How much do life insurance leads cost in the UK?
Life insurance leads cost UK brokers from a few pounds to over £100 each at typically advertised prices, depending on how fresh the enquiry is and how many firms receive it. Whether they pay off depends on the cost per policy: the price per lead divided by the share of leads that become policies.
Looking for Protection Connect’s own costs? See what it costs to start.
Typical life insurance lead prices in the UK
| Lead type | Typical price per lead | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Aged leads | £1 to £10 | Old enquiries, often months old and sold many times |
| Shared leads | £10 to £25 | One enquiry sold to several brokers who compete to call first |
| Exclusive leads | £30 to £80 | A fresh enquiry supplied to one broker only |
| Hotkey transfers | £60 to £120 | The customer is qualified by an agent and transferred to you live on the phone |
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. Actual prices vary by provider, filters and volume.
Judge leads by cost per policy
Illustrative example, not a Protection Connect result: a £45 lead converting 1 in 10 costs £450 in leads per policy.
Know your break-even price
Your commission after clawbacks, times your conversion rate, is the most a lead can be worth, before adviser time and systems.
The invoice isn’t the whole cost
Adviser time, systems, invalid leads and clawbacks come out of the same commission as the leads.
No rate card on Protection Connect
We set a lead’s starting price when it’s listed; prices then move with demand and as a lead stays unsold. Minimum: £50. You pay the price you accept.
Why do some life insurance leads cost more than others?
The cost of life insurance leads varies so much because the four price bands above are really four different products.
| Lead type | Who else receives it | What the price buys | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aged | Often several firms, over weeks or months | Details from an enquiry made some time ago | Interest, and what the person agreed to, may have moved on. Expect a lot of dialling and extra checks. |
| Shared | Several firms at the same time | A recent enquiry, with the cost split between buyers | You race other firms to the phone. |
| Exclusive | No other firm, if the seller’s definition holds | A recent enquiry passed to you alone | The highest price of the web enquiry types. “Exclusive” is worth checking, and the customer may still have enquired elsewhere. |
| Hotkey | Usually one firm per transfer | A customer qualified by a call centre and transferred to you live | You pay for call-centre time and inherit its script, data sources and compliance with the outbound calling rules. |
A disciplined outbound team can still work the cheaper types, though the low price buys a harder job: see our guides to buying aged life insurance leads and exclusive versus shared leads. At the top of the range, read how to check a lead is really exclusive or the guide to hotkey life insurance leads before paying the premium.
A data list is not a lead. Records sold in bulk for very little are often contact data for outbound calling, not enquiries from people who asked about cover. Before anyone calls them, your firm has to know what those people were told and whether their numbers are registered with the Telephone Preference Service. Our guide to cheap life insurance leads and when they pay covers the risks.
What else moves the price?
Within each band, these factors move the price. Pay more only for the ones that matter to your firm.
| Factor | Pushes the price up | Pulls the price down |
|---|---|---|
| Freshness | Passed on as soon as the customer enquires | Held back, batched or resold later |
| Customer value | Larger cover amounts and higher premiums | Small cover amounts and low premiums |
| Targeting | Narrow criteria on age, smoker status, cover or area | Accepting any matching enquiry |
| Source and intent | The customer went looking for cover | Prize draws, quizzes or co-registration forms |
| Qualification | A call centre checks needs or transfers the call | Web form details only |
| Competition | Many firms want the same profile, or it’s a busy period | Few rival buyers, or rivals have paused or hit daily limits |
Freshness. Details passed on while the customer is still thinking about cover are worth more, but only if someone can call straight away: see our guide to real-time life insurance leads.
Customer value. Commission is a percentage of premium, and premiums rise steeply with age. Which? found that £200,000 of level term over 25 years cost a non-smoker about £8.20 a month at 31 and £41.88 at 51 (average of the five cheapest quotes, April 2026). On the same commission terms, the older customer’s policy earns about five times as much, if accepted at standard rates.
What a policy might earn should shape what you pay for a lead, never what you recommend: under FCA rules such as the Consumer Duty, advice and contact have to fit each customer’s needs and circumstances, including any signs of vulnerability.
Source and intent. Ask how each enquiry was generated: a form about cover and a ticked box in a prize draw are different prospects. The cost of a weak source often arrives later. In its 2026 interim report on pure protection, the FCA noted that some firms put some early policy lapses down to poor-quality leads.
US prices don’t carry over. Dollar prices and close rates quoted for US “agents” reflect different commission, clawback and calling rules, and US “final expense” cover is closest to the UK over-50s guaranteed acceptance plan. We know of no published UK benchmark for how often bought leads convert, so plan with your own team’s rates.
How do sellers charge for life insurance leads?
The FCA’s 2025 market overview found that third-party lead generators charge per lead or per acquisition, with prices that vary by lead quality and exclusivity.
How a seller charges changes what life insurance leads cost you as much as the headline price does, because it decides who carries the cost when leads don’t convert. UK sellers use six broad models.
Rate card
Fixed price per lead
A set price for each lead, sometimes with surcharges for filters such as age or cover amount.
- Easy to budget and compare
- You pay the list price even when no other buyer wanted that enquiry
Marketplace
Price set by demand
You set the most you’ll pay and the price of each enquiry follows demand from other buyers. Some marketplaces charge the most you set; others charge only what demand calls for, up to it.
- Price follows real demand, and your maximum caps it
- Your price moves from one enquiry to the next
Monthly fee
Subscription or retainer
A monthly charge for a platform, a lead allowance or a managed campaign.
- Predictable monthly spend
- You pay in quiet months too, and unused allowance may not roll over
Minimum order
Batches and volume commitments
A lower price per lead in return for buying a block of leads or committing to a monthly volume.
- Lower price per lead
- Cash goes out before you have tested quality, and leads can age in your queue
Pass-through
Ad spend plus a lead fee
You fund the seller’s advertising and pay a fee for each lead on top.
- You can see what the media costs
- The all-in price per lead is hard to know in advance
Pay on outcome
Per appointment or per sale
A price per booked appointment or live transfer, or occasionally per policy or as a share of commission.
- Less time spent dialling
- The highest unit price; have any commission sharing reviewed by your compliance adviser or network first
Which pricing model suits your firm?
Avoid batches and contracts. Pay as you go with a daily cap until you have enough leads to judge it.
A fixed price or committed volume gives a steady daily flow, as long as you can work every lead on the day it arrives.- A marketplace that charges only what demand calls for lets you set a maximum from your own numbers and pay less whenever demand for an enquiry is low.
Price questions to ask before you buy
Two sellers can quote the same price per lead and cost you very different amounts. Get answers to these in writing where you can.
- Is the price per lead, per batch or per month, and is VAT added on top?
- Do you always pay the most you set, or less when demand for an enquiry is low?
- How soon after the customer enquires is the lead passed to you?
- Which leads can you claim a credit for, and how long do you have to claim?
- Is there a minimum order, monthly spend or notice period, and is unused balance refunded if you leave?
Illustrative example: if a seller adds VAT at 20% and your firm can’t reclaim it, a £45 lead costs you £54. The step-by-step guide to buying life insurance leads in the UK turns questions like these into a scorecard for comparing sellers.
What are the hidden costs of buying life insurance leads?
The invoice shows the price per lead; your profit and loss shows what life insurance leads cost your firm in full. Four figures from the FCA’s pure protection market study show why the gap matters.
Five costs sit below the invoice, all paid from the same commission as the leads. The illustrative examples assume 1 lead in 10 becomes a policy; they show the method, not market averages or Protection Connect results.
| Hidden cost | What it covers | Illustrative example |
|---|---|---|
| Adviser and admin time | Call attempts, voicemails, notes and booking a fact-find, whether or not the lead buys | 40 minutes a lead at £30 an hour adds £20 a lead, or £200 a policy |
| Systems | Dialler or telephony, CRM, any call recording your firm chooses to use, automation tools | £300 a month spread over 40 leads adds £7.50 a lead, or £75 a policy |
| Invalid and duplicate leads | Wrong numbers, dead email addresses and customers you already have, if the seller doesn’t credit them | If 1 lead in 10 is unusable, a £45 lead really costs £50 for each lead you can work |
| Clawbacks | Commission repaid when a policy lapses within the clawback period | Allowing for 10% of policies lost turns £750 of commission into £675 |
| Compliance checks | What each person was told, whether your firm was named, how old their permission is, TPS screening | Most for bulk data and older enquiries; data you can’t safely call is not cheap |
Clawbacks. The FCA reported a 23% first-year lapse rate in 2024 for non-advised intermediated sales on 4-year clawback, against an average lapse rate of 5% across policies in force. The most reliable protection against clawback is advice that fits what the customer needs and can afford, and lead costs are never a reason to recommend replacing cover someone already holds.
Compliance and fair value
Under the ICO’s guidance on live marketing calls, calling a TPS-registered number needs the person to have told your firm they don’t object, whatever a seller promises, and since 5 February 2026 PECR fines can reach £17.5 million or 4% of global turnover. Lead costs also feed into the FCA’s fair value rules for insurance distributors (PROD 4), so ask your compliance adviser or network how they apply; our summary of the UK rules for buying and calling leads covers the rest.
How do you work out the cost per policy?
Divide the price per lead by the share of leads that become policies. It is the number to compare across sellers and lead types, because it reflects how well each one converts for you. The calculator does the sum and allows for 10% of policies being clawed back; open “Allow for clawbacks” to change that.
Calculator
Lead cost per policy calculator
Enter what you pay per lead, how many leads become policies and what a policy earns you. The number that matters is the lead cost of each policy you place.
What you pay for one enquiry.
Policies placed for every 100 leads, as a %. 10% means 1 policy in 10 leads.
Your average commission kept per policy placed (after any network or principal share), before lead costs. Initial commission is typically 170% to 250% of the first year’s premium (FCA, 2026).
Allow for clawbacks
If you take indemnity commission, the share you expect to repay because policies lapse early.
- Lead cost per policy
- –
- Commission left after leads
- –
- Break-even price per lead
- –
Illustrative calculator: the default figures are examples, not Protection Connect results or a forecast. Use your own numbers.
Illustrative example: the starting figures give £450 of lead cost per policy, £225 of commission left after leads and a break-even price of £67.50 a lead, once £750 of commission is cut by 10% for clawbacks. These figures are examples, not Protection Connect results.
Cost per lead vs cost per policy
Cost per lead is what you pay for one enquiry: the figure on the invoice, and the one most sellers advertise. Cost per policy is your lead spend divided by the policies it puts on risk. Two sources with the same cost per lead can differ widely on cost per policy, because their leads convert differently for you.
| Measure | What it tells you | Use it to |
|---|---|---|
| Cost per lead | What one enquiry costs, before anyone answers | Set your budget, your daily limit and the most you’ll pay |
| Cost per policy | What it costs in leads to put one policy on risk | Compare sellers and lead types, and decide whether to scale |
Illustrative example: a £20 lead that converts 1 in 40 costs £800 per policy, while a £45 lead that converts 1 in 10 costs £450. These figures are examples, not Protection Connect prices or results.
A cheaper lead type only comes out ahead on cost per policy if its conversion rate falls by a smaller share than its price. Our guides to whether cheap leads cost less per policy and exclusive versus shared leads on cost per policy work through the comparison, and the best leads for your type of firm shows where each type fits.
Whether bought leads pay for your firm at all is the subject of our honest look at whether life insurance leads work. Raising conversion, by reaching people promptly and advising them well, is often the cheapest way to cut cost per policy, as our guide to converting life insurance leads explains.
Use the commission you keep, then find your break-even
If you are an appointed representative, your principal or network may take a share before you see any commission. In its interim report, the FCA found that mortgage networks paid about 60% of their protection revenue out to members, who usually bore their own lead costs. Illustrative example: keeping 60% of £750 leaves £450, exactly the lead cost of each policy at the calculator’s starting figures.
Adviser time, systems and compliance come out of the same commission, so take them off before you set a ceiling.
| Illustrative example, 1 lead in 10 becomes a policy | Amount |
|---|---|
| Commission per policy after 10% clawbacks | £675 |
| Less adviser time and systems | −£275 |
| Left for leads, per policy | £400 |
| Break-even price per lead | £40 |
| Price per lead that keeps £100 a policy | £30 |
These figures are examples, not Protection Connect results. Our guide to setting a maximum you can afford works through the sum step by step.
How much should you budget for life insurance leads each month?
Start with the policies you want, not the leads. The planner works back to the leads and budget you need; switch it to “Budget I have” to start from a fixed monthly sum.
Calculator
Monthly lead budget planner
Work out how many leads, and how much budget, it takes to hit a target number of policies, or what a fixed budget should produce.
Use your own figure if you have one.
Add your commission
- Monthly lead budget
- –
- Leads a month
- –
- Leads a week
- –
- Daily limit for optional automatic buying
- –
- Commission after lead costs
- –
Illustrative planner: the default figures are examples, not Protection Connect results or a promise of lead volumes. The daily figure divides the monthly budget by 30.4 days.
Illustrative example: with the planner’s starting figures, four policies a month at a 10% conversion rate needs 40 leads, or £1,800 a month at £45 each, a daily spend limit of about £59. Under “Add your commission”, £750 a policy leaves £1,200 after lead costs, before adviser time, systems and clawbacks. These figures are examples, not Protection Connect results.
What does a fair test of a lead source cost?
Small tests mislead. Illustrative example: at a conversion rate of 1 in 10, a batch of 20 leads could produce no policies at all, or four, purely by chance. Around 50 leads should produce about five, but that is a first read, not a verdict: five policies from 50 leads fits a true rate anywhere from about 1 in 25 to 1 in 5. These figures are examples, not Protection Connect results.
Budget for the whole test up front: commission arrives only once a policy goes on risk, often weeks after you pay for the leads. On Protection Connect, check each enquiry’s price before buying and keep track of your test budget. Our guide to running a fair trial of a lead seller covers what to measure at each stage.
See prices before buying.
Exclusive life and over-50s enquiries for FCA authorised firms and their appointed representatives. No fixed-term contract and no minimum monthly spend.
How much do life insurance leads cost on Protection Connect?
Protection Connect is a marketplace, so there’s no fixed rate card. The Available leads tab shows each enquiry’s price and a preview with its product, single or joint cover, age and cover bands, and roughly when it arrived. Choose a lead and buy at the price shown. Automatic buying is optional.
Eligibility firstApproved firms’ owners, admins and buyers chosen by owners can buy. With a saved card, balance first; otherwise, pay in full by card.- Optional automatic buyingSet lead types, age bands, a maximum price per lead and a daily limit. You can switch it off at any time.
- Never more than you acceptWe set a lead’s starting price when it’s listed; prices then move with demand and as a lead stays unsold.
Interactive example
What could your leads cost at most?
For optional automatic buying, set your maximum price per lead and daily limit to see the most you could spend.
Minimum price per enquiry: £50. The most you’ll pay is in whole pounds and must be at least that.
- The most a day could cost
- –
- Price of each lead
- –
- The most over 30 days
- –
Illustrative example: these aren’t Protection Connect prices or promised volumes. Automatic buying is optional. You pay the current price for matching enquiries, within your maximum and daily limit. Using your saved card needs separate authorisation.
Illustrative example: with optional automatic buying, a maximum of £72 per lead and a daily limit of 4 leads caps spending at £288 a day. If a lead’s current price is £68, you pay £68. These figures are examples, not live marketplace data.
Each enquiry goes to one firm only, never shared, resold or recycled. The minimum price is £50. With optional automatic buying, set lead types, age bands, a maximum price and a daily limit. You pay the price showing, never more than your maximum, and can switch it off any time.
What you pay, and what you don’t
| Item | Cost | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Your account | Free to create | Buy a single lead. |
| Minimum price per enquiry | £55 | For life and over-50s cover. Shown beside each lead before you buy. |
| VAT | None | No VAT is added to enquiry prices. |
| Monthly fee or contract | None | No subscription, no fixed term and no volume commitment. |
| Daily limit | You choose | For optional automatic buying, set a daily limit. |
| Unused balance | Paid back if you close | Within 14 days, less anything you owe. |
| Credit claims | Approved claims credited to your balance | 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, with at most 1 credit per 10 leads your firm buys each calendar month. |
Credits cover the three grounds above, with at most 1 credit per 10 leads your firm buys each calendar month. No answer, changed minds, cover elsewhere, not qualifying or no sale aren’t grounds. Each claim is reviewed under our Terms. There’s no VAT. If you close your account, we repay any unused balance, less anything you owe.
If you switch on optional automatic buying, your maximum price and daily limit control purchases. Using your saved card for it needs separate authorisation. Lead volumes are not promised. For delivery and set-up, see how it works or our overview of buying through Protection Connect.
When we’re not the right fit. Protection Connect is not a cheap per-lead source. If your numbers say a lead is worth less than our £55 minimum price for life cover, a lower-cost lead type or generating your own leads may suit you better. We supply life insurance, over-50s life insurance and income protection enquiries only, from our own websites LifeAdviser and 50Life, to FCA authorised firms and their appointed representatives that advise on protection.
Questions brokers ask about life insurance lead costs
UK prices vary by age, exclusivity, source and provider, so there’s no single rate. Market ranges are not Protection Connect prices. On Protection Connect, each lead’s price is shown before you buy, with a minimum of £50 per enquiry.
With an exclusive lead, one firm pays the whole cost of generating the enquiry; with a shared lead, several buyers split it and race each other to the phone. Exclusive leads cost more but usually mean better contact and conversion rates, so the cost per policy can be lower. Our guide to what exclusive leads cost explains what drives it.
A lead is worth your commission per policy after clawbacks, multiplied by the share of leads that become policies. Illustrative example: £675 after clawbacks at 1 in 10 makes each lead worth £67.50 before adviser time and other costs. Paying that much leaves nothing over, so set your maximum well below it, using your own figures.
There is no single figure: it depends on what your policies earn and what you keep after any network or principal share. A useful check is the share of commission your leads take. For protection specialists in a small FCA sample, lead generation and staff costs together came to about 30% of gross commission.
It depends on the seller. Some add VAT to the quoted price, while others charge none, so compare prices on the same basis and ask your accountant whether your firm can reclaim it. No VAT is added to enquiries bought through Protection Connect.
Only if the seller’s credit policy doesn’t cover them, so check it before comparing prices. On Protection Connect, approved claims are credited to your balance in full: 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, with at most 1 credit per 10 leads your firm buys each calendar month.
Creating an account is free. Buy one lead at a time. With a saved card, balance first; otherwise, pay in full by card. No card fees. The minimum per enquiry is £50. We set a lead’s starting price when it’s listed; prices then move with demand and as a lead stays unsold. No monthly fee, fixed-term contract, minimum monthly spend or VAT. Unused balance is paid back within 14 days if you close your account, less anything you owe.
It depends on how often your leads become policies. Divide the price by your conversion rate to get the cost per policy, and check it leaves enough commission for adviser time, systems and profit. Illustrative example: at 1 in 8, a £40 lead costs £320 per policy; at 1 in 16, the same lead costs £640.
Sources and further reading
- FCA: Market study into the distribution of pure protection products to retail customers, interim report (MS24/1.4), January 2026
- FCA: Pure protection market study, market overview (MS24/1.3), September 2025
- FCA Handbook: PROD 4.3, product governance for distributors of insurance products
- FCA: Consumer Duty
- Which?: More people are looking for affordable life insurance, but what does it actually cost? (April 2026)
- ICO: How do we comply with the rules on live marketing calls? (PECR guidance)
- ICO: Statement on the commencement of the Data (Use and Access) Act, February 2026
