Finder Life Insurance Customer Satisfaction Awards 2022

We asked customers of the UK’s major life insurance companies about their experience and whether they’d recommend their insurer to a friend or family member. We crunched the numbers to decide our Finder Life Insurance Customer Satisfaction Awards 2022.

You can see our winners below, plus a full table of the results. The winners are based on both overall satisfaction scores (that is, star ratings) and recommendation scores (the percentage of customers who said they’d recommend the brand to a friend). More on this below.

Our life insurance winners

Winner, Best Life Insurance:

Zurich

Zurich has jumped from mid-table last year to the top spot, in our latest survey. It offers life insurance and life plus critical illness cover. Customers cited great service and friendly staff, and several mentioned reasonable prices, too.

Read our review of Zurich life insurance

Highly Commended, Life Insurance:

Aegon

Aegon offers life insurance, critical illness cover and income protection policies. Customers felt the brand was trustworthy and easy to contact, as well as friendly and reliable.

Read our review of Aegon life insurance

Our 2022 life insurance customer satisfaction league table

We asked policyholders to rate their satisfaction with their life insurance company, and whether they’d recommend it to a friend. We’ve shown both for each brand in the table below. Our independent survey of 1,217 life insurance customers was carried out in December 2021.

Overall satisfaction	Customers who’d recommend	Insurer	Review
★★★★★	84%		Zurich offers life insurance, and life with critical illness as its options for life cover. There are often perks such as shopping vouchers when you sign up. Customers cited great service and friendly staff, and several mentioned reasonable prices, too.	View deals
★★★★★	81%		Aegon offers life insurance, critical illness and income protection. Customers felt the brand was trustworthy and easy to contact, friendly and reliable.	View deals
★★★★★	80%		Royal London has 5 different types of life insurance policies on offer, including one for people aged 50-80. It also offers critical illness and income protection cover. Customers liked the policy and most liked the service, although a few had mixed views about the service.	View deals
★★★★★	78%		Scottish Widows was founded in the early 1800s and has around 6 million customers. It offers life cover and critical illness cover. Customers said the brand was trustworthy, reliable, and easy to deal with.	View deals
★★★★★	77%		The largest general insurer in the UK, Aviva offers life insurance, critical illness cover and over-50s life insurance, as well as income protection cover. Many life insurance customers in our poll said Aviva offered good cover at a decent price.	View deals
★★★★★	80%		AIG offers a wide range of options for life insurance cover, including life and critical illness policies. Customers in our poll highlighted that plans could be “personalised”, and liked the benefits and service.	View deals
★★★★★	75%		LV= offers life insurance, critical illness cover and income protection. Many customers had found the service good, with only a few niggles.	View deals
★★★★★	75%		Direct Line has several options for life insurance, including a specialist over-50s life insurance policy for customers aged 50-85. Cover is provided by AIG. Views about its service were generally positive, with customers finding it easy to deal with.	View deals
★★★★★	74%		Better known as a bank, HSBC offers life cover, and cover for critical illness and income protection. For critical illness, cover must end before you’re 75. Customers in our poll felt HSBC was “reliable” and “trustworthy” but some felt that service “wasn’t the best”.	View deals
★★★★★	71%		You can get life insurance with the option to add critical illness cover Legal & General. The maximum age for applying for critical illness cover is 67. It often offers shopping vouchers when you sign up. Customers liked these deals and felt prices were good.	View deals
★★★★★	75%		SunLife’s roots go back to 1810. It specialises in products for people aged 50 and over, with the maximum age for cover being 85. Customer reviews were mixed, with some positive and a few who had some niggles.	View deals
★★★★★	67%		It’s hard to miss Vitality’s bright pink branding. Vitality offers life cover, income protection plus 2 types of illness cover. Customers felt generally positive, especially about the rewards programme, but a few mentioned problems with the app.	View deals
★★★★★	73%		Canada Life offers level cover, increasing cover and decreasing cover life insurance, and you have to apply via a financial adviser. Customers overall were fairly positive about the service, but a few felt it was expensive.	View deals
★★★★★	61%		Beagle Street is another brand with shopping gift cards as a welcome bonus. It offers life insurance with critical illness as an add-on. Customers were generally positive about the service but a few felt rates could be better.	View deals

Customer satisfaction ratings methodology

In December 2021, we ran a customer satisfaction survey on insurance providers and other financial service companies; 1,217 people told us about their life insurance provider.

The survey asked respondents how satisfied they were with their current insurance company (on a scale from one to five), and also whether they would recommend the brand to a friend or not. We turned the results into star ratings and shortlisted the top-performing brands for our awards. When there was a draw, we used the recommendation score (that is, the percentage of customers who said they would recommend the brand to a friend) as a tie-breaker.

Full details of our star ratings for this sector are on the insurance ratings methodology page.

Written by

Liz Edwards

Editor-in-chief

Liz Edwards has been a consumer writer and editor for more than 20 years. She led award-winning teams at the campaigning publisher Which?, and has covered a range of consumer rights and personal finance topics including pensions, credit, banking and insurance. Liz has appeared frequently in national media such as The Sun, Metro, HuffPost and The Independent. She loves to cut through waffle to give consumers the real lowdown. And she loves puns. See full bio

Liz's expertise

Liz has written 106 Finder guides across topics including:

• Consumer rights and protection
• Saving money
• Buy now, pay later
• Insurance
• Consumer trends