the Person Insured did not provide accurate and complete information, especially with regards to his medical condition.

Life change benefit (Guaranteed Insurability Option). This allows the Person Insured to increase the Sum Insured by up to 100%, following a specific life event. This increase can be applied for without the need to show further medical proof.

Other details:

• The life changes include:
  • Marriage or entry into a civil partnership
  • Divorce or dissolution of the civil partnership
  • Parenthood, by natural birth or adoption
  • Purchase of the first or second home
  • Moving into the home or renovating it
  • Entry of the Person Insured’s child to higher education
  • Increase in salary due to a promotion or change of employer (salary increase must be 20% or more)
• The maximum increase allowed is the lower of
  • £200,000
  • 100% of the original Sum Insured
• The option can only be exercised until the Person Insured is aged 55 years old.
• Available for level term and decreasing term plans, where the length of the policy does not have to be the same as that of the original policy
• Available for single or joint life covers
• The increased cover is only up to the Person Insured’s 70^th birthday.
• The Person Insured has to apply for the increase not more than 90 days after the day the life change occurred.
• The increase in cover will also mean an increase in premiums, with the current cover based on the current premium rates at the Person Insured’s current age.
• This option is only applicable if the policy has been in force for at least 6 months.

Replacement benefit. This is for joint life policies. This allows the surviving Person Insured to get a replacement life policy when the other life covered dies or is terminally ill and the policy pays out for this claim. The policy will be issued without the need to submit additional medical evidence.

Other details:

• This benefit is only applicable for those younger than age 55.
• The maximum Sum Insured for the replacement policy is the lower of:
  • £50,000
  • The original Sum Insured
• This benefit is only applicable if the policy has been in force for at least 6 months.
• The term of the policy is equivalent to the term of the original policy, but it can be designed to end earlier.
• The premiums applied to the replacement policy will be based on the current rates at the surviving life’s current age (at the time the policy is taken out).
• The life change, replacement or separation benefit cannot be included in the replacement policy.
• The replacement policy will not be issued if the surviving Person Insured is eligible for a terminal illness claim.

Separation benefit. This is for joint life policies. When the two lives covered separate or divorce, the existing policy will be replaced with two separate life plans (with the same Sum Insured), where the policies will not be subject to underwriting. This is mainly for mortgage life cover taken on a joint life basis.

Other details:

• This benefit is only applicable for those younger than age 55, for plans on a level or decreasing cover basis.
• The replacement policies will end on the Persons Insured’s 70^th birthday.
• The separation benefit must be taken out not more than 90 days from the date the two lives separate.
• The maximum Sum Insured for the replacement policy is the lower of:
  • £50,000
  • The original Sum Insured
• This benefit is only applicable if the policy has been in force for at least 6 months.
• The term of the policy is equivalent to the term of the original policy, but it can be designed to end earlier.
• The life change benefit cannot be included in the replacement policy.
• The replacement policy will not be issued if the person insured is eligible for a terminal illness claim.

Repayment guarantee. This is for mortgage life cover. This benefit guarantees that the outstanding loan amount of the mortgage will be paid off on the death of the Person Insured.

Other details:

This benefit applies only when:

• The policy does not end before the mortgage
• The annual rate of interest on the loan at the time that the mortgage cover is taken out is lower than 10%.
• If the outstanding loan is higher than the guaranteed cash sum, it is only because interests charged on the mortgage is higher than the rate used in the mortgage cover’s table of benefits
• The Sum Insured of the mortgage cover at the time the policy started is at least the size of the mortgage

How to Make a Claim

Death claims. When making a death claim, the beneficiary will usually need to prepare:

• The completed claims form
• Proof of the event for which a benefit is payable (i.e. Death certificate for a Death Claim, police report for death due to accident, etc.)
• Birth certificate of the Person Insured (to show date of birth)
• Proof that the claimant is the legal beneficiary (i.e. marriage certificate, will, he is the named owner of the policy, etc.
• Other documents that Barclays may require to help them assess the claim

Terminal illness claims. When making a death claim, the beneficiary will usually need to prepare:

• The completed claims form
• Medical evidence (i.e. tests and medical certificates)
• Written consent that allows Barclays to receive medical test results
• Written consent providing Barclays access to the medical records of the Person Insured
• Other documents that Barclays may require to help them assess the claim

Medical certificates must also be provided by doctors who are practicing in the UK or in countries belong to the European Union, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Andorra, The Channel Islands, The Faroe Islands, Gibraltar, The Isle of Man, Liechtenstein Norway, Monaco, San Marino, Switzerland or Vatican City.

The content of this article is provided for informational purposes only and is not created to be a financial advice. Contact Barclays directly for details about their offerings.
Updated on: 09.06.2013

To secure your family's future, fill in the form on the right and get your term life insurance quote now.