Guardian life insurance review 2022
Guardian has been at the forefront of providing the British market with insurance products since 1821. It has an extensive history of excellence in offering comprehensive policies that payout quickly. Here, we delve into the life insurance products offered by Guardian and help you decide whether it’s the right provider for you.
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Guardian life insurance products
As with any insurance policy, it’s essential that you research and consider your circumstances before buying. There are various life insurance types that suit different needs. The ones offered by Guardian include:
Life Protection
The company’s Life Protection policies are term life insurance solutions. These are policies that provide you cover for a predetermined period of time, such as 5 to 20 years. They can be broken down into increasing, decreasing, level-term, and family income benefit.
Decreasing Term: Your coverage value drops throughout your insurance term. However, your monthly premium costs also decrease. As a result, this policy is mainly used to cover debts that lose value, such as a repayment mortgage.
Level Term: Unlike a decreasing term policy, the value of your life insurance coverage stays the same with level term insurance. As does the monthly premium cost. Typically, level term policies are used to cover debt and expenses that won’t lose value, such as an interest-only mortgage.
Increasing Term: An increasing term policy is the same as a level term, but the coverage value can increase over time, as can the monthly premium. This is so that your policy stays on top of inflation.
Family Income Benefit: You can opt for any of the options above with family income benefit. However, instead of receiving the funds in one lump sum payment, your family and loved ones receive regular installments to help better manage the funds.
Critical Illness Cover
Guardian also offers Critical Illness Cover, which pays you a lump sum if you are diagnosed with a severe illness covered by the company. The funds can be used to supplement the loss of income if you can’t work or cover medical expenses. Note that you can choose this option independently or along with the Life Protection policy.
Children’s Critical Illness
If you’d like to protect your children from severe illness, the company offers Children’s Critical Illness cover to help cover any costs. You can choose between £10,000 and £100,000 coverage. Some companies automatically include this add-on with their life cover policies, so having a choice is a great way to save money if you don’t have children.
Features and benefits of Guardian life insurance
There are a range of benefits to choosing Guardian as your life insurance provider. For instance:
- You get a wide selection of term insurance policies.
- Joint policies are available.
- Free 24/7 GP access.
- Access to a second medical opinion.
- Support on navigating NHS services.
- Counselling.
- Solicitors to handle the probate process.
The company’s aftercare service, HALO, encompasses many of these features. It’s clear that Guardian is customer-focused and works to ensure that you and your family are cared for and supported throughout a claims process.
Overview of Guardian life insurance key policy details
| Cover Options | Decreasing, increasing, level-term. Family income benefit. |
| Critical Illness Cover | Available with life cover or as a stand-alone policy. |
| Whole of Life Policy | Not available. |
| Joint Life Policy | Single and joint-life policies available. |
The company doesn’t state how long its term life insurance policies can be had for or the minimum and maximum applicant ages. If you’re unsure whether you qualify, you should contact the company and discuss your options.
Guardian life insurance ratings
A fantastic way to measure the quality of a company’s insurance products is to check the ratings provided by independent firms.
The British rating firm Defaqto gave Guardian its 5-star award for its Life Protection product. This is the company’s top rating and highlights the quality of Guardian’s life insurance.
How much does Guardian life insurance cost?
The cost of a life insurance policy will depend on various factors, including your age, occupation, smoking status, health, and medical history. It’s essential to be truthful and honest when disclosing this information to Guardian, as your family and loved ones could have a claim declined if the company finds a breach of contract.
It’s always best to contact the company directly to get an exact quote, but to give you an idea of the costs involved with life insurance, here is an example:
- A 40-year old non-smoking applicant looking for £300,000 to cover mortgage and living costs over 25 years will pay around £19 per month.
- The same application but with added critical illness cover would pay around £130 per month.
If you feel that the quoted premiums are too high, you should look to improve the factors under your control. Smoking, for example, has a significant effect on your insurance costs. If possible, you should also start living a healthier lifestyle and lose weight. Improving your overall health is one of the best ways to lower insurance costs.
In addition, shopping around for a policy will ensure that you find the best deal. You can do this through an insurance broker or a price comparison site. The first few quotes you receive aren’t always the best on the market, so make sure to look around.
Is Guardian life insurance right for you?
If you’re seeking an insurance provider with heritage and a track record of paying out claims, Guardian could be the company for you. The company’s Halo support package can be a fantastic source of help for you and your family during what would be a difficult period. From buying a policy to making a claim, the company’s customer service team is always available to help you during the process.
On the other hand, Guardian isn’t the right company if you’re seeking a whole life insurance policy or an Over 50s policy, since it doesn’t currently offer those solutions.