Group Life Assurance Cover

Group Life Cover is life assurance provided by a company for its employees (the premiums are paid by the employer). It provides a lump sum on the death of a member of a scheme. The lump sum is paid to trustees who pay the beneficiary and is not subject to income tax. The amount is specified at the outset (e.g. a fixed amount or a multiple of salary) and the premiums are paid by the employer.

Our strengths in Group Life Assurance Cover

We are the market leader with a market share of approx. 50% for life cover.
In 2006 Irish Life Corporate Business paid out approx. €51m in claims under Group Life Assurance contracts.
We offer very competitive rates and have done so for over 20 years.
To support our position as market leader we employ over 65 staff who are fully dedicated to managing our risk portfolio.

Why would an Employer set up a Group Life Assurance Cover for their employees?

An employer can write off the full cost of providing the benefits against corporation tax.
It is an attractive benefit that the employer can offer current and future employees.
The underwriting requirements for group life assurance are much less stringent than for individual life assurance cover. A non-medical limit is set based on the size of the group and the levels of cover. Any eligible member whose benefits are below this limit will not be underwritten. Our non-medical limits are very competitive.
As cover is organised on a group basis, costs are significantly lower than equivalent individual life assurance cover.
Administration for the employer (and broker) is much more straightforward than purchasing equivalent life assurance cover policies for each individual employee.

What does Irish Life Corporate Business need to provide a quote?

All we need is a list of the employees’ dates of birth, gender and salaries, along with the level of benefit the employer wants to provide. Some background on the member’s occupation is also useful.
We do not need the company or employee names.
You can email, fax, or phone in with these details. We will issue you with a quote confirming the number of members, benefit structure, sum assured, non-medical limit and premium cost of the policy.

How do you set up a Group Life Assurance scheme?

It’s easy - once you are happy with the quote, we send you an Employer Proposal form and an explanatory booklet. If members are over the non-medical limit, we may need individual proposal forms to be completed by these members. You return the completed Employer Proposal form to us together with:

A full list of the members to be covered
Their dates of birth
Salaries and gender
A letter confirming that Irish Life Corporate Business are to commence life assurance cover on a certain date
Payment on account.

Group Life Assurance Scheme Set Up

We set up the scheme on our records and underwriting is completed. We may contact you again at this stage, if there are underwriting requirements. Irish Life Corporate Business will provide standard documentation for you to complete in order to formally establish the scheme under trust. This is necessary to obtain Revenue approval and tax relief.

Once a year we will send you a pre-renewal schedule. This is sent out 6 weeks before the renewal is due and the client must update any changes to the employee details (e.g. people joining or leaving the scheme, salary changes etc). This is sent back to Irish Life Corporate Business and the renewal is completed.

The premium rate is guaranteed for a certain period usually three years. After this time, the rate is reviewed and a new rate, based on membership at that time and the scheme’s claims experience, is set.

Downloads

Click here to view all Group Life Assurance Cover documents.

More Information

For more information please contact your company pension advisor, your broker, or Irish Life Corporate Business Sales Support on (01) 704 1845 or email salessupport@Irishlife.ie.