Direct mail life insurance leads: do mailers work in the UK?

Direct mail life insurance leads, the replies a firm gets from a printed mailing about life cover, are common in the US, but UK sellers rarely advertise them. Mailers can still work here, particularly when your firm writes under its own name to people it has good reason to contact, such as mortgage clients who took no cover. To run one well, you need lawful postal data, a list screened against the Mailing Preference Service, a letter that meets FCA rules and a break-even worked out before you print.

What are direct mail life insurance leads?

If you’ve searched for life insurance mailer leads, most of what you found was written for US agents. The model there is well established. A vendor or marketing agency picks a group of households, posts each one a letter or postcard about life cover, and sells the returned cards to agents. Agents can also pay a vendor to mail on their behalf and receive the cards themselves.

A reply card asks for very little: usually a name, a phone number, and perhaps an age and the amount of cover the person has in mind. Everything else, from why they replied to what they can afford, has to come out on the first call. That is why the follow-up matters as much as the mailing.

Translating the US model for a UK firm

US mailers are mostly aimed at two groups: new homeowners, for mortgage protection, and older people, for what Americans call final expense cover. Neither maps neatly onto the UK, and the vocabulary differs too.

For the wider picture of lead types and where they come from, see our complete guide to UK life insurance leads. This page stays with leads that begin with something pushed through a letterbox.

Does direct mail still work for life insurance in the UK?

It can, but rarely in the form of direct mail life insurance leads bought from a vendor. UK sellers rarely advertise reply-card leads, and US-style mass mailings sold on to advisers sit awkwardly with UK data rules and UK costs. Post is most practical here when a firm writes under its own name to people it already has a reason to contact, with a clear idea of what each policy can afford to cost.

Why the US model doesn’t travel well

• The data. US mailers often start from property and mortgage records. In the UK, the ICO’s guidance on collecting information and generating leads makes clear that information being publicly available doesn’t, on its own, make it fair to use for marketing. You have to tell people you hold their details and think about whether your letter would surprise them.
• The cost. A seller has to recover the whole mailing from the replies it sells, and every letter is paid for before anyone answers. Unless the response is strong, each reply ends up expensive, as the calculator further down shows.
• The seller’s status. The FCA’s pure protection market study final report (September 2026) describes a lead generator as a firm that obtains consumers’ contact details and passes them to other firms for a fee or a share of the commission. A business that mails the public, asks qualifying questions on a reply card and sells the answers to brokers is unlikely to be able to rely on the narrow exclusion for businesses that simply pass on people’s contact details. Check its status, and its principal’s if it is an appointed representative, on the FCA Financial Services Register yourself rather than taking its word, and ask your compliance adviser if the answer is unclear.
• The speed. Post is slow in both directions. A card can sit on a kitchen table for days before it is posted, then spend more days in the post. An online enquiry can reach a broker as soon as it is sent.

Where post still earns its place

None of that makes mail useless. It can still suit:

• Your own client bank. More than 40% of mortgage holders don’t have life insurance, according to the FCA’s Financial Lives survey as cited in its market study interim report. If you arranged mortgages for people who didn’t take cover at the time, a letter from the firm that helped them buy their home is a natural reason to get back in touch. You already hold their address, and they know your name. The same interim report found that advisers in mortgage networks already get most of their protection leads from their own mortgage clients. Our guide to getting more from existing clients and referrals covers the other ways to use your client bank.
• Reviews tied to events. A remortgage date, the end of a fixed rate or a policy anniversary gives a letter a reason to exist. Check that what your privacy notice told clients covers using their details this way. If a client already has cover, the point of the review is whether it still fits. Recommend replacing a policy only where the client is clearly better off, and record why: a new policy can mean fresh underwriting, a higher premium at an older age and, for over-50s plans, a new waiting period.
• Customers who prefer paper. Some people, often older, would rather keep a letter and reply in their own time than take a call out of the blue. If you specialise in over-50s cover, post can suit, but the rules for the letter matter more, not less.
• People who haven’t thought about cover. According to the FCA’s consumer research, reported in its final report, 58% of UK adults have no pure protection, and 59% of those people have never thought about whether they need it. People who have never considered their needs aren’t searching for cover, so a letter is one way to put the question in front of them, though you should expect fewer replies.

If someone offers you mailer leads

If a seller offers you mailer leads, get answers to these in writing before you pay:

• Who sent the mailing, and whose name was on the letter and the reply card.
• What the card said the person was asking for, word for word, and what it said would happen next.
• When each person replied, and how long the reply has been held since.
• Whether the same reply has been, or will be, sold to anyone else.
• Where the addresses came from, and when they were last screened against the Mailing Preference Service.
• The seller’s own FCA status: whether it is authorised or an appointed representative, and if it is an appointed representative, which principal is responsible for it. Check both on the FCA Financial Services Register.

How to check a lead is genuinely exclusive goes deeper on the resale question, and choosing a UK lead seller covers the other checks worth making.

Where can a UK firm get postal data lawfully?

Letters sit outside the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), which govern marketing calls, emails and texts, so you don’t need anyone’s consent under PECR to write to them. The ICO’s guidance on choosing a lawful basis for direct marketing puts postal marketing under data protection law alone, with legitimate interests or consent as the likely basis. That still leaves real obligations, and most of them bite when you choose your list.

Three places addresses come from

Legitimate interests: write the assessment down

UK GDPR accepts that direct marketing can be a legitimate interest, but it doesn’t assume it. A legitimate interests assessment answers three questions: what your interest is, whether writing to these people is necessary to pursue it, and whether their interests outweigh yours. The third question is where targeting decisions show up.

Don’t select people because they are likely to be vulnerable, for example very elderly, recently bereaved or in financial difficulty. That kind of targeting is likely to weigh against you in the balancing test, and the Consumer Duty points the same way: it applies to people who aren’t yet your clients and expects firms to avoid foreseeable harm. The FCA’s guidance on the fair treatment of vulnerable customers (FG21/1) also expects you to think about how health, life events, resilience and capability affect the people you write to. Ask your compliance adviser to review the assessment before the list is ordered, not after the letters have gone.

Put the privacy information in the envelope

When you rent or buy addresses, the people named in them didn’t give their details to you. UK GDPR therefore requires you to give them privacy information, naming the source of their details, within a month at the latest, or when you first communicate with them if that is sooner. For a mailing, the first communication is the letter itself. Print or enclose a short notice that says who you are, where the address came from, what you’ll use it for, how to stop further mailings and how to complain to the ICO, and where to read your full privacy notice. The full notice must cover the rest of what Article 14 requires, such as your lawful basis and the legitimate interests you rely on, the categories of data, how long you keep it and people’s other rights. The UK rules section of our main leads guide summarises the wider obligations that come with bought-in data.

Don’t add phone numbers or email addresses to a postal list

It’s tempting to buy phone numbers to match a mailing list so you can ring the people who don’t reply. The ICO’s guidance says that matching extra contact details to people without their agreement is likely to be unfair in most cases, even if your privacy notice mentions it, because it takes away their choice about how you contact them. It also says you shouldn’t use tracing services to find new addresses for marketing. For people on a rented list, treat the phone number on a returned reply card as the only number you have.

The Mailing Preference Service

The Mailing Preference Service (MPS) is a free register for people who don’t want unsolicited marketing mail. It is run by the Data & Marketing Association and recognised by the ICO. Screening against it isn’t a legal requirement, but the ICO’s guidance on respecting people’s preferences describes it as a suppression list you should check, and the MPS says screening against it is a condition of Data & Marketing Association membership.

Three details catch firms out. A new registration can take up to three months to take full effect, so screen close to each mailing rather than once a year. The MPS doesn’t cover mail addressed to “The Occupier”, but a letter about personal cover addressed to an occupier is unlikely to feel personal to anyone. And the MPS is only one filter. Anyone can object to direct marketing at any time and you must stop, so keep your own do-not-mail file and add objectors to it rather than deleting them, or they’ll come back with the next list.

Ask your list broker or mailing house about screening out people who have died or moved away as well. A letter about life cover arriving for someone who has recently died is distressing for the family. It is avoidable distress a careful firm should plan for, and the Consumer Duty’s focus on avoiding foreseeable harm points the same way.

Questions to ask a list broker

• Who compiled the data, how it was collected and when.
• What people were told about their details being passed on for marketing, and by whom.
• When the list was last screened against the MPS, and whether it can be screened against your own suppression file before delivery.
• How the broker passes on objections it receives after you have bought or rented the list.
• Whether the licence covers one mailing or several, and what you must do with the data afterwards.

The ICO’s position is that a reputable supplier should be able to show you its data is reliable, and if it can’t, you shouldn’t use it. If complaints cluster around one source, stop using that source. A list compiled years ago also has the weakness of aged leads: people move, circumstances change, and what they were told back then may not match how you plan to use their details now.

What rules apply to the mailer itself?

A letter inviting someone to talk to you about life cover is marketing, and the FCA’s insurance conduct rules apply to it as they would to an advert or a web page. Under ICOBS 2.2, what you tell customers must be clear, fair and not misleading, and anything that is marketing must be recognisable as marketing.

Price claims should fit the people who reply

FCA guidance in the same section says a claim such as “cover from £X a month” should match what most people who respond can reasonably expect, or state prominently how many are likely to get it. That matters more in post than online, because you choose exactly who receives the claim.

Which?’s April 2026 research shows why. Taking the average of the five cheapest quotes for £200,000 of level term over 25 years, a healthy non-smoker could be quoted about £8.20 a month at 31 and about £41.88 at 51. A letter to homeowners in their fifties led by the younger figure would describe a price few of the people who reply could get.

What a mailer shouldn’t do

• Look like a bill, a statement or a letter from the reader’s lender or insurer
• Lead with a price most of the people who reply can’t get
• Set a reply-by date that doesn’t mean anything
• Hide that it is marketing, or who it is from
• Lean on fear, especially in letters to older people
• Promote an over-50s plan without making its waiting period and its limits clear

Letters about guaranteed acceptance over-50s plans need particular care. The waiting period before the full benefit is paid, and the chance that someone pays in more than the plan pays out, are both things a customer needs to understand before they buy, so a mailer that skips them sets up the first call badly.

Is your letter a financial promotion?

That depends on what the letter invites people to do. The FCA’s perimeter guidance in PERG 8.17A says a communication that only invites people to use an intermediary’s advice or arranging service for pure protection is not a financial promotion for that reason alone. A letter that invites people to take out a policy is one, although intermediaries may be able to rely on exemptions for these contracts. The ICOBS 2.2 standard of clear, fair and not misleading applies either way.

In practice, a letter offering a review of someone’s cover reads very differently from one selling a named over-50s plan at a price. Ask your compliance adviser or network which side of the line your letter falls on, and who must sign it off, before you print.

Status, sign-off and the Consumer Duty

Show clearly who the letter is from: your firm’s name, address and regulatory status, worded as on your website and other promotions. If you’re an appointed representative, your principal will usually have rules on marketing material and may need to sign the letter off before it goes. The Consumer Duty’s focus on consumer understanding applies too: plain words, a readable type size and a clear statement of what happens if the person replies.

Advertising rules apply as well. The CAP Code, which the ASA enforces, covers marketing mailings as well as adverts. Where the FCA regulates a promotion, its rules govern most of the financial content, but the CAP Code still applies to non-technical points such as social responsibility, serious or widespread offence, and the truthfulness of claims that aren’t about the product’s own features. Ask your compliance adviser which rules apply to which parts of your letter.

What a letter to clients without cover can look like

Search for mailer examples and you’ll mostly find American postcards. Here is one way to structure a UK letter to mortgage clients who took no cover. Treat it as an outline, not a template, and agree the final wording with your compliance adviser or network.

1. Who it is from. Your firm’s name at the top, the client’s name on the letter, and nothing that could be mistaken for post from their lender or insurer.
2. Why you are writing now. One line that ties the letter to them, such as the mortgage you arranged and the fact that no cover was set up at the time.
3. What you are offering. A review of whether they need cover and roughly what it could cost, rather than a product name or a price headline.
4. What happens if they reply. Who will call, what the call covers, and that replying doesn’t commit them to anything.
5. How to reply. The reply card, a phone number and a short web address, each carrying the letter’s version code.
6. The small print that matters. Your firm’s regulatory status, where to read your privacy notice and how to stop further letters.

Design the reply card for the call that follows

The reply card does two jobs. It gets the reply, and it records what the person asked for. Keep it short.

• A request that names your firm, such as “Please ask an adviser from [your firm] to phone me about life insurance.”
• Name, phone number and a good time to call, with a separate tick if they would also like you to email them.
• A version code, so you know which letter and which list each reply answers.
• Where to read your privacy notice, and a box to tick for no more mailings.
• Nothing you don’t need yet. Health questions bring in the extra UK GDPR rules for special category data.

Agree the card’s wording with your compliance adviser. How the request is worded is what you’ll rely on when you decide how to contact each person who replies.

How much do direct mail life insurance leads cost?

A reply to a mailer has no price tag. Its cost is everything you spend on the mailing divided by the replies it brings, which is why two firms can post the same number of letters and end up with very different costs per lead. Start with the parts of the cost you control.

Get written quotes for each line, and ask the mailing house exactly what its price includes. Business and advertising mail prices for larger, sorted mailings are usually lower than stamped post, but they come with minimum volumes and preparation rules.

Cost per reply and cost per policy

Once you know your cost per piece, the response rate does the rest. Enter your own figures below; the defaults model a cold mailing to a rented list.

Calculator

Direct mail cost per reply and per policy

Enter the size of your mailing, the all-in cost of each piece and your own response and conversion rates to see what each reply and each policy costs, and how much of your commission is left.

Letters or mailers sent

Cost per piece in pounds

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Data, print, postage and handling replies.

Response rate as a percentage

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Replies for every 100 pieces sent, as a %.

Replies that become policies as a percentage

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Average commission per policy in pounds

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Cost per reply (lead)

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Campaign cost

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Replies

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Policies

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Mailing cost per policy

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Illustrative calculator: the defaults are assumptions for a cold mailing, not benchmarks, Protection Connect results or a forecast. We know of no published UK response rate for protection mailings, so use your own numbers.

Illustrative example: the defaults post 5,000 letters at £0.90 each, so the mailing costs £4,500. If 0.5% of people reply, that’s 25 replies at £180 each. If one reply in ten becomes a policy, you have 2.5 policies, and each has cost £1,800 in mailing alone. At £750 of initial commission per policy, roughly what a policy of £25 to £37 a month earns at the 170% to 250% of first-year premium the FCA’s interim report found is usual, the mailing brings in £1,875 and leaves you £2,625 short. These rates are examples, not Protection Connect results.

Neither 0.5% nor 10% is a benchmark: treat both as starting assumptions and replace them with your own results as soon as you have some.

Work out your break-even before you print

One sum tells you whether a mailing is worth testing at all: the number of policies you need from every 1,000 letters just to cover what they cost.

Turn that into a response rate by dividing by the share of replies you expect to convert. At 10% conversion you need 12 replies per 1,000 letters, a 1.2% response; at 20% you need 6, a 0.6% response. If your list and your offer can’t credibly reach that, change the list, the offer or the cost before you change the print run.

Remember that commission isn’t secure until the clawback period has passed. The FCA found that nearly all protection commission is advanced at the point of sale on indemnity terms, and that you repay some or all of it if the policy lapses inside a clawback period of, usually, two or four years. Early lapses therefore push up the real cost of each policy a mailing produces.

Mailing your own clients changes the sums

Illustrative example: now model a letter to existing mortgage clients who took no cover. Change the inputs to 1,000 letters, £0.60 a piece because there is no list to rent, a 2% response and 20% of replies becoming policies. The mailing costs £600 and brings 20 replies at £30 each and four policies at £150 each, leaving £2,400 of the £3,000 commission. These rates are assumptions to show how the sums move, not a forecast or Protection Connect results.

You would expect people who know your firm to reply more often than strangers, but the starting point matters just as much: the break-even falls to 0.8 policies per 1,000 letters, and you already know a good deal about each person you’re writing to.

How a reply compares with a bought enquiry

In the cold-mailing example each reply cost £180; in the client-bank example, £30. Both come from assumed response rates, so they show how far the cost of a reply can move, not what mail costs. Advertised prices for exclusive leads typically run from about £30 to £80 each.

Indicative ranges based on our view of typically advertised UK prices in 2026. Not a survey and not Protection Connect prices; on Protection Connect you set your own maximum.

The two aren’t like for like. A reply to your own letter names your firm and came straight to you, but it may arrive days after the person filled in the card. A bought real-time enquiry is usually fresher, but the form may name the seller rather than you. Compare them on cost per policy over a few months, not on price per lead. Our guide to life insurance lead costs in the UK explains how sellers price leads and the costs that sit around the price.

Why do direct mail response rates vary so much?

Response rates swing widely from one mailing to the next, and you can’t borrow someone else’s. Figures quoted in US articles rarely say where they came from, and they describe a different market, different products and different data. These are the factors that move the number.

• The list. People who know your firm, or who have a clear reason to think about cover now, are more likely to reply than a broad age band of strangers.
• The reason to reply. A specific prompt, such as a mortgage you arranged with no cover attached, gives a letter a purpose. A general message about life insurance leaves the reader to supply the reason.
• The format. A personalised letter in an envelope, a postcard and a self-mailer look different and cost different amounts. Test them against each other rather than assuming.
• The reply routes. A reply-paid card, a phone number and a short web address or QR code each suit different people. Offering more than one makes replying easier, as long as each has its own code.
• The timing. Letters that land in the middle of a house move, a holiday or the run-up to Christmas compete with more post and more distractions.
• Follow-up mailings. A second letter to people who didn’t reply can bring further replies, at the cost of another mailing. Count it as part of the same campaign.

How to run a test mailing, step by step

1. Set your break-even. Work out the policies per 1,000 letters you need, and the response rate that implies at your expected conversion.
2. Choose and clean the list. Start with your own clients if you have them. Write the legitimate interests assessment, then screen against the MPS, your objections file and records of people who have died or moved away.
3. Write one letter and one variation. Change one thing, such as the opening or the offer, so you know what made any difference. Get both signed off.
4. Code every reply. Print a version code on each card, and use a separate phone number or web address for each version.
5. Send a test batch. Large enough to produce a meaningful number of replies, small enough that a poor result won’t hurt.
6. Work every reply the same way. Same callers, same contact plan, with every outcome logged against its code.
7. Judge on policies, not replies. Allow several weeks for late replies and applications, compare cost per policy, and only then decide whether to scale, change or stop.

Be wary of small numbers. Illustrative example: if one version brings 9 replies and the other 12, from 2,000 letters each, that gap could easily be chance. Treat a result as real only when it holds in the next batch.

How should you follow up replies to a mailing?

A reply is the start of a conversation the person has asked for, so treat it as you would any warm enquiry. The main difference is time. By the time a card reaches you, the person may have filled it in several days earlier, so the follow-up should begin the day the reply arrives.

A contact plan for mailer replies

• The day it arrives. Log the reply with its version code and the date, check it against your suppression file, and make the first call.
• The next few days. Try again at different times, including an early evening. If you leave a voicemail, mention the letter and your firm’s name so the call makes sense.
• If you can’t reach them. Email only if they ticked for email on the card. Otherwise, a short letter saying you tried to call and how to reach you.
• When to stop. Set a limit on attempts, close the reply as not reached, and keep the record. Ringing someone repeatedly who isn’t picking up does your firm no favours.

On the first call

Say who you are, mention the letter and what they asked for on the card, and check it’s a good time. If the address came from a rented list, be ready to say where you got it; your letter should already have told them. Then find out what prompted the reply before you talk about products. Our guide to turning leads into policies covers the call, the fact-find and keeping policies on risk.

Calling people who didn’t reply

This is the part of a mailing campaign that needs the most care. Post sits outside PECR; phone calls don’t. A call to someone who got your letter but didn’t reply is a live marketing call. If their number is registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS), PECR permits the call only if that person has specifically told your firm that they don’t object to calls from it. For people on a rented list you won’t have a number unless they gave you one, and, as covered above, buying numbers to match the list is likely to be unfair.

The same rule applies to your own clients: if a client’s number is on the TPS, check what they have told your firm about marketing calls before you ring them about something new. The simplest follow-up for people who didn’t reply is a second letter, screened again before it goes, because post stays outside PECR. Agree anything beyond that with your compliance adviser or network.

Direct mail or online enquiries: which suits your firm?

Direct mail life insurance leads and online enquiries do different jobs. Mail lets you choose exactly who hears from you, and it can reach people who aren’t looking for cover yet. Online enquiries come from people who are already looking and have asked to be contacted. The table sets out the trade-offs.

Online enquiries are time-sensitive. Contact rates tend to drop quickly after an enquiry, so they reward a team that can call promptly, and our real-time leads guide covers how to organise a team for it. Mail is slower and more forgiving on timing, but it asks for patience and commits your money before anyone replies.

Which suits your firm?

• If you’re a mortgage adviser with a client bank, write to the clients who have no cover before you buy anything. It may well be your cheapest source of protection conversations.
• If you want new customers and quick feedback, online enquiries, bought or generated, tell you within weeks whether a source works. The guide to online life insurance leads sets out how sources differ, and generating your own life insurance leads covers running your own campaigns and forms.
• If you specialise in over-50s cover, post can reach customers who prefer letters, but price claims and the waiting period need the most care.
• If your budget is small, a cold mailing of a few thousand letters may produce too few replies to tell you anything. Start with your own clients, or buy a small number of enquiries and measure cost per policy.
• If you want a mix, compare every channel on the same measure. How to get life insurance leads in the UK lines up the main channels side by side.

Where Protection Connect fits alongside direct mail

Protection Connect doesn’t sell direct mail life insurance leads or reply cards. Every enquiry we supply is made on our own consumer websites, LifeAdviser (life cover) or 50Life (over-50s plans), by someone looking for cover online who asked to be contacted.

No print run to pay for

Instead of paying for a print run before anyone replies, you pay from a balance you top up in advance, from £250, and any unused balance is paid back if you close your account. You set the most you’ll pay per enquiry, at least our minimum of £35. The eligible campaign with the highest maximum bid wins and pays 1p more than the next-highest eligible bid from another firm, or the minimum price if no other firm is competing, never more than its own maximum. You can set daily limits and pause at any time.

What arrives, and what doesn’t

Each lead gives the customer’s name, UK phone number, email if they gave one, full postcode, age, smoking status and the cover they asked about, with the contact methods they agreed to, as our fictional sample enquiry shows. There is no full address, and our Terms allow you to use each enquiry only to advise that customer about protection.

The consent behind it

On LifeAdviser the customer ticks: “I’d like Life Adviser, a trading style of PJG Financial Limited, to contact me about life insurance by phone or email. I have read the Privacy Policy and Terms.” They are then told an FCA authorised adviser firm will contact them, and that the firm pays us a fee for the introduction, at no extra cost to them. Your firm isn’t named in that tick; Life Adviser is. Ask your compliance adviser how PECR applies to each way you plan to contact them.

You can claim a credit within 48 hours of delivery if an enquiry has an invalid phone number or email, duplicates one we’ve already supplied for the same customer, is materially outside your campaign’s criteria, or is fraudulent or a test. Read how the Protection Connect marketplace works or the step-by-step overview for the rest.

Questions brokers ask about direct mail leads

Sources and further reading

1. ICO: Sending direct marketing: choosing your lawful basis
2. ICO: Direct marketing guidance: collecting information and generating leads
3. ICO: Direct marketing guidance: respecting people’s preferences
4. Mailing Preference Service (Data & Marketing Association)
5. Mailing Preference Service: responsible marketing FAQs
6. FCA: FG21/1 Guidance for firms on the fair treatment of vulnerable customers
7. FCA Handbook: ICOBS 2.2 Communications to clients and financial promotions
8. FCA Handbook: Perimeter guidance, PERG 8.17A
9. ASA: The CAP Code, section 14: Financial products
10. FCA: Pure protection market study interim report (MS24/1.4), January 2026
11. FCA: Pure protection market study final report (MS24/1.5), September 2026
12. Which?: More people are looking for affordable life insurance, but what does it actually cost? (April 2026)