Vitality Life Insurance Review
This article was last updated:
Our experts review costs, features, and customer feedback on Vitality Life's range of life insurance policies.
This article was last updated:
Our experts review costs, features, and customer feedback on Vitality Life's range of life insurance policies.
Previously known as PruProtect, Vitality Life is owned by Discovery, a major financial services company in South Africa.
Vitality Life was ranked in the UK's Top 10 Best Life Insurance Companies for both Term Insurance and Whole of Life Insurance in recent independent research.
In this in-depth review article we look at:
Vitality Life was founded in 2007 as PruProtect, but in 2014 it rebranded to VitalityLife (strictly it should be written with no space between the two words). The company also offers car insurance and health insurance, and says it is on a mission 'to make people healthier and to enhance and protect their lives'. Vitality sells insurance through advisers / intermediaries, but also direct to consumers online.
It has a reputation for innovation, and offers reward points to customers who track their active lifestyles using wearable devices. These points can then be exchanged for things like an Apple Watch, a Garmin smart watch, or discounted membership at Virgin Active gyms. Customers access rewards through the Vitality Member Zone.
Vitality Life offers two main types of life insurance policy:
Whole of life insurance – this type of policy will pay out a lump sum whenever you die, provided you keep up with the payments.
Term life insurance – this type of policy will pay out a lump sum if you die within a set period of time (the ‘term’), but will not pay out anything if you live beyond that.
The company offers discounts of up to 40% on premiums to customers whose wearable devices indicate they are living a healthy, active lifestyle.
Vitality Life also offers a ‘serious illness cover’ add-on to its life insurance policies. This will pay out a lump sum if you’re diagnosed with any of a list of 182 serious illnesses, including cancer, heart disease and stroke. Alternatively, you can buy Vitality Critical Illness Cover as a stand-alone policy. Finally, you can get income protection from the company: we review Vitality Income Protection insurance here.
The cost of life insurance from Vitality Life will depend on a number of factors, including your age, health, lifestyle and the amount of cover you need. According to the company, it starts from just £8 per month.
To give you an idea of how much life insurance from Vitality Life might cost, we’ve put together some sample quotes for a 30-year-old non-smoker with a ‘standard’ level of health, looking for £500,000 of cover over a 20-year term:
Prices are correct at the time of writing, but you should of course get your own personalised quote.
In 2021, Vitality Life paid out 99.6% of claims, according to its own claims report. That's higher than the industry average life insurance claim pay out rate.
When you take out life insurance with Vitality Life, you’ll need to disclose any medical conditions, and it's possible you'll have to undergo a medical examination. This is so that Vitality Life can assess your health and calculate your premiums accordingly.
You’ll also need to disclose any risky hobbies or activities that you take part in (such as sky diving or rock climbing). That's important as failure to disclose any relevant information could invalidate your policy.
Vitality Life has a Trustpilot score of 4 out of 5, based on over 25,000 reviews.
Customers praise Vitality Life for its competitive prices, easy-to-understand policies and helpful customer service. However, recently Vitality members have been having problems with slow and buggy systems, making it difficult to access rewards.
One downside of Vitality Life insurance is that the "value-added" benefits like premium discounts and smart watches are designed for people who are relatively tech-savvy and embrace the trend towards "the quantified self".
If you don't use a smart watch, or if you simply don't like the idea of sharing biometric data with your insurance company on an ongoing basis, Vitality Life might not be the right choice for you.
It’s also worth noting that – we with all life insurance policies – cover may not be available to people with certain medical conditions, and there are no guaranteed payouts with Vitality Life term insurance. If you live to a ripe old age beyond the "term" of your policy, your beneficiaries won't not get any pay out when you pass away.
In recent years, Vitality has consistently paid out on over 99% of life insurance claims. Find out how that compares to the life insurance industry average.
Here are Vitality's pay out rates:
Source: Vitality, "Claims and benefits report 2022"
Life insurance can be a tax deductible business expense in certain cases. For example, if the life insurance policy is taken out on a key employee, the premiums can be deducted as a business expense. Additionally, if the life insurance policy is used as collateral for a business loan, the
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