Scottish Friendly life insurance review 2026

Scottish Friendly is a member-owned mutual based in Glasgow, founded in 1862 as the City of Glasgow Friendly Society. Because it has no shareholders to pay, it says it can reinvest its profits. At the end of 2025 it had 854,750 members and £4.4 billion in assets under management. It says it’s UK based, with over 300 colleagues.

Its insurance company is Scottish Friendly Assurance Society Limited, an incorporated friendly society under the Friendly Societies Act 1992. It’s authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. The group’s other main company, Scottish Friendly Asset Managers Limited, offers ISAs, Junior ISAs and OEICs.

Scottish Friendly has bought and rebranded several businesses and books of business over the years. Because of this, you may hold a policy with it that wasn’t bought from Scottish Friendly directly. Transferred books include Scottish Legal Life Assurance (2007), Marine & General Mutual (2015), Sun Life’s Family Life Income Plan (2018) and Canada Life (2019).

It also provides life insurance sold under other brands. Its products are sold under the Scottish Friendly name or white-labelled (sold under another firm’s brand) by other providers. It names Neilson Financial Services and Guardian Financial Services as its major collaborations.

Under the proposed merger with OneFamily, the combined mutual would use the OneFamily group name and keep the Scottish Friendly brand alongside the OneFamily and Beagle Street brands. It would have almost £10bn of assets under management and over 2.3 million members.

The merger is expected to take effect in early 2027, subject to member and regulatory approval. If the transfer goes ahead, all of Scottish Friendly’s assets, rights and liabilities move to OneFamily and the Society is dissolved on the transfer date.

The life insurance on Scottish Friendly’s homepage is the My Mutual Guaranteed Over 50s Plan, a whole of life policy that pays a guaranteed cash sum when you die, with limits in the first 2 years explained below. It has no fixed term and stays in place for life, unless you cancel it or miss payments.

It covers one person (a single life policy), and you choose a cover amount from £2,000 to £20,000. Scottish Friendly says the plan is for people who want a cash sum to help towards funeral costs or leave a gift to their family. It warns that the plan isn’t designed to cover the full cost of a funeral, though the payout could help with:

• Funeral costs
• Outstanding bills and debts
• Other end of life expenses
• A cash gift for your family

Full cover starts after 2 years. If your death in the first 2 years counts as accidental under the terms (within 90 days of an accident, with exclusions), the full cash sum is paid. If you die from any other cause in that time, your family gets back the premiums you’ve paid instead.

The plan isn’t a savings or investment product and has no cash-in value at any time. Because the cash sum is fixed, inflation reduces its buying power over time. Depending on how long you live, you could also pay more in premiums than the plan pays out.

Scottish Friendly says premiums for its over 50s plan are based on three things. The plan doesn’t ask about your health, apart from whether you smoke.

Scottish Friendly advertises the plan from 23p a day for a 50-year-old non-smoker with £2,000 of cover, or about £7 a month, its minimum monthly premium. What you pay could be more depending on your age, whether you smoke and the cover amount you choose.

For the smoking question, Scottish Friendly asks whether you’ve used any tobacco, e-cigarettes, vaping or nicotine replacement products in the last 12 months. It says your monthly premium stays the same for the payment term and won’t go up once you’re covered. The policy terms still let Scottish Friendly raise premiums to reflect a tax or levy on them.

The My Mutual Guaranteed Over 50s Plan is a single-life whole of life policy for UK residents aged 50 to 74, offering £2,000 to £20,000 of fixed cover. You can set it up on Scottish Friendly’s website. Scottish Friendly doesn’t give advice on the plan, so if you aren’t sure whether it’s suitable, it suggests speaking to a professional adviser.

Defaqto rates the plan 1 star in its over 50s life assurance category. Fairer Finance gives Scottish Friendly’s Over 50’s life insurance a 5-star product rating and lists it with premiums stopping at 90 and level cover.

Compare other insurers’ over 50s plans in our guides to over 50s life insurance, guaranteed life insurance and over 60s life insurance.

Post Office, whose life insurance is provided by Scottish Friendly, says Scottish Friendly paid 98.47% of the life insurance claims it received in 2025:

Life insurance claims paid, 2025

98.47%

Source: Post Office Life Insurance page, checked 25 September 2026.

By that Post Office figure, 1.53% of the life insurance claims Scottish Friendly received in 2025 weren’t paid. Scottish Friendly’s 2025 accounts also show £263,823k in gross claims paid on insurance contracts, excluding £256,792k on investment contracts. That’s an accounting total, and it doesn’t show how many claims were accepted.

On the over 50s plan, a death in the first 2 years only pays the full cash sum if it’s accidental, and otherwise returns the premiums paid. Scottish Friendly may also refuse to pay out or adjust the cash sum if the information given on your application wasn’t accurate, complete and true.

How to make a Scottish Friendly life insurance claim

To claim on a Scottish Friendly life policy, you let Scottish Friendly know about the death and complete its bereavement claim form, which you download, print and post back. The over 50s terms say the next of kin or personal representative should contact Scottish Friendly, which then sends a claim form and pack. They also say a claim should be made within 6 months of the death, or as soon as possible after that.

With the form, Scottish Friendly needs a valid copy of the death certificate and the original policy documents, if you have them. It will tell you if it also needs a nomination form, a grant of confirmation or probate, or a deed of assignment. If the policy document has been lost, you can return a Lost Policy Declaration form with the claim.

A claim can be settled without a Grant of Representation if the total is up to £25,000, or £100,000 for the spouse of the person who died. Scottish Friendly can still insist on seeing a Grant of Representation in any circumstances if it considers it necessary. If the policy is held in trust, you skip the Grant of Representation questions on the form.

Payment is made by direct credit to your bank account, or by cheque if you don’t hold a UK bank account. Under the over 50s terms, Scottish Friendly can ask for medical records to verify a claim, and won’t pay until it has verified the claimant’s identity. Its bereavement support page also points to outside help, including Cruse Bereavement Care.

Key policy terms

These are the main terms of the My Mutual Guaranteed Over 50s Plan to check before you apply. Always read the policy documents for the exact cover you’re offered.

Before you take out a policy, it’s worth reading the key facts and terms and conditions for the exact product you’re offered. Scottish Friendly can send the over 50s key facts and terms in large print or braille on request. These official Scottish Friendly documents are a good place to start:

• PDF
  My Mutual Guaranteed Over 50s Plan key facts and terms & conditions (opens in a new tab)

  The full terms of the over 50s plan, including eligibility, the first 2 years, Early Premium End Dates, missed payments and claims.

  PDF · datocms-assets.com

• PDF
  Bereavement claim form (opens in a new tab)

  The form for claiming on a Scottish Friendly life policy, with instructions and a checklist of the documents to send.

  PDF · datocms-assets.com

Documents are published by Scottish Friendly and open on its document host. Scottish Friendly may update them, and 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.