National Assurance life insurance review 2026

Here’s how National Assurance’s over 50s plan is rated by independent product experts, along with two customer review scores that need some context. The Trustpilot score is for Howden Life & Health, another trading style of the same Howden company, and the Smart Money People page is for a company called National Assurance that the site describes as a health insurance provider.

Defaqto rating for the National Assurance over 50s plan

Defaqto rates each product from 1 to 5 stars. It lists National Assurance in its over 50s life assurance category, where the Simply Over 50s Life Product has 2 stars.

Defaqto lists the plan as the “Simply Over 50s Life Product”, while the policy documents and Fairer Finance call it the “Simple Over 50s Life Product”. Defaqto gives it 2 stars out of 5 and Fairer Finance 3 stars.

National Assurance’s website lists two products: Over 50s Life Insurance, a whole of life plan with guaranteed acceptance that is designed, underwritten and administered by National Friendly, and Accident Sickness and Unemployment Cover, an income protection policy underwritten by AmTrust Specialty Limited.

• Over 50s whole of life
  Pays a fixed cash sum when you die, with guaranteed acceptance and no medical questions. Full cover for any cause of death after the first two years.
• Accident, sickness and unemployment
  Pays a monthly sum for up to 12 months if you can’t work because of an accident or sickness, or lose your job through no fault of your own, depending on the cover you choose.

Over 50s Life Insurance (Simple Over 50s Life Product)

You can take out the plan if you’re aged 50 to 80 and don’t smoke, or 50 to 75 if you smoke. You also need to be physically living in the UK and be a UK citizen or have permission to live in the UK permanently. The UK here means England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, not the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man.

If you meet those conditions, acceptance is guaranteed: there’s no health assessment or medical, and the website says there are no medical questions. The policy starts as soon as your application has been processed, and the start date is shown in your policy schedule.

The website offers cover of up to £20,000. The amount you choose stays fixed for the life of the policy, and the premium is guaranteed when the policy starts and won’t be increased. You pay monthly by direct debit until the policy anniversary after your 85th birthday. After that, no more premiums are due and you stay covered for the rest of your life.

You can hold more than one of National Friendly’s over 50s whole of life plans, as long as the total monthly premium across them doesn’t exceed £100. A policy that takes you over the limit isn’t valid and is cancelled, and the premiums paid for it are returned without interest.

Accidental death cover in the first two years

For the first two years, the cash sum is paid only if you die an accidental death: death solely from, and within 90 days of, a physical injury caused by external, violent and visible means in a sudden and unforeseen event. If you die in those two years from any other cause, the plan pays a sum equal to all the premiums you’ve paid.

The accidental death cover doesn’t pay the cash sum for a death caused by sickness, disease or a naturally occurring or degenerative condition; suicide or intentional self-inflicted injury; taking drugs, drinking alcohol or consuming poisonous substances; actively taking part in a riot, civil commotion, uprising, war or criminal act; hazardous pursuits such as motor sports, mountaineering that needs ropes and guides, potholing or diving with breathing apparatus; or aviation, except as a fare-paying passenger on a commercial licensed aircraft.

After the first two years, the cash sum is paid whatever the cause of death.

Accident Sickness and Unemployment Cover

National Assurance’s income cover is AmTrust Specialty Limited’s Income, Mortgage and Commitments Protection Insurance, administered by Trent-Services (Administration) Limited. It’s designed to protect part of your monthly income if you become unemployed through no fault of your own or can’t work because of an accident or sickness, depending on the cover you choose.

It pays up to £2,000 a month or 65% of your normal income, whichever is lower, for at most 12 monthly payments. Payments don’t start until any waiting or excess period has ended, and no unemployment payments are made if the cause of your unemployment happens in the first 120 days, unless you’re replacing cover from another provider.

You must be 18 or over and under 64 when the policy starts (the website says ages 18 to 63), and have been working and living in the UK continuously for the last 6 months. Employed and self-employed people can apply, and the self-employed are covered for unemployment caused by business failure. You can’t be covered if you work less than 16 hours a week or are in casual, seasonal or temporary work, and cover ends when you retire or reach 65, whichever is earlier.

Unemployment cover doesn’t pay if you accept voluntary redundancy, resign or retire, and you must have registered and signed on at a Job Centre. A medical condition you had symptoms of, or treatment, medication or advice for, in the 12 months before the policy starts isn’t covered, unless you’ve been free of symptoms and treatment for it for 24 months before your claim. Claims for stress, anxiety, depression or other mental or nervous disorders need you to be under the care of a psychiatric specialist or psychiatric nurse, and back or spinal claims need confirmation from a healthcare professional and x-ray or MRI evidence.

The annual premium is paid in monthly instalments at no extra cost. The policy renews each year unless you say otherwise, and you’re told about any changes to the premium or terms 45 days before renewal. It has no cash-in value, and you can cancel within 30 days of the start date for a refund of premium, as long as you haven’t made and don’t intend to make a claim.

National Assurance Over 50s Life Insurance vs Accident Sickness and Unemployment Cover

The two products do different jobs: one pays a lump sum when you die, the other pays a monthly sum for a limited time if you can’t work because of an accident or sickness, or lose your job through no fault of your own, depending on the cover you choose. Here’s how they compare:

National Assurance over 50s plan at a glance

The key limits of the over 50s plan, from the website and the policy summary and terms effective 1 April 2022.

National Assurance says many of its products include Clinic in a Pocket and/or a free will as an added-value benefit, and that Clinic in a Pocket gives you and your immediate family access to medical services from over 5,000 UK medical professionals. The website describes these benefits:

Clinic in a Pocket’s lifestyle and nutrition consultations and its Health MOT, which checks 20 health markers, are only included in Term Life Assurance. That isn’t one of the two products the website lists.

The over 50s terms say the policy can’t be transferred to anyone else, but that, depending on your circumstances, it may be appropriate to put it into trust, and that you should take independent professional legal advice if you want to.

The policy summary says payouts won’t be subject to income tax or capital gains tax, but may be subject to inheritance tax. Howden says using a trust should mean the money paid out from a life insurance policy isn’t part of your estate.

Howden Life & Health, another trading style of the same Howden company, runs a trust form service for life policies, and both National Assurance and National Friendly are options in the insurer list on its online form. Howden fills in the trust form from your details and sends it to you to sign and have witnessed, and you then send it to the insurer, which registers the trust. You are automatically a trustee and must choose at least one more; trustees must be at least 18 and have a UK address.

Howden notes that a trust usually can’t be cancelled once it has been set up, and the policy can’t then be cancelled without the trustees’ permission.

Read how trusts work, and what other insurers offer, in our guide to life insurance in trust.

National Assurance arranges its policies but doesn’t settle claims: Howden’s terms of business say all claims are processed by the insurer, and that Howden has no authority to settle claims on insurers’ behalf. Claims on the over 50s plan go to National Friendly, whose claims report page shows the first three figures below without saying which period they cover. The fourth is from National Friendly’s 2024 results:

Over 50s Life Cover claims paid (National Friendly)

100%

Paid in claims (National Friendly)

£14.7m

Total claims handled (National Friendly)

4,361

National Friendly claims paid within its 3-day service-level agreement in 2024

97%

Source: National Friendly claims report page and 2024 results, checked 25 September 2026. The claims report page gives no period for its figures.

The claims report page doesn’t say whether the 100% figure includes the Simple Over 50s Life Product, and National Friendly’s member claims page lists Over 50s Life Cover and Simple Over 50s Life members as separate groups.

National Friendly says claims decisions are reached within 3 working days once it has the information it needs, that the same dedicated claims handler looks after a claim throughout, and that it is a 2025 Claims Charter signatory. In the first half of 2025 it assessed 95% of claims within its three-day service-level agreement, and it reported a claims Net Promoter Score of 76.

On the over 50s plan, a death in the first two years that isn’t an accidental death is paid as a return of the premiums rather than the full cash sum. If a premium is still unpaid when a claim is made, it’s deducted from the payout, and nothing is paid if death happens after the policy has been cancelled.

How to make a National Assurance life insurance claim

Claims on the over 50s plan go to National Friendly. The person making the claim should contact National Friendly by phone or in writing as soon as they can, with the policy number, home postcode and reason for the claim ready.

Before paying, National Friendly needs its completed claim form and proof to validate the claim: for example the original death certificate or evidence of a fatal accident, such as a coroner’s or police report, and proof of the claimant’s right to the money, such as a grant of probate, a will, or letters of representation or administration.

Claims on the Accident Sickness and Unemployment Cover go to the administrator, Trent-Services, by phone, email or post. You must tell them as soon as possible and no later than 30 days after the end of the waiting period, and unemployment claimants need to show proof of about 5 job applications a month. Howden Life & Health’s list of insurer contacts gives the same phone number for National Assurance.

Howden says that, on request, it will guide customers through a claim, but it has no authority to settle claims on behalf of insurers.

Over 50s contact details are from the 2022 Simple Over 50s Life Product documents; income cover details are from the AmTrust policy wording.

Key policy terms

A few terms that are worth knowing before you apply. These come from the Simple Over 50s Life Product policy summary and terms, effective 1 April 2022, so always check the documents for the exact policy you’re offered.

Before you take out a policy, it’s worth reading the policy summary and terms for the exact product you’re offered. The over 50s documents took effect on 1 April 2022 and name National Friendly as the insurer; the income cover documents are AmTrust Specialty Limited’s.

• PDF
  Simple Over 50s Life Product policy summary (2022) (opens in a new tab)

  Eligibility, cover in the first two years, exclusions, premiums, cancelling and how to claim.

  PDF · cdn.mooso.co.uk

• PDF
  Simple Over 50s Life Product terms and conditions (2022) (opens in a new tab)

  The policy conditions that form the basis of your contract with National Friendly, including definitions, premiums, claims and cancelling. Linked as “Policy Wording” on the website.

  PDF · cdn.mooso.co.uk

• PDF
  Accident Sickness and Unemployment Cover product information document (opens in a new tab)

  A summary of AmTrust’s Income, Mortgage and Commitments Protection Insurance, its limits and exclusions.

  PDF · cdn.mooso.co.uk

• PDF
  Accident Sickness and Unemployment Cover policy wording (opens in a new tab)

  The full terms of the income cover, including eligibility, exclusions, claims and cancelling.

  PDF · cdn.mooso.co.uk

Documents open on cdn.mooso.co.uk. They may be updated — the version you receive with your policy is the one that applies.

This review is for general information only. Life Cover Quotes does not endorse any specific insurance company.