Skip to Content
Vitality
Search Vitality Log in Get a quote
  1. Business
  2. Life Insurance
  3. Key Person Cover

Business protection

Key person
insurance

Speak to our advisers

Protect your business and important employees with key person insurance

In the UK, 99% of businesses are small to medium enterprises1. And many rely on a few key employees. That’s where key person cover comes in. It protects your business if they are diagnosed with a terminal illness or passes away. Having key person insurance means the plan pays out a lump sum to cover any loss in revenue. It’s essentially key person income protection, and it doubles up as an employee benefit too. Your business is protected and they get benefit from our partners. If they stay healthy, they’ll be rewarded.

Not sure if your business is at risk? Use our digital tool to calculate the chance of at least one of your employees passing away. Add the age and sex of your employees for results - it takes just two minutes.

1UK Parliament Business Statistics 2021
Trustpilot

Optimiser your key person insurance with these add-ons

• Optimiser
If you add this option, you could get 30% lower premiums. This depends on employee age and their length of term.

• Vitality Plus
If your monthly premium goes above £45 and you have Optimiser, you can add this for just £4.75 a month per employee. It gives them access to our full range of partners.

• Disability cover
This pays out a lump sum if the person insured is diagnosed with an illness or becomes disabled because of an accident.
Diagram of optimiser and disability cover being added to the plan
0808 120 3603

Opening hours: Monday-Thursday 8am-9pm, Friday 8am-7pm, Saturday 9am-5pm, Sunday closed

Speak to our advisers

Your business protection options

  • Business loan protection

    Woman at laptop with coffee and notebook on table

    Business loan protection protects your finances if a company director suffers a terminal illness or dies.

    More on business loan protection

  • Shareholder protection

    Man and woman talking in the office with a tablet

    Shareholder protection insurance is there to protect you if a director suffers a terminal illness or dies.

    More on shareholder protection

  • Relevant life insurance

    A team of four, with two men and two women, brainstorming ideas

    Relevant life insurance provides a great tax efficient death in service benefit with up to 50% off tax.

    More on relevant life insurance

Key person insurance FAQs

What is key person insurance and who needs it?

Key person insurance is an insurance policy that provides a lump sum if an owner or key employee passes away. It can also pay out if they are diagnosed with a terminal illness. It’s designed to cover your most valuable employees. This could be the CEO or someone with a specialist trade.

How much key person insurance do I need?

This largely depends on the key person’s annual salary. This figure should be multiplied by five to calculate the minimum protection. Do if they earn £100,000 a year, they key person policy should cover at least £500,000. You should also consider how much profit they create, and how much it would cost to find their replacement.

Is key person insurance a benefit-in-kind?

Key person cover is not classed as a benefit-in-kind because the lump sum does not go to the employee or their family.

Who is the beneficiary of a key person policy?

Key person insurance is taking out by a company on an individual. This means the business owns the policy and is the beneficiary of the claim. The premiums are tax deductible as long as the reasons for cover fit the criteria.

Get a quote Get a quote

Request a call back