Cover that rises on each anniversary
On every policy anniversary, the insurer raises your sum insured. Some policies add a set percentage each year. Others follow an official inflation measure, such as the Retail Prices Index or the Consumer Prices Index, so the increase changes from year to year with the economy.
The point is to stop rising prices quietly eroding your cover. A sum that looks generous today may only stretch so far in two decades. Increasing cover gives your family a payout closer in real value to the one you planned when you bought it.
What happens to your premium
Because the insurer is promising more each year, your premium usually rises as well. On many policies it rises faster than the cover, since you are also getting older. The starting premium tends to sit above a level policy with the same opening sum.
Ask for a projection of how the cost might grow before you commit. Some people prefer to buy a larger level sum at the start and accept a fixed cost. Others like that the increasing premium starts lower than a big level policy would. Your budget now and later both count.
Who tends to choose it
Increasing cover makes most sense when the need is for everyday living costs over a long period. Parents of a newborn, for example, may want cover lasting until the child leaves full-time education, and those costs will climb with prices.
It is less useful for a debt that is fixed in pounds or falling, such as a mortgage. Level or decreasing cover handles those better. Plenty of families mix the two: decreasing cover for the loan and increasing cover for the household budget.
- Young families wanting cover for many years
- Anyone protecting living costs, not a fixed debt
- People who want their cover to keep pace without reapplying
Turning down an increase
Some policies let you decline a yearly increase if money is tight. Check the rules carefully. With some insurers, refusing an increase once or twice means the automatic rises stop for good, and you would need fresh underwriting to add cover later. We point out these terms when we compare policies.
How Hi Tomorrow compares increasing cover
Increasing policies differ in how they measure inflation, how they price the rises and what happens if you skip one. We set those details out side by side, alongside a level option, so you can see the cost over time as well as the first premium.
Once you have chosen, we help you through the medical questions, arrange a trust if you want one and stay on hand if your family ever needs to claim.