MetLife UK life insurance: what MetLife sells now and who looks after older policies

MetLife no longer sells life insurance to individuals in the UK: its individual Life Protection policy is now a legacy product. Its customer pages cover personal protection and retirement and investment products, and its individual protection range today is four accident and illness policies.

MetLife’s Life Protection policy was for people who wanted to protect their home or family. It paid a lump sum, and customers could choose life cover (paid on death or terminal illness), critical illness cover, or life or accelerated critical illness cover. MetLife now lists it among its legacy products, those no longer available for new customers.

Life Protection could be taken out by UK residents aged 18 or over and before their 60th birthday. Customers chose level or decreasing cover and the length of the term, and cover was fully underwritten, so it depended on medical acceptance. The most cover a customer could choose was £850,000 for life cover and £300,000 for critical illness cover.

MetLife’s individual Income Protection policy, for people who wanted to protect their income if they couldn’t work because of an accident or illness, is a legacy product too.

For individuals, MetLife now sells four accident and illness policies: EverydayProtect, MultiProtect, MortgageSafe and ChildShield. EverydayProtect pays up to £200,000 for an accidental death and up to £10,000 for a death from natural causes, or returns your premiums if that death is within the first year of the policy. MetLife says EverydayProtect isn’t a life cover replacement.

MetLife’s life insurance today is Group Life for employers, which pays a fixed lump sum or a multiple of salary when an insured employee dies. Subject to scheme underwriting, UK-based employers with at least 3 employees (or at least 250 for Flex schemes) can take it out. An employer can also insure one employee under a MetLife Single Life Relevant Life policy, which must be linked to a MetLife Group Life policy.

Workplace life cover of this kind is often called death in service benefit: our death in service guide explains how it works, and our guide to relevant life insurance covers policies for a single employee.

In December 2020, MetLife said it operated in the UK through MetLife Europe d.a.c., an Irish insurer that had provided products into the UK through its UK branch under EU passporting rights. MetLife said the company would enter the UK’s Temporary Permissions Regime after the Brexit transition period ended on 31 December 2020, and would seek permanent UK authorisation. The FCA Register shows it as authorised since 17 October 2023, as the UK branch of an overseas firm.

MetLife then applied to move the retirement and investments business of MetLife Europe’s UK branch into MetLife UK Limited, in what it called an internal reorganisation triggered by Brexit. The High Court sanctioned the transfer on 12 February 2024. It was planned for 1 April 2024, and MetLife UK Limited’s accounts say it took place on that date.

The products listed to transfer were the MetLife Trustee Investment Plan and Trustee Retirement Portfolio, the MetLife Retirement Portfolio, the MetLife ISA Portfolio and the MetLife Investment Bond Portfolio UK. MetLife said its other MetLife Europe products wouldn’t transfer to MetLife UK and would remain with MetLife Europe.

Who looks after an individual MetLife protection policy depends on when it was taken out: MetLife’s contact page splits these policies at 1 August 2011.

Taken out from 1 August 2011: contact MetLife’s Customer Service team on 0800 917 0100. Life Protection is a contract between MetLife and the customer, and MetLife says customers of its legacy products get the same customer service as its open individual protection business.

Life Protection premiums are paid monthly by Direct Debit. MetLife says it may increase or reduce the monthly premium at any time during the policy, and will give 30 days’ notice in writing to your last known address.

Taken out before 1 August 2011: MetLife’s contact page sends these customers to ReAssure on 0800 073 1777. If you think you have a ReAssure policy, ReAssure says you can call or write and it will check its records.

For background, MetLife bought Alico (American Life Insurance Company) in November 2010, and Alico’s UK branch closed its individual and group protection lines to new business in August 2011. Alico UK’s individual protection business, made up of term, whole of life, critical illness and income protection policies, was among the lines listed to move to ReAssure in 2012. ReAssure says almost 300,000 policies moved from Alico UK to ReAssure that year.

NAG Life Insurance: MetLife provides a fixed £5,000 of life cover under the legacy National Australia Group (NAG) Life Insurance, a linked home contents and life policy. The cover runs until age 75, and MetLife no longer collects monthly premiums for it.

Workplace Group Life: MetLife’s Group Life claims guidance is written for employers’ advisers. It lists the forms MetLife needs when an employee dies while employed by the adviser’s client.

If a relative had life cover through work, their employer is usually the first contact.

Retirement and investment policies: these moved to MetLife UK Limited on 1 April 2024. MetLife UK Limited’s accounts call them a closed book that it expects to keep servicing. MetLife no longer accepts new investments but still offers non-guaranteed portfolios to existing policyholders, and it said MetLife UK would use the same administrator as MetLife Europe.

MetLife Assurance: MetLife Assurance Limited was renamed Rothesay Assurance Limited in 2014. In 2015 it applied to transfer all of its policies to Rothesay Life, and Rothesay Assurance Limited was dissolved in 2021. A 2020 Gazette notice says the annuities it wrote in Ireland were later transferred to Rothesay Life Plc.

• Look for a policy schedule, annual statement or bank statement showing the policy number, the start date and who collects the premium. The start date tells you whether to contact MetLife or ReAssure.
• ReAssure suggests searching your papers and contacting the provider of an old life policy to find out what it’s worth.
• ReAssure also points to the Unclaimed Assets Register, a paid service where companies list assets they cannot trace.
• Our guide to lost life insurance policies explains where else to look when someone has passed away.

Trustpilot’s score is for MetLife UK as a whole, not for its older life insurance policies. Score checked on 3 October 2026.

MetLife no longer sells life insurance to individuals in the UK. Its Group Life cover is designed for employers who want to provide life cover for their employees.

MetLife says EverydayProtect isn’t a life cover replacement, and that people who have been declined for life cover and want a like-for-like alternative aren’t the people it’s designed for.

If you want cover of your own, our guides explain term life insurance, over 50s life insurance and critical illness cover. Our insurer reviews look at the companies that sell life cover today.

Life cover through work usually ends when you leave the job, so it may not be enough on its own. Our death in service guide explains how workplace cover works.

Guides to life cover

• Term life insurance: Cover for a set number of years, with level or decreasing cover.
• Over 50s life insurance: Guaranteed acceptance for ages 50–85, and what to check before you buy.
• Critical illness cover: A lump sum on diagnosis of a serious illness your policy covers.

Insurer reviews

• All insurer reviews: plain-English reviews of UK life insurers, listed alphabetically