Smart life insurance 2024

Smart life insurance is an award-winning service provided by Smart Insurance, who are rated 4.9 stars on Trustpilot[1].

Smart life insurance is provided by reputable insurer, Scottish Friendly. The life cover products available include family life insurance, with level and age-based options, and critical illness cover.

With life insurance premiums starting at £14.77 per month[2], Smart life insurance offer a variety of benefits if you have a policy with them. This includes a £125 gift card for new customers[3].

But, with so many competitors on the market, is Smart life insurance any good?

Below our in-house experts have carried out a comprehensive review to help you determine whether Smart Insurance are the right insurer for you.

In this article we cover:

Unfortunately Reassured can’t compare life insurance quotes from Smart Insurance, however we can compare quotes from other leading UK providers, with cover starting from as little as 20p-a-day † .

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Smart life insurance summary:

  • Smart life insurance is provided by Scottish Friendly (who paid out 99.5% of all life insurance claims in 2023[4])
  • Full cover from day 1 (unless it’s self-inflicted in the first 12 months)
  • Free £125 gift card after you’ve paid premiums for 6 consistent months (subject to terms and conditions)
  • You could receive 10% cashback on your first year's premiums
  • Highly rated insurer with a 4.9 ‘Excellent’ rating on Trustpilot
  • Cover starts from £14.77 a month
  • Terminal illness cover included at no extra cost
  • Smart Insurance offers a free Will service

Who are Smart Insurance?

Smart Insurance are a life insurance provider who focus solely on life cover and personal accident insurance, directly to their consumers, established in 2013.

Whilst being relatively new to the industry compared to other insurers, Smart Insurance have been rated highly by customers and experts, and have acquired several awards.

This includes the Platinum Trusted Service award and the 10 Years of Excellence Trusted Service Award 2024 from customer rating site, Feefo.

Scottish Friendly is the trusted insurer behind Smart Insurance products, which are also known as Neilson Financial Services (trading name).

Scottish Friendly underwrite all policies from Smart Insurance, offering reputability from a familiar name.

Smart life insurance reviews

Smart Insurance is rated ‘Excellent’ on Trustpilot, with a 4.9 (out of 5) star rating from over 6,000 customer reviews.

Looking into customer and expert reviews offers an insightful outlook on if an insurer or product is any good.

Below is a table including expert ratings for Smart Insurance:

Expert rating siteProductRatingAnalysis
Fairer Finance Life insurance
86%
  • Ranked 1st out of 24 life insurance providers with a claims handling score of 94%
  • Complaints performance score - 89%
  • Transparency rating score - 76%
Defaqto Family life insurance

2 - 5 stars

Policies from Smart Insurance range from 5 stars (the highest possible rating) to 2 stars.

(Correct as of 12/11/24)

Below is a table including customer reviews for Smart Insurance:

Customer rating siteNumber of reviewsRatingAnalysis
Trustpilot 6,2784.991% of customer reviews rate Smart Insurance 5 out of 5 stars on Trustpilot (the highest possible rating), leaving an overall score of ‘Excellent’.
Google 439

4.7

The majority of reviews are 5 stars, resulting in an impressive overall rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars.
Feefo

4,525

4.8Over the last year, Smart Insurance have received 1,028 5 star reviews on Feefo, resulting in an outstanding overall score of 4.8. This shows that their life insurance is seen as above average compared to other insurers by customers.

(Correct as of 12/11/24)

Whilst Reassured can’t offer Smart Insurance quotes, we can offer fee-free quotes from some of the UK’s highest rated insurers.

Smart insurance are also labelled as award-winning, having won the ‘Platinum Trusted Service Award’ by Feefo in 2024 and ‘Best Life Insurance’ winner in 2023 by The Times Money Mentor.

Reassured are rated ‘Excellent’ on Trustpilot from more than 75,000 customer reviews.

Smart life insurance cover

Smart Insurance offer the ‘family life insurance’ policy which can be taken out on a level or age-based basis.

Family life insurance

Family life insurance will provide financial protection for your loved ones if the worst were to happen.

  • Available to UK residents aged 18 - 64
  • Can last between 10 - 40 years (or when you reach the age of 79)
  • Fixed term life insurance
  • Benefit amount stays the same every year

The benefit amounts Smart insurance offer based on age:

  • 18 to 44 - £60,000 to £750,000
  • 45 to 54 - £60,000 to £400,000
  • 55 to 59 - £60,000 to £250,000
  • 60 to 64 - £60,000 to £150,000

A pay out from this type of cover can help your loved ones to pay off a mortgage (or other large debts) if the worst were to happen.

Age-based life insurance

Age-based life insurance is similar to a whole of life cover, as you’re covered for the rest of your life, except your pay out amount will increase over time (monthly premiums are recalculated and increases every year).

  • A 5% benefit amount increase that is added to your pay out amount annually for the first 10 years
  • As long as you continue to pay your premiums, cover will last for life
  • Pay out can be used to help cover funeral costs / any other costs that may occur as a result of you passing away and can typically start at a lower premium amount than a Level policy

Please note, if you cancel your policy you’ll not receive any of your money back.

Life Insurance Calculator

Calculate how much life insurance you may need by filling in the costs you’d like your policy to cover.

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£137,934 is the estimated mortgage debt per household in the UK.

The purchase of a home is likely to be the largest financial commitment any of us will make in our lifetime. Your life insurance should cover your remaining mortgage balance to allow your loved ones to stay in the family home should anything happen to you.

Source: Moneynerd.co.uk
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The average monthly household budget in the UK is £2,548 (that’s £30,576 per year), which is spent on transport, food & drink, utilities (gas, electricity, water etc), clothing, council tax and leisure activities.

With energy prices hitting a record high and the cost of living rising sharply in the UK, you may wish to factor in utility bills and family living expenses into your cover.

Source: Nimblefins.co.uk
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The average personal debt of UK adults has risen to £34,566 (not including mortgage debt), with credit cards, personal loans and overdrafts being the most common forms of debt.

Factoring in any debts into your life insurance cover means that, if they need to be paid back from your estate after your passing, your loved ones won’t miss out financially.

Source: Money.co.uk
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According to SunLife, the average cost of a funeral in the UK is £3,953 (with the overall cost of dying at £9,200).

Funeral costs have increased by 116% since 2004 and are a significant cost which should be factored into the amount of life insurance you secure.

Source: SunLife.co.uk
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When factoring in cover for your children, you may wish to calculate the amount based on how long it is until they reach financial independence.

This could include childcare (£7,000 per year for part-time care), school expenses (£1,519 per school year for uniforms, lunches, stationary etc), as well as an additional sum for further education (this could be a contribution of up to £5,000 per year).

Sources: Daynurseries.co.uk, Primarytimes.co.uk & Savethestudent.org
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2 in 5 adults say they are relying on an inheritance to fund their retirement.

Factoring in an inheritance to your sum assured could allow loved ones to live a more financially comfortable life. Alternatively, you could leave a cash gift to a charity of your choosing.

Source: Moneyage.co.uk
£
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If you’re lucky enough to have your own savings or are part of the 30% of UK residents who already have a life insurance policy in place, this can provide financial protection for loved ones.

By entering your current cover, savings or death in service amount you can reduce the sum assured you require.

Source: Scottishbusinessnews.net
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What does Smart life insurance cover?

Life insurance provides financial protection for your loved ones in the event of your passing, ensuring that any outstanding debts and essential costs are taken care of.

This can help cover things such as:

  • Mortgage / rent payments (average mortgage debt in the UK currently stands at £132,378[5])
  • Utility bills & living expenses
  • Childcare / future education costs
  • Funeral costs (with the average cost of a basic funeral now costing £4,141[6])
  • An inheritance

Why not get in touch with one of our friendly team members to begin your life insurance journey and become one step closer to safeguarding your loved one’s futures.

Smart over 50s life insurance

Smart Insurance doesn’t have a specific over 50s offering. However, their standard offerings are available to those aged above 50.

Unfortunately, the once available Smart guaranteed life insurance for over 50s is no longer being offered. Instead, individuals aged above 50 can choose from their standard insurance options.

Their family life insurance can be taken out up to age 64.

If you opt for the age-based option, you could be covered for the rest of your life (as with a traditional over 50s plan). However, your premiums would increase each year.

A traditional over 50s plan guarantees acceptance to UK residents aged 50 - 85, without the need to provide medical information. Once in place, cover will last for life and your loved ones are guaranteed a pay out.

Reassured offer guaranteed acceptance over 50s life insurance policies for UK residents aged 50 - 85, find out more by getting in touch with one of our friendly agents today.

Compare Life Insurance for Over 50s »

Smart life insurance premiums

Generally speaking, the amount you pay for your monthly life insurance premium will be agreed when you take your policy out and this is the amount you’ll continue to pay.

Smart life insurance gives you the option to choose from two different premium types.

Level premiums option

With level premiums the amount you pay will remain the same throughout the lifetime of your policy.

This means that the amount you pay each month will always be the same.

Age-based premiums option

With age-based premiums, the amount you pay will increase each year as you age.

Along with the premium increase, there will be a 5% automatic increase to your cover amount. This will be applied on your policy anniversary each year for 10 years from the policy start date.

You’ll be sent a schedule each year which will show your new monthly premium payments.

While aged-based premiums can seem like a benefit due to the increased sum assured, rising costs could start to become an issue as you age.

When you reach retirement, often your budget will become more restricted. This may not leave a lot of spare money to pay for your increased premiums.

All policy premiums from Reassured are fixed, meaning you don’t have to worry about any future increases in your payments.

Smart insurance critical illness cover

Smart Insurance offers optional critical illness cover that can be added to their life insurance for an additional cost, if you’re aged between 18 to 59.

Critical illness is a type of cover that provides a lump sum if you’re diagnosed with a specified life-changing (but not terminal) illness. For Smart insurance critical illness cover, this includes:

  • Cancer (excluding less advanced cases)
  • Coronary artery bypass grafts, with surgery to divide the breastbone
  • Heart attack (of specified severity)
  • Stroke resulting in permanent symptoms

This pay out can help to cover living costs if you’re left unable to work, pay medical bills or make adaptations to your home.

The Smart Insurance critical illness cover amount can be up to 50% of your life insurance sum assured.

Your life insurance pay out won’t be affected by a critical illness claim. Therefore, if you pass away, your loved ones will still receive a pay out, this won’t affect your life insurance pay out if you pass away.

This cover is not a standalone policy, it would be an optional extra for an additional cost that can be included with your Smart family life insurance.

Critical illness can be added to a term life insurance policy taken out through Reassured, you can choose to have a pay out of your full sum assured or a partial amount.

Smart life insurance with free gift

Smart Insurance are currently offering a free £125 Amazon, Tesco or Argos gift card when you take out family life insurance directly through them.

You’ll receive your gift card after you’ve made 6 monthly premium payments or once the total of your premiums paid exceeds the gift card amount (£125).

Whilst life insurance with a free gift card may be a nice incentive to take out life insurance, it shouldn’t be the main reason you choose a certain provider.

It’s always best to compare your options to ensure you are receiving the best cover for you.

Compare Life Insurance » Save Money

Smart insurance children’s cover

For an additional cost to your monthly premium, you can add children’s cover to your Smart Insurance life insurance policy.

Smart Insurance children’s cover is to help cover extra costs (like medical expenses) if your child suffers an accidental death or a specified serious injury or illness. These benefit amounts are available from £10,000 up to £30,000[7].

This is only available to those who have an existing family life insurance policy with Smart Insurance.

Any child who is under 21, a UK resident and financially dependent on you can be covered.

This cover is valid once for each insured child. Conditions covered include:

  • Passing away (within 90 days of an accident which occurred after the start date)
  • Bacterial meningitis
  • Deafness
  • Encephalitis
  • Loss of hands or feet (physical severance)
  • Paralysis
  • Traumatic head injury

A claim on children’s cover won't affect your life insurance cover.

Smart Insurance health & wellbeing benefit

Smart Insurance offer a free benefit that provides a 24/7 online GP service (via phone or video).

This benefit also includes:

  • Assistance to source appointments
  • Personalised diet & nutrition plans
  • Mood journaling tools
  • Symptom checker with nurse follow ups
  • Physiotherapy triaging & specialist referrals

This benefit will come into action as soon as you’ve secured a policy through Smart Insurance, these services are provided by Medipartner.

Writing your Smart life insurance policy in trust

As with most policies at Reassured, you can write your Smart life insurance policy in trust.

Writing your life insurance in trust allows you to:

  • Have more control over what happens to your pay out
  • Avoid / minimise inheritance tax (40% IHT)
  • Avoid the probate process

It involves placing someone you trust (a trustee) in charge of your policy after you’ve passed away.

They’ll then be responsible for ensuring your pay out is distributed as per your wishes.

At Reassured, not only can our team help you through the entire process of taking out life insurance, but we also have a customer service team who can help to write your policy in trust (available with the majority of the policies we arrange).

How to make a claim

For existing customers to make a claim on a Smart life insurance policy, use one of the following 2 methods:

A claims form will be sent to you which will need to be completed and returned including supporting documentation.

When the claim has been accepted, Smart Insurance will pay the sum assured to the named beneficiary and any premiums paid during the date of the death and date of claim will be refunded.

Smart life insurance contact number

For general enquiries, you can call Smart Insurance on 0800 458 6901.

You can call Monday to Friday from 09:00 - 19:00.

How do I cancel my smart life insurance?

You can cancel your Smart life insurance policy at any point.

If you cancel within 30 days of receiving your policy documents, you’ll be refunded any premiums that you’ve paid so far.

If you cancel after 30 days, you won’t get any payments back.

To cancel your Smart life insurance policy, you can call 0800 458 6901, weekdays from 09:00 - 19:00.

Alternatively, you can also write to Smart Insurance at PO Box 6063, Windsor, SL4 9GL or email service@smartinsurance.co.uk.

Cancelling your policy is something that should take a lot of consideration as you’ll no longer be covered once you’ve cancelled.

Smart life insurance pay out

A life insurance pay out will be made on receipt of a successful claim.

The pay out will be paid to the named beneficiary (or beneficiaries).

Smart life insurance products are provided by Scottish Friendly, who paid out 99.38% of all their life claims in 2022.

Is Smart life insurance worth it?

Whether Smart life insurance is a good choice for you will depend on your own unique needs.

The above information should give you an indication as to whether you think Smart life insurance would meet all your needs.

Here are some of the key features that Smart life insurance offers:

  • Get up to £750,000 of cover (depending on your age)
  • Get 10% Smart Cashback of your first year’s premiums
  • Cover from day 1 (except from self-inflicted death for the first 12 months)
  • Free Terminal illness cover
  • £125 gift card
  • Simple application process

To find the most suitable cover it’s wise to compare offerings from different providers to ensure you know what’s out there, and that the cover you’re getting really meets your needs.

Contact Reassured for all the information you need to make an informed decision.

Compare life insurance quotes to save money

While Smart life insurance offers affordable cover, the best way to ensure you’re getting the best deal is to compare quotes.

Although we don’t sell Smart Insurance policies, we can still source quotes from other top UK insurers.

You can compare quotes from some of the UK's best life insurance companies by using our FCA-regulated broker service.

Our award-winning team can help you find the right cover at the best price from our panel of leading insurers.

Why not get in touch today and take the first step to protect your loved one’s financial future?

Get Life Insurance Quotes » Compare Insurers

Sources:

[1] https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/smartinsurance.co.uk

[2] https://www.smartinsurance.co.uk/about-us/

[3] https://www.smartinsurance.co.uk/terms-of-use/gift-card/

[4] https://www.smartinsurance.co.uk/life-insurance/

[5] https://www.finder.com/uk/mortgages/mortgage-statistics

[6] https://www.sunlife.co.uk/funeral-costs/

[7] https://assets-eu-01.kc-usercontent.com/67a05473-5779-0171-e69f-e368ceb6327f/7e621a07-de7c-490f-9674-632c1d92644c/SMART_Family_Life_KeyFacts_v0.7%20LIVE%20SEP23%20WEB%20%281%29.pdf

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