Short term life insurance

As the name suggests, short term life insurance can protect you and your family financially over a short period. It can prove to be an attractive option for people who do not require cover over a longer timeframe. The length of your policy is one of the factors that affect how much you'll pay and of course, it makes sense financially to only pay for the cover you need. 

If you’ve left a job or been made redundant, you could consider short term life insurance between jobs. This may be useful if you can no longer rely on previous benefits like death in service – an occupational benefit offered by some employers. A death-in-service policy pays a tax-free lump sum to employees’ beneficiaries if they die during their employed period, but it ceases to provide cover once the employee has left the job.

If you’re looking to get short term life insurance for a move abroad, we may be able to offer you cover if you’re a member of the UK armed forces, a civil servant, a diplomat or employed in the Merchant Navy. We will consider the risk to your personal safety before issuing any policy.

To apply for one of our life insurance policies, you need to be a UK resident, which means you will be currently living in the UK and have spent at least 183 days in Britain over the last tax year. Read more about how overseas life insurance works.

If you’re planning to undertake a dangerous one-off event, like a charity sky-dive or climbing a mountain, the nature of the activity would determine whether you could get life insurance over the short term. Read more in our guide to life insurance for extreme sports

Another reason for taking out a short term life insurance policy is when the cover is linked to your mortgage or debt. For example, you have a short mortgage of only 3 years and you want financial protection in place should you pass away while the mortgage is in force.

While there is no Legal & General product called ‘short term life insurance’, it is possible to take out Life Insurance with us over a term of just one year and Decreasing Life Insurance for five years. 

You may have the option to add Critical Illness Cover to Life Insurance or Decreasing Life Insurance for an additional cost. However, the minimum term length for Critical Illness Cover is two years. 

The minumum age to take out a policy is 18 and the policy must not end before your 29th birthday.

Even though getting life insurance for the short term can give you financial protection in some scenarios, that doesn’t mean it would pay out in every situation. For example, within the first year of taking out a Legal & General life insurance policy, there would be no payout available if you were to pass away due to suicide or intentional and serious self-injury.

You can read more in the Policy Summary PDF.

Life insurance with Legal & General starts from £5 a month. However, the exact costs will depend on the nature of the risks you may be exposed to, as well as the amount and length of cover. Examples of other cost factors include your age, health, occupation, smoker status, alcohol consumption and medical history.

If you decide to take out life insurance with is you'll get Free Life Cover as an additional benefit at no extra cost if you are moving home. This means that if you die between exchange of contracts and completion of your property purchase we'll pay your chosen amount of cover, the amount of your loan or £300,000, whichever is lowest. Learn more about Free Life Cover.