Legal & General cuts Whole of Life rates

Legal & General has significantly reduced its rates for its Whole of Life Protection Plan, cutting premiums by an average of 6%.

Legal & General's whole of life product pays out a lump sum on the death of the policyholder and guarantees that premiums will not change throughout the life of the policy. The product can also include an indexation option providing the policyholder with the ability to increase the benefit each year (for an additional premium) to help keep the benefit in line with inflation.

Alan Ferguson, Marketing and Channel Development Director said: "Whole of life could be sold for inheritance tax and business protection purposes. With around 37,000 estates paying over £3.8bn of inheritance tax to HMRC in 2007/2008, estate planning remains a key need for many clients and an excellent sales opportunity for advisers".

"We believe our product offering is very strong in this sector and intend to be very competitive on price"

Example premiums for a Whole of Life Protection Plan would be:

55 year old female, single life, smoker, £100,000 sum assured - £176.50 per month

60 year old couple, joint life, second death, non-smokers, £100,000 sum assured - £144.40 per month

Actual premiums will depend on a customer's individual circumstances.

Legal & General has supported this push into the whole of life market with new marketing material for advisers to demonstrate the benefits of the policy to their clients. Customers taking out a Whole of Life Protection Plan have the option of writing the policy on either ‘single life', ‘joint life first (or second) death' or ‘life of another' basis. The policy can also be placed in Trust.