ZURICH Insurance has launched a “genuinely useful” additional benefit designed to help customers organise their affairs and give their families more clarity when they die, advisers have said.
Zurich LifeVault is described as a secure digital service through which people can record information about themselves, their loved ones and their estate before beginning to create a legacy plan.
The service is available to existing Zurich customers from today, while new customers will receive registration information when taking out a policy.
Advisers have welcomed the launch, arguing that life insurance alone may not prevent confusion if relatives cannot find important documents or understand someone’s wishes.
But they warn that digital services should not replace tailored legal advice for people with more complicated estates.
Useful
Oliver Jordan, Director at Watford-based Check Financial, said many people do not have wills in place.
He added: “My first thought is that it looks very useful. As far as I am aware, nothing currently available in the industry offers quite the same service. Other providers offer similar benefits, but this appears unique. Around 56% of UK adults do not have a will in place.
“Zurich will be helping to bridge this gap, which is highly important because of the complications that can arise when somebody dies intestate. When discussing death and arranging life cover, it is a natural transition to ask: what do you actually want to happen?
“The same thoughts that prompt someone to arrange life cover can make them consider what they want to happen after they die. It is rare to find an opportunity when somebody is willing to talk about death, so strike while the iron is hot. The biggest task we face as advisers is encouraging clients to use these benefits.”
David Stirling, Independent Financial Adviser at Belfast-based Mint Wealth, said people with more complicated estates would still need advice from a solicitor.
He added: “This is a genuinely useful additional benefit from Zurich. So many people have life insurance but no will, no power of attorney, and family who wouldn’t know where to find either even if they existed. Zurich LifeVault fixes the problem that actually causes chaos at the worst possible time.
“It’s rarely that a will was never written. It’s that nobody can find it, or find the right version, when it matters. What I like most as an adviser is that it doesn’t stop at giving you a document. It walks you through properly signing, witnessing and notarising it, because a beautifully drafted will that was never correctly executed, or that your executor can’t locate, is worth nothing either way.
“Zurich is upfront that it’s not a substitute for personal legal advice, and I’d say the same. Brilliant for a straightforward estate, but anything verging on complex will still require a solicitor’s eyes on it.”
Clever
Nouran Moustafa, Practice Principal & IFA at Roxton Wealth, welcomed Zurich’s move.
She added: “Protection has spent decades perfecting the payout and not enough time thinking about the person receiving it. LifeVault is interesting because it recognises that preparing for death is not just about buying life insurance. Families can inherit money while having absolutely no idea where documents are, what the deceased wanted, who to contact or what needs doing next.
“The clever part is bringing legacy planning into the relationship before a claim exists. That could turn protection from something clients buy, file away and forget into something they actually engage with. But the real test is usage. A brilliant digital vault nobody opens is just another forgotten password.
“I would like to see the whole protection industry move this way: less obsession with selling a policy and more focus on building an ecosystem around the human being. The best protection should not just leave your family money. It should leave them fewer problems.”
