Nine UK insurers. Four numbers that actually separate them.

The nine insurers, one criterion at a time

Read a comparison table by column rather than by row and the shape of the market changes. On maximum life cover six of the nine are identical. On critical illness conditions the spread is 36 to 55. On application route the nine split cleanly into two groups, and that split matters more than either number.

Select a criterion to rank all nine on it. Every figure comes from that insurer's own published adviser material.

Premiums are deliberately not compared here: they depend on age, health, occupation, term and smoker status, so a premium column would be a made-up number wearing a table's authority.

What happens if your key person is disabled, not dead

This is the question the comparison table cannot answer, and it is the one people arrive at this page asking. Key person cover pays on death, and — if critical illness is added — on a defined list of conditions. Long-term incapacity that is not on that list is a different product.

The ABI's 2025 claims data makes the difference visible. Across all UK insurers, 96.7% of individual life claims were paid and 90.2% of critical illness claims — but only 66.7% of total permanent disability claims, from just 393 claims in the whole market.

Legal & General's own adviser page shows why the definition matters more than the condition count: its maximum critical illness cover is £3m under a Specific Work Task disability definition and £2m under Own Occupation. Same insurer, same product, different definition, £1m of difference.

Eight decisions to settle before two quotes are comparable

Premiums can vary between providers for cover that looks identical on a table and is not. Almost every one of those differences traces back to one of eight decisions that were made differently on each side.

Work through them and you will be comparing the same thing. Nothing you enter here leaves this browser.

How much cover, and what it is likely to cost

Cover is not a preference; it is an arithmetic. This site's calculator sums three things — the profit contribution you would lose, what it costs to recruit and train a replacement, and any business debt secured against that person.

The premium it then shows is a model, not a quote. It moves on age, on smoker status, and on cover type, using the same rates the calculator page uses. Every input and every step is shown so you can see what is producing the figure.

Illustrative estimate only. keyperson.quest is a comparison and information resource, not an insurer or a broker. Actual cover and premiums depend on your circumstances and on underwriting.

The insurer, the adviser, and this page

People searching for a key person comparison are often really trying to work out who to talk to, and the three things involved are easy to confuse because all three use the word compare.

Three of the nine insurers here — Scottish Widows, Canada Life and LV= — can only be accessed through an FCA-authorised adviser at all. That is not a small operational detail; for a third of this table it decides whether you can proceed on your own.

This page is the third thing on that list, and it is the one with no regulatory permission of any kind. That is stated here rather than in a footer.