Assisted Dying

Hi everyone, I am talking about a very emotive topic today after being approached on social media as to how insurers view assisted dying. With recent debates on passing assisted dying laws in the Scottish and Isle of Man governments, it is something that is likely to be discussed by UK insurers at some stage.

I have been very clear not to provide an opinion about whether assisted dying should and shouldn’t be allowed, instead focusing on the facts of how the majority of life insurance policies in the UK would behave if a claim was made following someone choosing to die due to their health. At the end of the episode I include some details of support services that you can reach out to, if you have found the discussion difficult to listen to.

The key takeaways:

• The majority of insurers in the UK offer life insurance with an initial 12 month suicide exclusion 
• In Canada where assisted dying is possible, the insurers do not consider death through these means to be suicide
• In countries where assisted dying is allowed physical and mental health conditions ca be viewed differently

Next time I will be back and focusing upon protection insurance planning when you have an IHT liability. There’s some specific do’s and dont’s that can make huge differences to how life insurance claims pay out.

Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.

If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my 13 hour CPD Protection Insurance in Practice course here and 1 hour CPD Protection Competency Exam here.