Tesco life insurance review 2026

Tesco Insurance is a trading name of Tesco Personal Finance Ltd, a company registered in Scotland that is part of Tesco Plc. It says it began in 1997 as Tesco Bank and now helps more than 2 million customers. As well as life insurance, it offers car, home, pet and travel insurance.

Tesco Personal Finance acts as an introducer to Aviva, and the two companies aren’t in the same corporate group. Aviva Life & Pensions UK Limited provides, administers and underwrites Tesco Life Insurance, the Critical Illness Plan and Free Parent Life Cover. When you start a quote with Tesco Insurance, you’re transferred to Aviva to complete it.

The plans are sold without advice: Aviva says you won’t receive advice or a personal recommendation, and only Aviva’s life insurance and critical illness products are offered. Aviva pays Tesco Personal Finance commission for introducing you, and that commission is included in your premium.

Aviva Life & Pensions UK Limited was incorporated on 18 September 1996 and was called Norwich Union Life & Pensions Limited until 1 June 2009. Tesco describes Aviva as having over 325 years of experience.

Barclays bought Tesco Bank’s credit cards, loans and savings operations for £700 million, and the transfer took legal effect on 1 November 2024. Barclays now trades under the Tesco Bank name, while Tesco Personal Finance kept its insurance, ATMs, travel money and gift card operations under separate brands. With its parent company and Tesco Underwriting, it’s known as Tesco Insurance and Money Services. In July 2025, Tesco said this business was headquartered in Edinburgh and employed over 1,300 people across five UK sites.

Tesco and Aviva announced their life insurance partnership on 20 August 2025. Tesco said the cover would reach its customers online, through social media and in hundreds of UK stores, with a digital quote and apply service at tescoinsurance.com. Tesco Personal Finance says it launched the product in its year to 28 February 2026. Its revenue from continuing operations fell 11.1% to £249.3m that year, mainly because the previous year included £27.1m from signing a new pet insurance contract.

Tesco Personal Finance Limited has been FCA-authorised since 1 December 2001 for insurance distribution and belongs to the Financial Ombudsman Service. In October 2018, when it still ran Tesco Bank, the FCA fined it £16.4 million over a November 2016 cyber attack on personal current accounts that netted attackers £2.26 million. The fine included a 30% early-settlement discount, and the FCA said no personal data was lost or stolen.

Tesco Life Insurance is term cover, so it insures you for the length of the policy and pays a lump sum of up to £5 million on a successful claim. You’ll get the lump sum early if you’re diagnosed with a terminal illness, as defined in the policy, and aren’t expected to live longer than 12 months.

You can cover one person with a single policy or two people with a joint policy. A joint policy only pays out once: when Aviva accepts a claim for one person, the policy ends.

The payout could help your family with:

• Mortgage or rent payments
• Household bills and everyday living costs
• Childcare, school or university costs
• Outstanding loans and credit cards
• A cash gift or inheritance for the people you love

You can also add critical illness cover, Aviva’s Critical Illness Plan, when you buy life cover. It pays your full cover amount if you’re diagnosed with one of 52 listed conditions and survive more than 10 days, and it doesn’t pay out for death alone.

Tesco Life Insurance has no cash-in value at any time. Cover ends with nothing paid back if you stop paying your premiums, or when the policy term finishes.

The price you’re offered depends on your circumstances and the cover you choose. When you apply, the insurer will ask about:

Tesco says the cost usually depends on the type of policy and the amount of cover, and that your age, lifestyle, health, family medical history, job and smoker status can also affect it. During the quote, your details are matched with Tesco Clubcard, and a discount is applied if they match. Clubcard members get Clubcard Prices for as long as they hold the policy, and Tesco says Clubcard data is only used to make a positive impact on your premium.

Aviva treats vaping the same way as smoking. It counts you as a previous smoker if you haven’t smoked or used nicotine replacements for 12 months or more, and as a non-smoker after at least 5 years. In a Tesco guide’s example based on Aviva figures from July 2024, a 35-year-old buying £150,000 of cover for 25 years would pay from £11.22 a month as a non-smoker. As a smoker, they’d pay £21.18 a month: £9.96, or about 89%, more.

In Aviva’s increasing cover example, James (34) and Emma (33) pay £20.00 a month for a £200,000 Life Insurance Plan over 25 years. If CPI has risen by 2.5% after the first year, their cover increases by £5,000 to £205,000 and their monthly premium rises by £0.75 to £20.75.

Cover generally costs less the younger and healthier you are when you take it out, and decreasing term usually costs less than level term for the same starting amount of cover. Adding critical illness cover increases the price. Comparing quotes from several insurers shows what’s available for your circumstances.

You can place Tesco Life Insurance in trust when you take it out, by filling in Aviva’s trust application form and sending it to Aviva. Tesco’s guide says adding a trust to an existing policy may need help from a solicitor or adviser. Aviva Trusts aren’t available for the Critical Illness Plan or Free Parent Life Cover, and Aviva has more about trusts at aviva.co.uk/life/trusts.

Aviva offers two types of trust, and with either one you automatically become a trustee. Under the Discretionary Gift Trust (Protection), trustees receive the payout for one or more potential beneficiaries, including children and grandchildren. You can change the beneficiaries at any time by writing to the trustees, and you keep your right to any terminal illness benefit. The Survivor Trust is for joint policies: the trustees can pay the surviving partner as long as they’re still alive 31 days after the death.

Life Insurance Plan payouts are currently free of personal income and capital gains tax, but may be subject to inheritance tax unless the policy is in a suitable trust. Tesco says a trust means your beneficiaries can get the money more quickly after a successful claim. Aviva says a trust has tax and legal implications and can’t simply be cancelled once it’s set up, and you can’t use the separation benefit once a joint policy is in trust.

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

Yes. Aviva underwrites the policies and handles claims, and it paid 98.7% of individual life claims in 2025, the figure Tesco’s website quotes from Aviva’s 2026 claims report. The figures cover all policies underwritten by Aviva and Aviva Protection UK, including Over 50s plans, not only those sold through Tesco. For 2025, Aviva reported:

Life claims paid

98.7%

Critical illness, children’s and TPD claims paid

90.7%

Paid in life and terminal illness claims

£860.7m

Aviva claims paid by year

Source: Aviva published claims statistics for 2024 and 2025. The figures cover all Aviva individual protection policies, not only those sold through Tesco Insurance.

In 2025, Aviva paid 40,277 individual life and terminal illness claims across term, whole of life and over 50s cover, averaging £21,368 per claim. Across all individual protection products, it accepted 96.9% of claims received. The 1.3% of life claims not paid were declined for misrepresentation (1%) or because the definition wasn’t met (0.3%).

Aviva’s 2025 critical illness figures predate Tesco’s Critical Illness Plan, which launched in May 2026. Misrepresentation of health and lifestyle details was the leading reason Aviva declined life claims in 2025. If you don’t answer every application question completely, truthfully and accurately, Aviva may amend or cancel your policy, reduce a payout or refuse a claim.

How to make a Tesco life insurance claim

You make a claim with Aviva, either through its online claim form or by calling 0800 015 1142 (+44 1603 603 277 from outside the UK). If you use the online form, Aviva gets in touch to help you through it, or you can call first if you’d prefer to speak to someone.

For a death claim, Aviva asks for your contact details and the person’s name, relationship to you, address, date of birth, and date and cause of death. Having the policy number and death certificate helps complete the form, and you’ll receive a claims reference number. For a terminal illness claim, the policyholder gives their policy number, date of birth, contact details and a brief description of the condition.

Aviva may ask for proof of death or terminal illness, and it pays for any information it requests from third parties. Single policies not in trust pay your estate, while joint policies pay the surviving policyholder (or the younger policyholder’s estate if both die at the same time). If the policy is in trust, Aviva pays the trustees to pass on to your chosen beneficiaries.

For Free Parent Life Cover, Tesco’s contact page gives 0800 158 2126, while Aviva’s plan document gives 0800 158 3493.

Key policy terms

These terms are worth knowing before you apply. Check the policy conditions for the exact product you’re offered.

Before you take out a policy, it’s worth reading the policy summary and policy conditions for the exact product you’re offered. The Life Insurance Plan and Critical Illness Plan documents are Aviva’s versions for plans introduced by Tesco Insurance:

• PDF
  Life Insurance Plan policy summary (AL22001) (opens in a new tab)

  Who can apply, the types of cover, included benefits and what isn’t covered.

  PDF · aviva.io

• PDF
  Life Insurance Plan policy conditions (AL22002) (opens in a new tab)

  The full terms of the Life Insurance Plan, including definitions, exclusions and cancelling.

  PDF · aviva.io

• PDF
  Critical Illness Plan policy summary (AL21007) (opens in a new tab)

  A summary of the Critical Illness Plan, including children’s benefit and additional critical illness benefit.

  PDF · aviva.io

• PDF
  Critical Illness Plan policy conditions (AL21008) (opens in a new tab)

  The full terms of the Critical Illness Plan and the definitions of each covered illness.

  PDF · aviva.io

• PDF
  About our services and costs (GN14046) (opens in a new tab)

  The service you receive, the products offered and the commission Aviva pays Tesco Personal Finance.

  PDF · aviva.io

• PDF
  Free Parent Life Cover policy summary and plan conditions (PT01118) (opens in a new tab)

  Aviva’s terms for Free Parent Life Cover, including who can apply and what isn’t covered.

  PDF · aviva.io

• PDF
  Aviva Discretionary Gift Trust (protection) (AL53003) (opens in a new tab)

  Aviva’s trust form and trust deed for single or joint life protection policies.

  PDF · aviva.io

Documents are published by Aviva and open on its website. Aviva 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.