Life/Illness Insurance

[Spam_UK]

Hi Guys,

Sorry if this has been done before, but I'm trying to sort out life & illness insurance before I go away, tried Scottish Widows but they turned me down saying I'm too high risk as I'm going away in the next 6 months and that being aircrew didn't help either.

There's quite a few insurance companies out there and was wondering if people had advice or good/bad experiances with any in particular(obviously you cant go into full detail on the life insurance payout parts :})?

Cheers in advance :ok:

Spam

[niknak]

Don't bother searching yourself - it'll take you ages and you'll waste a lot of time, use a broker.
The nature of your job makes you extremely high risk and a very bad investment for insurance companies, so don't expect miracles or affordable cover, but it's worth a try.

[airborne_artist]

Spam - check yr PMs. I've sent you details of a very reliable guy who knows the military insurance issues backwards and has been dealing with this for thirty years.

[abbotyobs]

sorry, I followed the last post and the quote was terrible, it seems to be anything that has service in the name is a licence to for the company to raise the quote. (SHOULD BE THE OTHER WAY ROUND, of course such as the good deals for US personnel). I still have bad memories of Hertz special mod rate being 25% more expensive than the normal rate, a few years ago mind, may be better now.

For service life insurance I used Mike Spinak's RIP recommendation of standard life, it is expensive but you get 90% back of the extra aircrew premium by filling in a form at the end of each year, bit of a pain, and so at the end of this year I am swapping to tesco.com, who have by the far the best deal and offer no extra premiums for being a pilot.:O

Have fun

[taxydual]

This sort of thing grips me. Bloody Insurance Companies treating Servicemen as Assurance items (Insurance = may happen, Assurance = will happen) and making a hefty profit from them.

Surely, in this day and age, it's not beyond MoD's capabilities to provide what the private sector cannot provide. A sensible/affordable Armed Forces Life/Accident Policy with each member of HM Forces paying in.

Bugger, I mentioned sensible, affordable and MoD in the same paragraph.

I'll get my coat.

[Spam_UK]

TD,

The MoD do provide a life insurance policy that you buy in units, with each unit being worth £10k in the event of your death. However its only for your death, not injuries or illnesses, and its quite pricy.

Thanks to all for your advice, will have a few people to ring round tomorrow! :ok:

Spam

[r2_unit]

I'm probably missing something but a £12k initial payout and then a v.small monthly allowance for £3.50 per month of Dincome does not sound like a great deal??

[fin1012]

I have also been looking into this and worked my way through the Sterling offer a few weeks ago. I actually thought that at my age (mid 40's), circa 15 pounds a month for 100000 payout was not too bad - especially as I am already warned off for another ooa in a few months and given my branch/competencies can expect another 2 or 3 ooa (at least) before retirement. Given that there are only 170000ish of us in all 3 armed forces now, (of which presumably only a small fraction actually think they are going seriously enough into harms way to take this cover out) and the rate at which front line folk are getting killed, I would be surprised if they are making a fortune out of this. (I don't begrudge them a sensible profit - there has to be an incentive to do business)

I also have struggled to find other insurers that cover war risks to the same extent (or to any extent) and to be honest I was surprised by how low the pax+ payouts were - you have to buy a lot of units to get to the point where the payout is realistic to support the family you leave behind. If anyone can point me at better deals I'd love to hear from you.

Finally, I know this cover only pays out for death - I am somewhat naively hoping that in the event of being injured enough to have to leave then the compensation scheme will ease my transition back to civvy street.

[taxydual]

At the end of the day, it's my sincerest wish that none of you, going into harms way, have need of the Insurer's etc

I was a lucky one.

Keep safe.

[parabellum]

Niknak is on the money. Get a broker, a good one, make sure he is licenced to do business at Lloyd's or has a good connection that is. Lloyd's has a very active war market and syndicates are often more able to spread the risk than some of the smaller insurance companies, many of whom won't touch war risks at any price.
Unfortunately one has to remember that insurance is not a profession, it is an industry and as such is there to make money, period. To get lower premiums or better cover the MOD are going to have to subsidise and that seems unlikely.

[NP20]

Death in Service AVCs used to be quite a good deal. I paid about £8 per month through my pay, which guaranteed my wife '4 x my salary' if I died (she would have got 1 x salary w/o DiS-AVCs). However, I think that the new Services compensation scheme guarantees 3 x salary now (if you are on AFPS75) and that you can bump it up to 4 x salary for a small amount. Your PSF/UPO/Admin Office should have the gen.

Then again I've been out for a while now and things may have changed.

[Can't Hover]

I may be being a bit naive here but I think that the Service Life Insurance (SLI) is brilliant!!

I'm insured for £200,000 for approximately £20 per month.... amazingly cheap if you ask me. The only exclusions are suicide in the first year of the policy and death due to a terrorist CBRN attack if you have ceased to be a regular at time of death. Additionally you get a pay out if you are diagnosed with a terminal illness with less than 12 months to go.

Previously I had a quote for £180k cover which came out at around the £100 per month mark. Yeah ok, you can claim back 90% of the extra loading, but at the time you only got reimbursed at the end of the year(?) Struck me as pretty expensive. It seems you get massively penalised once they find out you're aircrew, particularly fast jet, and they add on extras for "dangerous" sports such as skiing, scuba diving etc. Whereas with SLI you don't.

I'm the first on to admit that I'm not the most financially savvy, but I will be interested to see if other, more canny, folks have got a better deal than that afforded by SLI, without having to accept outlandish exclusions which they may live to regret.

I stand-by to be proven wrong but I think that SLI is too good to miss out on.

[r2_unit]

abbotyobs,

Are you a mil/civ pilot? I got a tesco.com quote today for mil fj nav and it was £180/mth for £200000 cover over 5yrs. NB - The "pilot/navigator" option in the drop-down menu on-line is for CIV pilot or CIV nav (??).

I've just spoken to a helpful dude at Military Direct (Insurance brokers - 0800 731 1628) who has given me the best deal I've had so far. Worth at least a phonecall for anyone that's looking at this sort of thing.

r2

[stillin1]

PAX have been outstanding for me Spam UK. For full details PM me if you wish