William Russell has revamped its individual life insurance offering including the introduction of smoker rates and an increase to the minimum age at last renewal from 69 to 74 (or 69 if the age at entry was greater than 61.)
The revamp includes a guaranteed option for policyholders to increase their life benefit by 10% each year with no medical underwriting. This is capped at US$50,000.
The international life insurance product is designed for people living in different countries or between countries.
It also includes US$100k of free accidental death cover while the provider reviews the customer’s application, a new online quote journey as well as new optional benefits including adult and child critical illness.
The revamp also allows healthy individuals under 40 to purchase up to US$750k of life insurance with no medical and allowing customer’s beneficiaries to be located in a different country.
New optional benefits
Alongside the core life insurance benefit, William Russell is introducing other new optional benefits.
These include:
- Accidental death and permanent disablement where customers can increase their insurance cover for death by accident up to US$1m
- The benefit has a sub-limit of US$500k for serious injury suffered in an accident causing permanent disablement. Adult critical illness—customers can add up to US$100k cover for critical illness
- Should a customer be diagnosed with one of 19 specified medical conditions, William Russell will pay out a lump sum to the customer. The insurance cover under the critical illness benefit is comparable to critical illness cover available on the domestic UK market, including cover for cancer, strokes, and heart attacks. Customers can choose a benefit in multiples of US$10k
- Child critical illness—In the event a customer has added the adult critical illness benefit to their policy, they can also add a child critical illness benefit for up to 10 dependent children. If an insured child is diagnosed with one of 13 specified medical conditions (including cancer and bone marrow transplants), William Russell will pay out a lump sum of US$5,000
- Funeral costs and repatriation—William Russell will release US$5k to the lead beneficiary upon the death of the policyholder to cover funeral and repatriation costs
Additional updates
In further changes, the provider said it was also:
- Streamlining its application process. Healthy individuals under age 40 can typically purchase US$750k of life insurance cover with no medical
- Ensuring customers can continue renewing their policy even if they return home
- Allowing customer’s beneficiaries to be located in a different country, and can pay the life benefit into offshore bank accounts
- Permitting customers can include dividends as part of their annual income for the purposes of calculating their maximum life insurance benefit (20x annual income)
- And this is all being supported by the launch if a new online quote process for the new product
Strengthening range of protection offerings
Teresa Wighton, commercial director at William Russell, (pictured) said: “At William Russell, our goal is to make global protection simple. By strengthening our range of protection offerings, our comprehensive solutions provide brokers with more flexibility and choices for their clients.
“We know their needs can evolve and they look for cover that can adapt with their global lifestyle.
“Our new plans can offer this, global protection that moves with them.
“From major life events to ensuring the future stability of their loved ones, our international life insurance solutions provide comprehensive, tailored coverage for every stage of life.
“No matter where our members are based or the responsibilities they have, our policies adapt to their needs, offering the peace of mind that comes with knowing their family’s financial future is secure.”