Term life insurance leads: a UK buyer's guide
Term life insurance leads are enquiries from people who want fixed-term cover, usually for a mortgage or young family, and have asked to be contacted. What each is worth to you depends on the customer’s age, smoking status and cover amount, so decide what to pay from your own commission.
Age sets a lead’s value
Illustrative example, not Protection Connect results: at 10% conversion, a non-smoker’s £200,000 policy breaks even at £17 to £25 a lead at 31, £85 to £126 at 51.
Mortgage protection is usually term cover
In the UK the label mostly means decreasing or level term advised alongside a mortgage, not a separate type of policy.
Filter by age and cover
On Protection Connect you can also filter by single or joint cover, but can’t target term length or the reason for cover, so confirm them on the call.
Whole life often means over-50s
Most new whole of life policies in 2024 were guaranteed over-50s plans, averaging £290 a year against £1,224 for underwritten cover.
What are term life insurance leads?
A term life insurance lead is an enquiry about life cover for a set period, such as the length of a mortgage, from someone who asked to be contacted, passed to an adviser firm that will call and advise them.
Sellers also say term life leads or term assurance leads. “Agents” is US vocabulary: in the UK the buyers are FCA authorised firms and their appointed representatives, as our guide for UK agents and advisers buying leads explains.
Who sends a term enquiry
In the FCA’s consumer research for its market study, term buyers were most often prompted by a house purchase or new mortgage, thinking ahead about their responsibilities, an adviser’s recommendation or a new baby. Among recent protection buyers, 59% had dependants under 18, so many term enquirers are likely to be young parents or new homeowners with a busy week. A prompt, prepared first call matters, as our guide to real-time life insurance leads explains.
The profiles behind term enquiries
Most term life insurance leads give a cover amount and term at most. The shape of the policy is settled in the advice conversation.
| Profile | What it pays | Often prompted by | 2024 average for new policies |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level term | A fixed lump sum on death during the term | Children, an interest-only mortgage or family cover | £375 a year for £200,990 of cover |
| Decreasing term | A lump sum that falls over the term, usually in step with a repayment mortgage | Buying a home or remortgaging | £285 a year for £220,591 of starting cover |
| Family income benefit | A monthly income from the death until the term ends | A young family that needs income replaced | £251 a year for £22,224 a year of income |
| Term with critical illness | Accelerated cover pays once, on death or diagnosis of a listed condition | Homeowners who want the mortgage cleared after serious illness too | Level term with critical illness: £412 a year |
| Joint life term | One payout, usually on the first death | Couples buying a home or starting a family | Joint level term: £488 a year for £252,216 of cover |
Averages across new policies sold in 2024, from Swiss Re’s Term & Health Watch 2025. Individual premiums vary widely with age, health, smoking status, cover amount and term.
Level term is the bigger market: Swiss Re counted about 644,000 new level policies in 2024 against about 317,000 decreasing, not counting those sold with critical illness. Two single policies cost more than one joint policy but can each pay out; which suits the household is advice, not a box on a form.
Whole life insurance leads: term, whole of life or over-50s?
Sellers often list term life insurance leads, whole of life and over-50s enquiries side by side, but they are three different conversations. Whole life insurance leads can mean two very different customers, so ask which one a seller means before you price them.
Fixed term
Term cover
Pays if the customer dies within the term, and nothing after it.
- Usually prompted by a mortgage or children
- 71% of intermediated term sales advised (2023)
Lifelong, underwritten
Whole of life
Medically underwritten, and pays out whenever death happens.
- Average new premium £1,224 a year for £128,218 of cover (2024)
- 39% of intermediated sales advised (2023)
Lifelong, no medical questions
Guaranteed over-50s plan
Whole of life cover with guaranteed acceptance, usually from age 50.
- Average new premium £290 a year for £4,069 of cover (2024)
- 3% of intermediated sales advised (2023)
- Typically a 12 or 24 month waiting period for deaths that aren’t accidental
Premiums and cover: Swiss Re Term & Health Watch 2025. Advised shares: ABI data in FCA MS24/1.3.
Assess them separately: a lead cost that suits a £375-a-year term case tells you little about a £290-a-year over-50s plan, and underwritten whole of life often turns on estate planning and trusts. Our guide to whole of life and over-50s leads covers the waiting period and how to explain value.
Are mortgage protection leads different from term leads?
In the UK, mostly not. Mortgage protection is usually term cover set up to clear a mortgage if a borrower dies: decreasing term for a repayment mortgage and level term for interest-only, sometimes with critical illness. Some advisers also use the label for income protection or short-term mortgage payment cover.
Many US pages about mortgage protection leads describe mail-outs to new homeowners found through mortgage records. A UK seller using the label should be able to say where the mortgage details came from.
Start with your own mortgage clients
The gap is wide: more than 40% of mortgage holders had no life insurance in 2024 (FCA Financial Lives data, quoted in the interim report). Mortgage advisers already placed about 36% of intermediated protection policies that year, against 52% for protection specialists.
If you arrange mortgages, every application, remortgage and product switch is a point to review cover that costs you no lead fee; our guide to free life insurance leads covers working your clients, referrals and introducers. Our guide to getting life insurance leads in the UK compares those channels with buying. Bought enquiries fill the quiet weeks, or the gap if you don’t arrange mortgages.
Questions to ask a seller of mortgage protection leads
- Which form question produced the label, and what did the customer answer?
- Was the customer told an adviser would call about protection?
- Did any data come from property, lending or other records rather than the customer?
- Do you pass on the mortgage balance, term and repayment type, or only a cover amount?
- What does any premium over a standard life enquiry actually buy?
For the questions to put to any seller, see choosing where to buy leads and the best leads for your type of firm.
Level or decreasing for a mortgage?
A request for £230,000 over 27 years may be a mortgage, or a parent who picked a number that felt right. Ask, then advise.
For younger customers the price gap is often small (£8.20 against £6.85 a month at 31 in the age table below), so the choice turns on what needs protecting, not on cost.
What is a term life insurance lead worth to your firm?
A term life insurance lead is worth the commission it can produce, times the chance it becomes a policy that stays on risk, less its price. Initial commission typically runs at 170% to 250% of first-year premium, and about 96% was paid upfront on indemnity terms in 2024 (FCA interim report).
Clawback periods are generally two or four years (FCA, MS24/1.3), and the FCA says the average is shifting towards four.
Calculator
Term lead break-even calculator
Enter your price, conversion and commission. Open “Allow for clawbacks” if you take indemnity commission.
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 £750 is 200% of the 2024 average level term premium of £375 (Swiss Re). Replace it with the commission you keep after any network or principal share. Defaults are examples, not Protection Connect results or a forecast.
Illustrative example: at the defaults (£50 a lead, one policy in ten, £750 commission, 10% clawback) you break even at £67.50 a lead, before any network or principal share and overheads. At the same 200% rate, a 31-year-old non-smoker’s £8.20-a-month policy in the age table below earns about £197, so enter your own case size.
What the calculator doesn’t show
- Late clawback. A policy that lapses in year three of a four-year clawback takes commission back long after you judged the source, so track each source for the whole period.
- Other costs. In a small FCA sample of protection specialists, lead generation and staff together took about 30% of gross commission. Use it as a sense check: if leads alone take close to 30%, little is left within that benchmark to pay the advisers.
- Fair value. Acquisition costs are part of distribution cost, and for protection fair value is assessed under PROD 4. If lead spend is high relative to commission, discuss it with your compliance adviser.
What a term lead is worth by age
Illustrative example: £200,000 of cover over 25 years for a healthy non-smoker, using the average of the five cheapest quotes Which? found in April 2026, level term unless stated. Commission and break-even figures are our arithmetic, before clawback and any network or principal share, and are not Protection Connect results.
| Customer | Monthly premium | Initial commission at 170% to 250% | Break-even lead price if 10% convert |
|---|---|---|---|
| Age 23, non-smoker | £6.04 | £123 to £181 | £12 to £18 |
| Age 31, non-smoker | £8.20 | £167 to £246 | £17 to £25 |
| Age 31, non-smoker, decreasing term (basis not stated) | £6.85 | £140 to £206 | £14 to £21 |
| Age 41, non-smoker | £16.20 | £330 to £486 | £33 to £49 |
| Age 41, smoker (basis not stated) | about £35.62 | £727 to £1,069 | £73 to £107 |
| Age 51, non-smoker | £41.88 | £854 to £1,256 | £85 to £126 |
Premiums: Which?, April 2026. The smoker and decreasing rows use figures Which? reported without the cover amount or term, so treat them as indicative. Your commission depends on your agency terms with each insurer.
Protection Connect’s minimum price per term life insurance enquiry is £55, so on these figures, enquiries from non-smokers in their twenties or early thirties only pay back that price if you convert well above 10% of them. If you don’t, change your filters or which leads you buy, and never recommend more cover than a customer needs to make a lead pay.
Older isn’t simply better: applicants in their fifties often have more to disclose, which can mean higher premiums, exclusions and slower underwriting.
How that compares with what sellers charge
Shared life insurance leads are often advertised at around £10 to £25, exclusive leads at £30 to £80 and hotkey transfers at £60 to £120.
Indicative ranges reflect typically advertised UK prices in 2026. Not a survey or Protection Connect prices; on Protection Connect you see each lead’s price before you buy.
To turn break-even into a maximum, see how to work out the most to pay for a lead. To compare sources on cost per policy, see exclusive and shared leads side by side, and to plan spend, how to set a monthly lead budget.
Which filters should you set on term life insurance leads?
Set age and cover bands from the break-even figures above, and assess leads separately where case values differ.
Smoker status and cover amount
At 41, Which? put a smoker at roughly twice the non-smoker price, so smoker enquiries tend to carry more commission. Insurers treat vaping, nicotine replacement and occasional cigars differently, so ask precisely on the call. Protection Connect shows smoker status after you buy, but you can’t filter by it.
A minimum cover band lifts your average case size at the cost of volume, and some customers leave the amount blank because they don’t yet know what they need. On Protection Connect you can check each enquiry’s cover band before deciding whether to buy.
Illustrative starting filters
| Your situation | Filters to test first | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Mortgage adviser adding bought enquiries | Ages 25 to 50, any smoker status, cover £100,000 or more | Targets mortgage-sized cases; confirm the mortgage on the call |
| Protection specialist with a telephone team | Review each age band separately and buy at prices that fit its expected commission | Pays more where the premium, and your commission, is higher |
| New adviser or appointed representative | One narrow age band and a daily lead limit of one or two | Keeps the diary manageable while you learn your conversion rate; check your principal’s rules first |
| Firm focused on larger cases | Ages 35 to 55, cover £250,000 or more | Fewer matching enquiries, but bigger premiums per case |
Illustrative starting points to test, not recommendations for your firm. Track cost per policy by age band and adjust.
On Protection Connect you can buy each enquiry after checking its price and banded preview. Optional automatic buying lets you set lead types, age bands, a maximum price per lead and a daily limit. We buy matching leads at the current price, up to your maximum and daily limit. Automatic buyers get first pick of new leads, highest maximum price first.
New to buying? Our guide for advisers who are new to buying leads covers test sizes and budgets.
What you can’t filter, including health
Term length, joint or single cover, the reason for cover, health and occupation are often not available as filters. If a seller filters on health, ask how it collected the answers: health data is special category data under UK GDPR. Our guide to what qualified really means for a life insurance lead separates filtered leads from qualified ones.
Term life insurance leads rarely flag an impaired risk, so you usually find it on the call: health, weight, a job or a pastime that may rule out standard terms.
| What you learn on the call | What it can mean | What helps |
|---|---|---|
| Smoking or vaping | Smoker rates; insurers treat vaping and nicotine replacement differently | Ask what, how much and since when, then compare insurers’ definitions |
| A current or past health condition | Standard terms, a higher premium, an exclusion, postponement or a decline; insurers differ widely | Gather the details before quoting; use pre-application underwriting enquiries where offered |
| Height and weight outside an insurer’s standard range | A higher premium at some insurers | Ask early, so the first figures you discuss are realistic |
| A hazardous job or pastime | An exclusion or a higher premium for that activity | Ask specifically, and check each insurer’s questions |
| Cover declined or rated before | Possibly similar terms elsewhere, though insurers assess differently | Ask what happened and when, and make sure it is disclosed |
Health is one of the four drivers of vulnerability in the FCA’s guidance on vulnerable customers (FG21/1), so slow down, check understanding and don’t end the call with a flat no. If a case is beyond your experience, tell the customer about a specialist impaired-risk firm and, with their agreement, help them get in touch; don’t pass on the enquiry itself, because on Protection Connect you may use it only to advise that customer.
Not qualifying for cover isn’t a credit ground on Protection Connect, so build these cases into the conversion rate behind your maximum.
Should you offer critical illness and income protection on a term lead?
Often, yes, as part of the advice and only where it meets a need. A customer who asks about life cover has asked about one risk; the fact-find usually raises others, such as the mortgage after a cancer diagnosis, or the household if the main earner is off work for six months.
The FCA’s final market study report found 58% of UK adults hold no pure protection, and 59% of them have never considered whether they need it. A term enquiry is one of the moments someone is thinking about it.
What the Consumer Duty expects
The Consumer Duty applies to retail customers whether or not they are yet your clients, so it covers how you source and first contact a term enquiry as well as the advice. On a cross-sell, explain plainly what each policy would and wouldn’t pay for, and make it easy to say no or choose life cover alone. Separately, ICOBS requires any policy you propose to be consistent with the customer’s demands and needs, and any personal recommendation to be suitable.
Leaving out cover a customer clearly needs is a poor outcome, and so is a package they can’t keep paying for: it lapses and, inside clawback, takes your commission back. The FCA found about 26% of intermediated new sales in 2024 used loaded premiums, carrying about 25% more commission: choose the premium basis for the customer, never to recover a lead price.
A needs-based conversation on a term enquiry
- Find the triggerA house move, remortgage, new baby or review of old cover. Ask: “If the worst happened, what would you want this cover to pay for?”
Map what needs protectingThe mortgage balance, type and remaining term, who relies on their income, and existing cover such as death-in-service benefit.- Weigh the wider risksAsk how the household would cope with a serious illness or months off work. Replace existing cover only where it is better for them, and explain what they could lose.
Recommend and recordSingle or joint, level or decreasing, and only cover that meets a need at a premium they can keep paying for the whole term. Leave them free to choose life cover alone, and record why.
The customer asked about life insurance, so agree with your compliance adviser how you raise other needs and follow up in writing. For opening the call, see what to say on the first call to a life insurance lead; for PECR, TPS screening and privacy information, see our summary of the UK rules for calling bought leads.
Critical illness and income protection leads
Adding critical illness to term is common. Standalone critical illness pays on diagnosis and leaves any separate life cover in place, unlike the accelerated cover in the profiles table above.
Income protection usually replaces about 50% to 70% of income after a deferred period, commonly 4, 13, 26 or 52 weeks, and underwriting asks about occupation and income as well as health. It is almost always advised: 97% of intermediated sales in 2023, against 71% for term (FCA, MS24/1.3).
Some sellers offer income protection leads and critical illness leads separately. The market is smaller (about 0.3 million new income protection policies in 2024, FCA interim report) and suits firms that advise on income protection every week; if you mainly place term, raise it with the life enquiries you already buy, where the fact-find shows a need.
Life enquiries filtered by single or joint cover, age band and cover band.
See each term enquiry and its price before you buy. No fixed-term contract or minimum monthly spend.
How term enquiries work on Protection Connect
Enquiries come from our own life insurance website, LifeAdviser, and each goes to one broker only.
What you receive. Contact details, age, smoking status, any cover amount and term, and when and how the customer agreed to be contacted; never health answers or the reason for cover.
Consent. Before sending, the customer saw a notice that 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. The notice doesn’t name your firm. Say who you are and that you’re calling about their LifeAdviser enquiry. Check with your compliance adviser how PECR applies: TPS screening for live calls, consent naming your firm for marketing emails and texts.
Price. We set a lead’s starting price when it’s listed; prices then move with demand and as a lead stays unsold. The minimum is £55.
Where we’re not the answer. Our minimum price suits larger term cases best. We supply critical illness as life insurance leads, income protection from LifeAdviser, but no separate mortgage protection enquiries. See how firms buy life cover leads from us and how it works.
Questions brokers ask about term life insurance leads
Use your own figures. Multiply the commission you keep on the cases you target by the share of leads that become policies, after clawback, and set your ceiling below that break-even. Prices vary widely by lead type and seller, and our guide to UK lead prices and budgets covers typical prices and monthly planning.
Usually, yes. In the UK, mortgage protection normally means term cover advised alongside a mortgage: decreasing term for a repayment loan, level term for interest-only, sometimes with critical illness. A seller’s label may rest on one form answer, so ask which question produced it. Protection Connect has no separate mortgage protection product, so you confirm the mortgage on the call.
Level term pays a fixed lump sum if the customer dies during the term. Decreasing term pays a sum that falls over the term, usually in step with a repayment mortgage, and generally costs less. A lead rarely says which the customer needs, so ask what the cover is for, then advise.
Some sellers offer them, but price them apart from term. Underwritten whole of life is a small market often tied to estate planning, while many leads sold as whole of life are over-50s plans. Protection Connect doesn’t supply underwritten whole of life; its 50Life enquiries are for over-50s cover.
A rule of thumb, often quoted online, suggesting life cover of about ten times annual income. For UK term advice it is a starting point at most: build the figure from the mortgage, the income the family would need, existing cover and what the customer can afford. A cover amount on a lead may be a guess, so ask.
Yes, where your fact-find shows a need and the customer can afford the cover for the whole term. Explain what each policy would and wouldn’t pay for, make it easy to choose life cover alone, and never let the lead price steer the recommendation. Agree with your compliance adviser how you follow up someone who asked about life insurance.
Not as a separate product. Protection Connect supplies life insurance enquiries from LifeAdviser, with the customer’s age, smoking status and any cover amount and term they gave. Some will want cover for a mortgage, but the enquiry doesn’t say why they want cover, so ask on the call. Critical illness enquiries come as life insurance leads; income protection comes separately from LifeAdviser.
Sources and further reading
- FCA: Distribution of pure protection products to retail customers, market study interim report (MS24/1.4), January 2026
- FCA: Structure of the UK pure protection market for retail customers (MS24/1.3), September 2025
- FCA: Pure protection market study final report (MS24/1.5), September 2026
- FCA: Pure protection market study, consumer research summary (2025)
- Swiss Re: Term & Health Watch 2025 (2024 new business data)
- Which?: More people are looking for affordable life insurance, but what does it actually cost? (April 2026)
- FCA: Consumer Duty
- FCA: Guidance for firms on the fair treatment of vulnerable customers (FG21/1)
