Ageas Life Insurance Review 2025
Ageas Protect, formerly known as Fortis, is part of Ageas UK, a leading insurance provider in the UK.
The second option is critical illness cover with term insurance.
Ageas Protect, formerly known as Fortis, is part of Ageas UK, a leading insurance provider in the UK.
The second option is critical illness cover with term insurance.
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Ageas Protect, formerly known as Fortis, is part of Ageas UK, a leading insurance provider in the UK. The company serves 8 million customers and had significant annual revenues in 2010. Ageas UK is part of the larger Ageas Group, which serves over 20 million customers, generates substantial annual revenues, and employs nearly 13,000 people worldwide.
Ageas Protect offers various life insurance services to its clients, such as term insurance, critical illness cover, income protection, and other options. To simplify product selection, Ageas groups its services into three plans: YourLife plan, Real Life Cover, and Low Start option.
Ageas offers four options within the YourLife plan. These options include: term assurance, critical illness with term assurance, income protection, and family income benefit. The first option, term assurance, pays out a lump sum if the insured person dies or is diagnosed with a terminal illness. The sum assured can be level, increasing, or decreasing cover. With level cover, the sum assured remains fixed throughout the term of the policy. With increasing cover, the sum assured grows by 5% each year. If decreasing cover is selected, the sum assured reduces each month.
Moreover, a joint insurance policy is also available. In a joint policy, the benefit is paid out after the first partner’s death, and the policy then terminates. In other words, Ageas applies the first death rule when underwriting joint life insurance contracts. Furthermore, a waiver of premium benefit can also be added. If included, premiums are waived if the insured person is incapacitated for more than 26 weeks. For joint policies, this benefit applies if one partner becomes incapacitated for over 26 weeks, resulting in waived premiums.
The second option is critical illness cover with term insurance. This differs from term assurance by additionally covering 38 specified critical illnesses. If the insured is diagnosed with one of these illnesses, the policy pays out a lump sum. Furthermore, as this policy includes child cover, Ageas will pay out up to 50% of the sum assured if the insured person’s child is diagnosed with a critical illness.
This policy can be single or joint. In either case, the insured person must survive for 10 days after a critical illness diagnosis. Additionally, three optional benefits can be added: total disability cover, total permanent disability cover, and waiver of premium. Total disability cover pays out if the insured is incapacitated for more than 26 weeks, meets Ageas’ definition of total disability, but does not meet their definition of critical illness. The same principle applies to total permanent disability cover. With waiver of premium, only premiums are waived if the insured is incapacitated for more than 26 weeks.
The third option is income protection. This pays out a monthly benefit after a deferred period from the onset of incapacitation or terminal illness diagnosis. You can choose level monthly or annually increasing monthly benefits. If the latter is chosen, the monthly benefit will increase annually in line with the Retail Price Index. However, this increase is capped at 10% per year. For working individuals, the maximum benefit is 50% of their pre-tax monthly income, or no lower than £1,667 per month. However, for non-working individuals, the benefit is the lower of 50% of their previous pre-tax monthly income or £1,667 per month. Waiver of premium benefit is automatically included in this policy.
The final option within the YourLife plan is family income benefit. This policy pays out a monthly benefit if the insured person dies or is diagnosed with a terminal illness. Joint family income benefit policies are also available. In such cases, the policy pays out when the first person dies or is diagnosed with a terminal illness.
Real Life Cover combines several life cover options into a single policy. It includes life cover, critical illness cover, recuperation cover, income protection, child & partner carer’s cover, and waiver of premium benefit. Life cover pays out a lump sum if the insured person dies or is diagnosed with a terminal illness. This sum assured can be set to increase by 5% each year. However, in this case, premiums will also increase annually.
Critical illness cover, recuperation cover, and income protection are combined into what is termed ‘living cover’. A ‘living fund’ is established at the policy’s start, and the maximum total benefit payout (excluding the life cover sum assured) is capped at the size of this fund. Critical illness cover pays out a lump sum upon diagnosis of a critical illness. Recuperation cover funds services like physiotherapy if needed. Income protection provides a monthly benefit if the insured becomes incapacitated and unable to work.
The final component of Real Life Cover is child & partner carer’s cover. This provides a monthly benefit, without reducing the living fund, if the insured becomes unemployed or needs to leave full-time employment to care for a parent or parent-in-law.
We compare plans from the leading life insurance providers
Low Start is designed for those seeking lower initial premiums. Options include term assurance and critical illness with term assurance. Term assurance pays a lump sum if the insured dies or is diagnosed with a terminal illness. Critical illness with term assurance also pays out upon diagnosis of a critical illness. Policies can be single or joint.
While the lower initial premiums are appealing, it’s important to note that premiums are reviewed annually and are likely to increase. If the increase is not accepted, the sum assured will be reduced. Consequently, the cover amount may become insufficient, or premiums may become unaffordable. Ageas states that, over the long term, the total cost of a Low Start plan is higher compared to their policies with guaranteed fixed premiums.
