Why Royal London

We're the UK's largest mutual life, pensions and investment company. When we first opened our doors in 1861, we wanted to help people to help themselves. And it's been our way of thinking ever since.

Supporting your business

We also understand the importance of financial advice, that's why we design a range of solutions with advisers at the heart of our processes.

• Protection CPD hub
• Why Royal London for protection?
• Tools for Protection
• Pre-sale underwriting tool for protection
• Technical Central
• Literature Library

• Critical Illness - focus on having some of the best definitions for the conditions your clients are most likely to get.
• Our Income Protection offers cover on an own-occupation only basis and comes with a range of deferred periods.  We also now offer a 5 year payment option.
• Helping Hand – tailored and personal support at no extra cost available from the day the plan starts.
• A fast, efficient online service.
• A dedicated case manager for all your applications from start to finish.
• Access to a named underwriter when you need it.
• Innovative underwriting meaning more immediate decisions.
• Option to set up a trust online for new and existing plans.
• A proven claims track record – we’re in business to pay to claims and our claims statistics speak for themselves.
• All underpinned by our 5 star protection service
• Marketing studio - gives you sales aids, posters and risk reports to use with clients. You can brand everything with your own logo and details. And it’s quick and easy to use.

In 2025, we paid 98.4% of all protection claims, amounting to more than £821 million, helping 62,412 customers, families and businesses.

When you recommend one of our protection plans, both you and your clients hope it will never be needed. But life has a way of throwing unexpected challenges our way. In those vulnerable moments, they turn to you, their trusted adviser, and to us for support. We understand that behind every claim there’s a person facing difficult times – and we’re dedicated to making those times easier.

From product improvements to help more clients make successful claims, to providing a single point of contact to simplify the claims process, we strive to offer compassionate and effective support. We don’t just see numbers – we see people like you or I, and their families. Real people with real lives. And we aim to be there for them, every step of the way.

Explore our latest claims report that takes an in-depth look at our 2025 claims.

Income Protection enhancements – built around today’s clients

At Royal London, we’re focused on helping more people build financial resilience in a changing world. That means evolving our Income Protection to reflect how clients live and work today – with more flexibility, practical support and confidence when it matters most.

76% of advisers say most new clients don’t own or understand income protection*. Yet for many clients, their income is their most valuable financial asset.

That presents an opportunity for you to have meaningful conversations about financial resilience and the value of protecting what clients rely on most – their income. And we’re by your side with practical support and tools to help make those conversations easier.

Built for modern working lives

Supporting families when it matters most

When life takes an unexpected turn, financial support can make a real difference. That’s why we’ve added valuable support to help ease financial pressure for clients caring for a seriously ill child, managing hospital stays, or coping with the loss of a child.

We’ll pay six times the monthly benefit, up to £25,000, if their child is diagnosed with one of the conditions covered under our Standard Children's Critical Illness Cover, plus £5,000 on death – with no deferred period.

Plus, if their child is in hospital for more than six nights in a row, we’ll pay £100 a night, backdated to the first night (for up to 90 nights).

Reflecting the realities of work today

Careers don’t always follow a straight line – and protection needs to keep up.

• Whether clients take a planned career break or face redundancy, our enhancements help reduce gaps in protection and maintain access to valuable benefits when they need them most.
  Cover can continue for up to 12 months during planned career breaks.
• If clients become ill or injured within three months of redundancy, they can still claim on our Own Occupation definition – providing valuable reassurance during a time of financial uncertainty.

Supporting better client outcomes

When it comes to claims, clarity and confidence matter.

We’ve designed these enhancements to provide greater certainty at an already difficult time – supporting fairer outcomes for clients.

• Our protected benefit promise means that if your clients’ income has fallen by less than 10% when they claim, we’ll pay the full benefit amount.
• Our simplified death benefit pays a £10,000 lump sum if your clients die during the term of their plan.

Explore updates

These improvements build on our recent occupation refresh, helping you support increasingly non-linear and self-employed careers.

Get in touch if you have any questions or want to discuss how these updates can support your client conversations.

*CIExpert, Critical Thinking Report 2026

We focus on being able to pay more Critical Illness claims to your clients, faster. With our improved definitions, we've worked hard to make them clearer, giving them added peace of mind.

We’ve improved our Critical Illness definitions

• We’ve added two new full definitions: Severe mental illness and Severe bowel disease.
• We’ve improved five full definitions: Dementia, Heart attack, Cancer, Coma and Aplastic anaemia.
• We’ve added four new additional cover conditions: Bowel disease, Type 1 Diabetes, Desmoid Type Fibromatosis, and Cutaneous Lymphoma.
• We’ve made changes to four additional cover conditions: Gastrointestinal stromal tumour (GIST), Neuroendocrine tumour (NET), Pituitary gland tumour, and Non-melanoma skin cancer.
• We’ve improved and simplified our child type 1 diabetes definition under Enhanced Children’s Critical Illness cover, to reflect that there are other methods of insulin replacement than insulin injections, as well as removing the 12 month treatment requirement.
• We’ve increased the maximum pay out under additional cover conditions from £30,000 to £35,000 to reflect increased living costs and allowing us to better support your clients’ needs.

Benefits of our Critical Illness Cover

Wide range of definitions

Help your clients build financial resilience - our enhanced definitions will give your clients confidence in knowing what they're covered for, making it easier for them if they need to make a claim. Visit our interactive search tool for a full list of our definitions.

Children's Critical Illness Cover

Give your clients flexibility - they can add Enhanced or Standard Children's Critical Illness Cover, or leave it off entirely if they don't have or don't plan on having children.

Children's Critical Illness Cover Conversion option

With our Enhanced Children’s Critical Illness Cover, we automatically include a Children’s Critical Illness Cover Conversion Option. 

Advanced surgery benefit

Help your clients get paid as soon as they're on an NHS waiting list for any of the surgeries we cover under our full payment conditions.

Free Cover 

In many cases we can offer cover before your client's plan starts, offering peace of mind from the moment we receive their application.

Helping Hand

All our Personal Menu Plans come with our Helping Hand support service. Helping Hand is there for your clients, whichever stage in life they're at, and as a plan owner it doesn't cost them anything extra to use.

Useful documents

• Focus on our Critical Illness Definitions
• Critical Illness at a glance
• How our definitions compare in the market sales aid
• Additional conditions to help cover cancer
• Tailored Children's Critical Illness Cover

Download our ‘Why choose Royal London for protection’ quick summary 

Speak to your usual Royal London contact

Or call us on 0345 6094 500

At Royal London we’re proud to offer an exceptional level of service to advisers. When you start working with us, you’ll get a named point of contact within the RST team, formerly known as the Business Support Unit. They’ll get you up to speed with our tools and systems, and help you stay on top of changing compliance responsibilities. Contact your dedicated RST team member by emailing [email protected].