Relevant Life Cover

A relevant life plan is insurance for an employee in case of death in service. It’s a plan paid into by the employer, which is designed to pay a lump sum if the employee dies or is diagnosed with a terminal illness.

“Very few people have heard of the plan, so the uptake of the policy is very small compared to the number of people who could benefit and save”

Who should consider these policies?

• Directors wishing to provide their own individual ‘death in service’ benefits without taking out a scheme for all employees
• High-earning employees where ‘death in service’ does not form part of their ‘lifetime allowance’ (£1 million 2016/17)

To whom are these relevant life policies aimed at?

The majority of company directors have some personal life insurance. But nearly all of these are paying for their life insurance either personally through pre-taxed income or through their company and getting a P11D benefit-in-kind penalty for this. Up until recent years, getting the limited company to pay for personal life insurance was only possible for companies that took group life insurance, often these type of policies were only possible for companies wishing to insure 3 or more employees. A higher-rate / basic-rate taxpayer can save by paying for their personal life insurance via a relevant life plan. 

There is a better way!

Things have now changed. This unique policy took advantage of pension legislation from A Day in 2006 and because of the way the life insurance was set up under trust and because the limited company paid for the policy no benefit-in-kind issues affected the employee or director.

What are the savings?

Relevant life plans are similar to most other types of life cover except they aim to provide a tax-efficient benefit provided by an employer for an employee.

This means that for a higher-rate taxpayer, the company director can save by paying for their personal life insurance via a relevant life plan. For a basic-rate taxpayer the saving is still significant. The problem is that most company directors and even accountants have never heard of the plan. Therefore the uptake of the policy is very small compared to the number of people who could benefit and save.

How much cover can you have?

Like a traditional death in service policy, the sum assured with a relevant life policy is also based on a multiple of remuneration. For a company director the definition of remuneration is based on salary plus dividends plus bonuses etc. The multiples vary from provider to provider and depend on the age of the director being insured. These range from 10 times remuneration to 25 times remuneration.

Typical relevant life examples

The majority of clients that seem to take out relevant life insurance tend to be IT contractors that contract through their own limited companies. Typically their spouse will also be a director and therefore cover is arranged for both parties in line with their insurance needs and remuneration multiples. Of course many other types of company directors can benefit such as tradesmen, business consultants, doctors or any one working through their own limited company. Other clients may include bigger businesses looking to take out three or four death in service policies for a few of their employees.

Speak to Independent Financial Solutions to discuss how your business could benefit from a relevant life policy and make sure your business doesn’t fall down the protection gap.