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Life insurance, as well as many other forms of insurance, can be beneficial for those with a high net worth.
Life insurance provides a cash lump sum pay out to your loved ones should the worst happen to you.
If you’re a high net worth individual (HNWI) then protecting your assets for the benefit of your loved ones can be a key consideration. Life insurance can help you to ensure that they can continue living their current lifestyle with minimal financial disruption.
There’s also a range of insurance products for high net worth individuals (HNWI) known as ‘high net worth insurance’ to help you protect other aspects of your life. This isn’t something currently offered by Reassured.
Reassured can help you to secure a life insurance policy with a sum assured of up to £1,000,000.
We can also help you to secure multiple policies to provide multiple pay outs to cover various aspects of your life.
This article will look into why high net worth individuals need life insurance, how much it costs and much more, so keep reading…
Due to having a lot of high value items, including property and possessions, those with a high net worth are likely to benefit from having life insurance in place for two main reasons:
While you’re alive, everything you own, properties, money and possessions make up your estate.
When you pass away, your beneficiaries or next of kin will receive your estate.
In the UK, inheritance tax is charged at 40% on anything above a £325,000 threshold. As a high net worth individual it’s likely that your estate would well exceed this threshold.
By taking out a life insurance policy, you could write the policy in trust which can detach the policy from your estate, which means your loved ones won’t need to pay inheritance tax on the pay out.
This way your loved ones can receive a full pay out which can be used to help them cover the inheritance tax that will likely be charged on your estate, rather than them having to fund this personally or claim the funds from the estate.
Any additional funds can be put towards living costs or paying for your funeral.
Reassured offer a FREE trust writing service with the majority of the policies we sell. Simple speak to a friendly member of the team and they’ll be happy to help you through the process.
High net worth insurance refers to a group of insurance products taken out by high net worth individuals to protect their possessions and assets.
Policies will often cover multiple areas of protection, such as:
By covering these aspects of your life, your assets can be protected while you’re at home and while you’re away.
Unfortunately, ‘high net worth insurance’ often doesn’t include life insurance and isn’t something we can currently provide at Reassured. So you’ll need to purchase an additional life insurance policy.
Why not use Reassured to compare quotes from some of the UK’s best life insurance providers to help you find the right policy to meet your needs.
If your loved ones were to fall on hard times financially after your passing, would they face the tough choice of having to sell off assets in order to find funds to continue living their current lifestyle?
Thankfully, a life insurance pay out can help provide the necessary funds to take care of many important expenses, as well as providing funds to help pay off any hefty inheritance tax bills.
This can help to minimise financial stress for your loved ones at an already stressful time.
Why not speak to an expert about protecting your loved ones? A friendly member of our team can provide you with information you need to make a fully informed decision.
Your net worth is the sum of all of your assets, minus any liabilities. This includes:
Assets | Liabilities |
---|---|
Current value of your home | Credit card debt |
Any other properties in your name | Student loans |
Vehicles (not including those on lease) | Car finance |
Bank accounts | Any outstanding mortgage payments |
Stocks | Any other loans |
Cash | |
Jewellery | |
Household items | |
Any other assets of value |
Since 2016, HMRC has defined a high-net-worth individual as anyone with assets in excess of £10 million.
In terms of life insurance, there’s no set definition of a high net worth individual.
There are multiple life insurance options available, each suited to protecting different aspects of your life. These include:
You can also layer additional policies for an extra financial safety net, such as:
Let’s look into these policy types in more detail…
Level term life insurance
Level term life insurance provides cover for a specified period of time (often this can be up to 40 years) and can provide a fixed pay out of up to £1,000,000.
A pay out will only be issued to your loved ones if you pass away during the term of the policy.
Due to the large pay out potential, level term life insurance is well suited to those wanting to protect large debts, such as an interest only mortgage, as well as protecting future family living costs.
Decreasing term life insurance
With a decreasing term life insurance policy, you’ll be covered for a specified period of time (up to 40 years) and your sum assured will reduce over the lifetime of your policy.
While you can choose a sum assured of up to £1,000,000 this will decrease over time.
If you have any loans in place that are likely to reduce over time, such as a repayment mortgage, securing a decreasing term policy can be ideal for helping protect these.
As with a level term life insurance policy, your loved ones will only receive a pay out if you pass away during the policy term.
Whole of life insurance
Whole of life insurance provides lifelong cover and pays out to your loved ones when you pass away.
With a whole of life policy it’s possible to secure a pay out amount of up to £1,000,000.
Whole of life insurance can be an ideal option for high net worth individuals to guarantee their loved ones an inheritance after their passing and ensure that essential costs are taken care of.
Critical illness cover
Critical illness cover can be added to a life insurance policy for an additional fee.
It will allow you to make an early claim on your life insurance policy if you’re diagnosed with a life changing (but not life threatening) illness that’s listed within your policy.
The pay out can then help you to pay for medical bills, make necessary adaptions to your home or pay for carers.
Terminal illness cover
Terminal illness cover comes at no extra cost with all term policies taken out through Reassured.
It provides the opportunity for an early pay out if you’re diagnosed with a life-threatening illness and predicted to pass away within 12 months.
The funds can then be used to help cover any private medical fees, help you get your financial affairs in order, or you could spend the funds enjoying time with your loved ones.
Income protection
Income protection will pay out a percentage of your usual income, in monthly (tax-free) instalments, in the event you become too ill or injured to work.
Income protection for high-net-worth clients can have some complications.
Firstly, those with a high net worth often have multiple sources of income and may be required to pay various taxes, which make it hard for income protection to be calculated accordingly.
Secondly, most standard income protection policies often have a maximum monthly benefit amount which may not come close to the amount needed for a high net worth individual.
This is often between 50% - 70% of your income before tax.
This makes comparing income protection quotes essential to find the right level of cover to meet your needs.
Reassured can secure income protection quotes from all the UK’s leading providers, through our advised team, to help you find the best policy.
It’s not always the case of one policy or another, if you have different areas of life you’d like to protect, it’s completely possible to secure multiple life insurance policies.
For example, you could take out term life insurance to help cover any mortgages you may have as well as a whole of life insurance policy to guarantee your loved ones a pay out that can be used to help cover inheritance tax on your estate.
Why not speak to Reassured to find your ideal life insurance solution?
In April of 2024, AIG Life services were acquired by Aviva. The intention is to integrate both services into one single proposition.
Aviva are keen to retain the high net worth proposition which was offered by AIG
This offering allowed high net worth individuals to secure a higher level of cover than is typically offered to standard applicants.
High-net-worth applicants would be referred to AIG’s premier service team and through their specialist product, it was possible to secure up to:
To qualify for this policy you must have met one of the following requirements:
The amount you pay for your premium is decided by the insurer during the application process and will be calculated using key information. This includes:
Collecting this information allows insurers to determine the level of risk you’ll likely pose and your life insurance premium is calculated accordingly.
The older you get, the risk you pose increases, so securing cover at a younger age can help you lock in a more favourable premium.
Below shows the price breakdown of how much £1,000,000 (the maximum level) of cover would cost at each age.
These quotes are based on a non-smoker in good health, for a level term policy over a 20-year term:
Age | Premium price for £1,000,000 of cover |
---|---|
20 | £18.53 |
25 | £22.04 |
30 | £29.68 |
35 | £40.10 |
40 | £58.42 |
45 | £85.98 |
50 | £140.68 |
Comparing quotes can help you to find a more favourable premium on a policy that meets all of your needs.
No, life insurance isn’t calculated using your net worth. Instead the amount of cover you require can be calculated by adding together the sum of the expenses you’d like to cover.
How much cover you require can be calculated by adding together the sum of the expenses you’d like to cover, as well as any essential assets.
Those with a high net worth may experience the following tax benefits in terms of life insurance:
Speak to a friendly member of the team about writing your policy in trust, we have a dedicated team who will be happy to help you through the whole process.
Comparing life insurance quotes is the best way to secure the right policy to meet your needs.
By taking out cover through Reassured, we can help you to secure a policy with a pay out amount of up to £1,000,000.
We can provide you with all the information you need to make a fully informed decision.
We also have a dedicated team who can help you to write your life insurance policy in trust, free of charge, so your loved ones can avoid/minimise 40% inheritance tax.
The best part is, we don’t charge a fee for our quotes, so why not get in touch?
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