How to get life insurance leads in the UK
Life insurance leads can come from your existing clients and contacts, your own marketing, or a lead supplier. Start with the sources you can afford and follow up consistently.
Start with your client bank
Over 40% of mortgage holders have no life insurance, the FCA found, so review clients and ask for referrals before you spend.
Add one capped paid channel
Paid search or bought enquiries can start within days of verification or approval, with spend you cap or pause to match your calling time.
Judge on cost per policy
Count the lead cost and hours behind each policy that stays on risk, and test for 90 days before you scale.
Each channel has its own rules
Google ads need UK financial services verification, a paid introducer may need its own FCA status, and marketing calls must respect the TPS.
How do you get life insurance leads in the UK?
Compare the main sources of enquiries by cost, speed, volume and compliance requirements. The ratings are our view of how each channel usually behaves, not measurements. For lead types and sellers, see our broker’s guide to UK life insurance leads.
| Channel | What it costs you | First leads | Control over volume | Compliance work |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Existing clients | Your time | Days | Limited by your client bank | Light to medium: marketing preferences, TPS screening for marketing calls |
| Client referrals | Your time | Weeks | Low | Light: let the friend contact you |
| Professional introducers | Time; any fee agreed in writing | Months | Low to medium | Medium: paid introductions can be a regulated activity |
| Workplace and community talks | Your time | Weeks to months | Low | Medium: clear, fair and not misleading |
| Networking groups | Fees and time | Months | Low | Light |
| Website, SEO and content | Your time or agency fees | Months to years | Low at first | Medium: promotion rules, privacy, form consent |
| Paid search | Clicks, time and tools | Days, once verified | High | High: Google verification, ad wording, form consent |
| Social media ads | Ad spend, time and tools | Days | Medium to high | High: authorised-firm ad policies, form consent |
| Direct mail | Data, print and postage | Weeks | Medium | Medium: lawful basis, MPS, objections |
| Bought exclusive leads | £30 to £80 a lead | Days, once approved | High, within supply | Medium: seller checks, TPS, privacy information |
| Bought shared leads | £10 to £25 a lead; several firms call | Days | High | Medium: as above |
| Hotkey transfers | £60 to £120 a transfer | Days | Set by call-centre hours | High: who the consent names, TPS |
| Aged leads | £1 to £10 a lead | Same day | High | High: old consent, fresh TPS screening |
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 see the price before buying.
The table can’t show conversion, which depends on your speed, process and customers (we know of no published UK benchmark), or persistency: if a policy lapses within the clawback period, some or all of its commission is clawed back, and the FCA’s interim report found those periods moving from two years towards four. Record both by channel from the first lead.
Each channel’s own rules are covered below; for the general rules on buying and calling leads, see the UK rules section of our main guide and check how they apply with your compliance adviser or network.
Term buyers usually act after a new home or mortgage, a new child or an adviser’s recommendation, and over-50s buyers more often after a milestone birthday or a bereavement (FCA consumer research). Recent buyers who had help from a firm reached it in different ways (601 buyers; more than one answer allowed):
A firm that relies only on referrals won’t reach people who search for cover, and one that relies only on online channels misses people who ask a friend first. Many people aren’t looking at all: 58% of UK adults hold no pure protection, and 59% of them have never considered whether they need it (FCA final report).
Reading US advice? Much of what you’ll read about how to find life insurance leads is written for American “agents”. In the UK you advise as an FCA authorised firm or an appointed representative, “final expense” is closest to over-50s plans, “live transfers” are hotkeys, and the calling rules are PECR and the TPS. Our guide to life insurance leads for UK agents and advisers translates the rest.
What is the best way to get life insurance leads for your firm?
Choose a mix around your available cash, advisers’ capacity and how soon you need enquiries.
Judge every channel on cost per policy
What matters is the lead cost behind each policy that goes on risk and stays there: for a free channel, mostly your time; for a paid one, the price per lead divided by your lead-to-policy rate, plus the hours spent working the leads. Our guide to lead costs sets out the sum.
Initial commission is typically 170% to 250% of first-year premium, according to the FCA’s interim report. Illustrative example: a £30-a-month policy earns roughly £612 to £900. If one lead in eight becomes a policy and each costs £45, every policy carries £360 of lead cost, 40% to 59% of that commission before anyone’s time is counted. These figures are examples, not Protection Connect results.
For context, among the small sample of protection specialists in the same report, lead generation plus staff came to about 30% of gross commission: a description, not a target. If a channel’s lead cost alone takes more, look at your contact process, conversion or price before you scale, and never close the gap by recommending more cover than a customer needs. Our maximum price calculator works back to what a lead is worth, and the lead budget planner works out the monthly budget you need.
A starting mix by type of firm
| Your firm | Build your base on | Add for growth | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| New or solo adviser | Your network and one or two local introducers | Exclusive enquiries under a tight daily limit | Spending before you know your conversion rate |
| Mortgage adviser adding protection | Mortgage clients, at application and remortgage | Bought life enquiries when the mortgage pipeline is thin | A stranger needs a different opening from a client |
| Protection specialist with a team | Client reviews, referrals and introducers | Paid search or bought enquiries, sized to calling capacity | More sources mean more seller checks |
| Appointed representative in a network | Your principal’s lead schemes and approved sources | Whatever your principal lets you buy or advertise | Ad approval and lead rules set by your principal |
| Over-50s specialist | Existing clients, community and workplace talks | Over-50s enquiries with a clear consent trail | Customers with characteristics of vulnerability |
| Firm with marketing skills in house | Your website and useful content | Paid search and social, topped up with bought leads | Under-costing your own time |
Whichever row fits, keep at least one free channel running, because paid channels stop producing leads when you stop paying. Use as many sources as you can measure separately, and no more.
If over-50s cover is your focus, budget it separately from term work; our guide to over-50s leads covers the FCA’s guidance on vulnerable customers.
How do you build a steady flow of leads in 90 days?
Use the first 90 days to test your process and review early results. Continue tracking cancellations and clawbacks afterwards. Starting from scratch? Our guide for new advisers buying their first leads builds the plan around a first budget.
- Days 1 to 14: measure what you haveList every protection enquiry from the last 12 months by source, with the meetings, applications and policies still on risk each produced. Track new leads through the same stages in your CRM.
Days 15 to 30: start with clients and contactsReview the mortgage clients and older policies most likely to have gaps (to add missing cover, not to replace cover that still fits), ask for a referral on every completed case, and meet two or three potential introducers.- Days 31 to 60: test one paid channelWork out how many more conversations a week you can handle well, then try bought enquiries or a small search campaign, not both. First set a daily cap no higher than the leads you can call that day, a test size such as 40 leads, and the most lead cost per policy your commission can carry.
- Days 61 to 90: compare and set the mixDivide each channel’s lead costs and hours by applications and policies on risk. Scale what pays within your capacity and cut what doesn’t. Ninety days is too short to see lapses, so flag early cancellations and book the same review for next quarter.
What to track for each source
- Leads received, and how many were invalid or duplicates.
- How quickly you made first contact, and how many attempts it took.
- Conversations held, applications submitted and policies on risk.
- Lead cost and adviser hours behind each policy on risk.
- Lapses, clawbacks, complaints and requests not to be contacted.
Contact rates tend to drop quickly after an enquiry, so call new leads promptly. Our guides to real-time leads and speed to lead and turning life insurance leads into policies cover the follow-up.
How do you get life insurance leads from clients, referrals and introducers?
Review existing clients, ask for referrals and build suitable introducer relationships. Include the time these activities take in your costs. Our guide to free life insurance leads and what they really cost covers each one in depth.
- Existing clients. Over 40% of mortgage holders have no life insurance, and mortgage advisers arranged about 36% of intermediated protection policies in 2024, the FCA’s interim report found. Add missing cover rather than replacing cover that still fits, since a switch can lose terms the client won’t get again. A marketing call to a client on the TPS needs them to have told your firm they don’t object. Check with your compliance adviser whether their preferences, or PECR’s soft opt-in, cover protection emails before you send one.
- Referrals. Ask when a policy goes on risk, at each review and when a client mentions a family change, and give them a short message to forward so the friend contacts you. Agree any thank-you gift with your compliance adviser first.
- Professional introducers. Estate agents, conveyancers, accountants and mortgage brokers who don’t advise on protection meet people at moments that often prompt them to buy cover, such as a house move. Under the FCA’s perimeter guidance, a partner you pay for regular introductions may need to be authorised or become your introducer appointed representative, so agree any fee, and what the introducer tells the customer, with your compliance adviser first.
- Workplace talks and networking. Talks reach people who might not search for cover themselves; keep them educational and clear, fair and not misleading, and treat sign-up sheets as personal data. Judge networking on the introducers you meet over a year.
How do you get life insurance leads online?
Search can reach people already looking for cover. Social advertising can reach people before they start searching. Our life insurance lead generation playbook covers running these channels yourself, and our guide to online, web and inbound leads explains how intent differs by source.
Your website, SEO and content
A clear website supports every other channel, because people often look you up even when a friend referred them. Comparison sites, insurers and large brokers compete hard for broad terms such as “life insurance quotes”, so aim at specific, local searches, and publish posts or videos that answer real questions.
Paid search
Paid search is usually one of the quickest ways to generate enquiries of your own, but clicks on life cover terms are costly, so profit depends on tight keyword lists, landing pages that convert and pausing ads when nobody can call. You can’t start until Google’s UK financial services verification is in place, which normally means showing FCA authorisation; an agency advertising under its own name must be vouched for by an FCA authorised firm.
Social media
On Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok, someone who tapped a form while scrolling may not expect a call. Keep the form short, say who will ring and why, and call quickly.
In an April 2026 statement, the FCA noted that the large platforms’ policies require UK financial services adverts to come from, or be approved by, an FCA authorised firm, but that the platforms are not doing enough to uphold them. Your own promotion rules apply either way, and appointed representatives should agree with their principal who approves and runs adverts. Our playbook covers running life insurance ads on Facebook.
Forms and agencies
Whatever brings people in, the enquiry form records what they agreed to. If you write it yourself, the consent can name your firm and each way you’ll follow up. If an agency runs it, check whose name is in the consent, who owns the data and whether enquiries can be sold on; if the answers don’t point to your firm, you’re buying leads, not generating them. Our playbook explains what an enquiry form needs.
Direct mail, the offline option
Post falls outside PECR, but UK GDPR still applies: you need a lawful basis, privacy information (saying where you got the address, if someone else supplied it), and a suppression list, because anyone can object to direct marketing. The ICO’s direct marketing guidance covers post as well as calls. In our view, mail suits your own clients best; our guide to direct mail life insurance leads covers data, costs and response rates.
A paid channel you can control day by day.
Exclusive life and over-50s enquiries for FCA authorised firms and their appointed representatives. See each lead and its price before you buy.
Should you buy life insurance leads or generate your own?
Buying turns lead flow into a variable cost. The first leads can arrive soon after a seller approves you, and you can change volume, within what the seller can supply, without building a marketing operation. In return you pay for every lead, the customer enquired through someone else’s website rather than contacting your firm, and you have to check the seller. Our practical guide to buying life insurance leads in the UK covers seller types and how to test one fairly.
Calculator
Generate or buy: what does each enquiry really cost?
Put in your own ad spend, click price and landing-page conversion. Your hours and software sit under “Add your time and tools”.
Costs per click vary widely by search term and area; use the figure your own account shows.
How many visitors to your landing page leave their details.
Add your time and tools
Campaign management, landing pages, compliance checks.
Landing page builder, call tracking, CRM.
What a comparable exclusive lead costs you.
- Your all-in cost per lead
- –
- Clicks a month
- –
- Enquiries a month
- –
- Ad cost per enquiry
- –
- Monthly cost all in
- –
Illustrative calculator: default figures are examples only. Self-generated enquiries also need compliant financial promotions, consent capture and data protection processes, which this does not cost.
Illustrative example: with the defaults, £2,000 at £5 a click buys 400 clicks, and one visitor in ten enquiring gives 40 enquiries. Add 12 hours at £40 and £100 of software and the month costs £2,580, or £64.50 per enquiry, about £19.50 more than a £45 bought lead. More spend spreads your time over more enquiries, and a better landing page cuts the ad cost of each, so both narrow the gap; these figures are examples, not Protection Connect results.
When buying makes sense
Buying suits you when you have more calling time than conversations, need volume this quarter, or want to test demand before investing in your own marketing. It suits you less when your conversion on enquiries from strangers is low or unknown, your typical case is small, or nobody can call new leads during the working day.
Five checks before you spend
- The seller is on the FCA Financial Services Register with suitable status and permissions (for an appointed representative, check its principal and what the appointment covers), or you know why it says it needn’t be and your compliance adviser is content.
- You’ve seen the form and consent wording the customer agreed to, and know whether your firm is named.
- You know whether each lead is sold once or to several firms, and whether that changes later.
- You know what you can claim back, on what grounds and within what window.
- You can cap spend by the day and stop without a notice period or minimum commitment.
Bought leads carry their own contact rules: live marketing calls need TPS screening unless the person has told your firm they don’t object, and email or text marketing needs consent naming your firm and the channel, because the soft opt-in never covers bought-in leads.
Where does Protection Connect fit in your lead mix?
Protection Connect is a UK marketplace for exclusive life insurance leads from our own websites, LifeAdviser and 50Life, where people looking for cover asked to be contacted. Against the five checks above:
- Register: run by PJG Financial Limited, an FCA authorised firm (FRN 919697).
- Consent: on LifeAdviser and 50Life the customer sees a notice, not a contact tick. It says their details may go to one FCA authorised adviser firm, or one of its appointed representatives, that buys enquiries through Protection Connect and may contact them about their enquiry. It doesn’t name your firm. Introduce your firm when calling about their LifeAdviser or 50Life enquiry, and discuss only that enquiry. Ask your compliance adviser how PECR applies, including TPS screening for live calls and consent naming your firm for email or text.
- Sold once: every enquiry is delivered to one broker only.
- Credits: claim within 48 hours of delivery for a phone number not in service, a duplicate supplied to your firm in the previous 30 days, or a test enquiry, but not for no answer or no sale.
- Control: buy when you choose. Switch optional automatic buying off any time. No fixed-term contract or minimum monthly spend.
When to look elsewhere. The minimum price is £50 for income protection and £55 for life cover; we supply only life, over-50s and income protection enquiries, and you can’t pick regions or postcode areas yourself. See how the marketplace works and our main guide’s Protection Connect section.
Questions brokers ask about getting life insurance leads
For most UK firms it’s a mix. Start with existing clients, referrals and introducers, which cost time rather than cash, then add one paid channel, such as bought exclusive enquiries or paid search, sized to the calls you can make. Cap it daily and judge it on cost per policy before you scale.
Through your own website, paid search and social media ads, or by buying enquiries that sellers generate online. Before you advertise, Google requires UK financial services verification, and the large social platforms expect an FCA authorised firm to run or approve the adverts. Check whose name is in the enquiry form’s consent before you rely on it.
Start with your network and the introducers it leads you to. If you’re an appointed representative, ask what lead schemes and approved sources your principal offers. If you buy, begin with a small daily cap and a seller with no fixed term while you learn your conversion rate. Our guide for new advisers sets out a starting budget.
Start with your clients: mortgage advisers arranged about 36% of intermediated protection policies in 2024, the FCA found. Raise protection at every application, remortgage and product transfer, and, in line with their marketing preferences, go back to anyone who declined when circumstances change. Bought enquiries can add volume in a quiet month, but someone who doesn’t know you needs a different first call from a client.
Rarely. Live marketing calls mustn’t go to TPS or CTPS numbers unless the person has told your firm they don’t object to your calls. Show your number and stop when asked. The ICO has fined firms over unlawful calls selling life insurance. A 2023 government proposal to ban cold calls about financial products was not law by October 2026.
Usually, within the limits your principal sets, so check its rules on lead sellers, adverts and introducers first. On Protection Connect, full appointed representatives that give advice can apply where their appointment covers advising on and arranging protection, and the principal holds those permissions. Introducer appointed representatives can’t buy.
Paid channels can produce leads within days of being verified or approved, but you need a few months of results to know what each costs per policy. Referrals and introducers usually take months to become steady, and organic search longer still. A practical approach is a 90-day test followed by a review every quarter.
It can be, but margins are thinner than headline commission suggests. Protection specialists in a small FCA sample kept about 60% of gross commission as revenue after payouts and clawbacks, spent about 30% on lead generation and staff, and kept about 9% as profit. So lead cost per policy and early lapses decide whether a channel adds profit.
Sources and further reading
- FCA: Distribution of pure protection products to retail customers, market study interim report (MS24/1.4), January 2026
- FCA: Distribution of pure protection products to retail customers, market study final report (MS24/1.5), September 2026
- FCA: Pure protection market study consumer research, summary of quantitative outputs (December 2025; fieldwork September to October 2025)
- FCA Handbook: PERG 5.6, arranging deals in, and making arrangements with a view to transactions in, contracts of insurance
- FCA Handbook: ICOBS 2.2, communications to clients and financial promotions
- Google Ads Help: Financial services verification, United Kingdom
- FCA press release on social media platforms’ financial advert policies and illegal finfluencers (24 April 2026)
- ICO: Direct marketing and privacy and electronic communications
- ICO: Rogue companies receive fines totalling £290k for making millions of nuisance calls (December 2024)
