Why Zurich Relevant Life?

Zurich Relevant Life cover offers a tax efficient way for an employer, usually a small business, to provide Life cover for an employee. It is designed to help protect their family against the impact of their death or diagnosis of a terminal illness whilst they're employed.

Relevant life cover may be suitable if:

The employer has a small business without enough employees to set up a group life scheme.
The employer wants to provide death-in-service benefits to their employees that exceed those payable under the main company scheme.
The employees have substantial pension funds and don’t want their death-in-service benefits to form part of their pension lifetime allowance.

We’ve built our Relevant Life cover product in a way that lets the employer choose the cover their employee needs, and change it when their employees’ life changes.

Relevant Life cover

The policy can only be taken out by the employer, who can be:

A sole trader with employees
A partnership
A limited liability partnership
A limited company
A charity

Eligibility:

One employee, including: company directors (including shareholding directors) and company officers
Minimum age at entry 18
Maximum age at entry 73
Maximum age at end of term 74
Minimum term 1 year
Maximum term 50 years
Minimum premium £5 a month or £50 a year
UK resident

Key information:

No assessment of premiums on the employee as benefit in kind or otherwise.
Premiums paid by the employer are usually viewed as an allowable business expense by HMRC.
Premiums and any benefit paid are eligible for relief from:
- Income Tax
- Corporation Tax
- National Insurance contributions.
In most cases benefits are paid free of inheritance tax.
Our policies are portable, should the employee leave their current employer they are able to continue the policy with a new employer or in their own name.
Free cover during underwriting for up to £2,000,000.

Maximum cover limits

The maximum sum assured will be limited to the life assured’s total remuneration.

Age	Total remuneration
Age 18-39	30 x total remuneration
Age 40-49	20 x total remuneration
Age 50 onwards	15 x total remuneration

Remuneration can include salary, bonuses, benefits in kind and dividends earned.

Trusts

The policy can only be issued into a Zurich Relevant Life Policy Trust, which can be done online through the application journey. The employee’s family or dependants can be beneficiaries.

Milestone benefit

We know a lot can happen between the day your customer takes out their policy and the day they need to make a claim. When these significant events occur, your customer can use the milestone benefit feature of their policy to increase their sum assured. They won't have to answer any health questions, but their premiums will change.