Small changes your insurer handles directly
Insurers make routine changes with a phone call or a form. A new address, a married name, a different bank account or a new payment date all fall into this group. None of them touch the cover or the price.
You can also put an existing policy into trust, or change the trustees on a trust you already have. Your insurer has its own trust forms, and the change takes effect once the signed form arrives.
You can usually change who pays the premium too, for example if a partner takes over the direct debit. The person insured stays the same. Ownership changes take more paperwork, especially where a trust exists, so ask the insurer what it needs before you start.
- Name, address and contact details
- Bank account and payment date
- Placing the policy in trust
- Adding or replacing trustees
Cutting your cover or the term
If you have paid off part of your mortgage or your children have grown up, you may want less cover. Most insurers will reduce the sum assured, and your premium falls to match. Some will also shorten the term.
Think before you reduce. If your needs grow again later, getting back to the old level means a new application at an older age. Reducing is easy to do and hard to undo.
Ask the insurer to confirm in writing how the change affects any extras. Cutting the sum assured can also reduce critical illness cover, children's benefit or waiver if those link to the main amount. Some insurers treat a reduction as a new policy and send fresh documents, so keep them with your records.
Raising your cover after a life event
Many policies include a guaranteed insurability option. It lets you raise your cover without health questions after events such as getting married, having or adopting a child, or taking a bigger mortgage. There are limits on how much extra you can add and how soon after the event you must ask.
Without that option, more cover means a new policy alongside your old one. That is a common and sensible approach. You keep the original policy at its original price and add a second one for the extra need.
Joint policies after a split
Joint life policies usually pay once, on the first death, and you cannot always divide them into two single policies. Some insurers offer a separation option that lets each of you take out your own cover without health questions, within a time limit. Others do not, and each of you would need to apply fresh.
Keep the joint policy running until any new cover is in place. Cancelling first could leave one or both of you without cover.
How Hi Tomorrow helps with changes
Tell us what has changed in your life, and we will check your existing policy for options you may not know you have. If a top-up policy makes more sense, we compare the insurers on our panel and arrange it so the two policies fit together. We also help with trust forms and keep a note of every change we make for you.