Unusual Risks, the medical financial advisers, latest survey showed 75 per cent of insurers are now offering some form of HIV life assurance.
This is the sixth year that Unusual Risks has surveyed the availability of HIV life assurance in the UK, with the earliest survey result in 2011 indicating only 50 per cent of insurance providers were then offering any form of HIV life assurance.
Gradually over the last seven years more insurers have elected to offer HIV life assurance, which means more choice for HIV positive people who need cover.
Chris Morgan, lead financial adviser of Unusual Risks, said he was greatly encouraged that the number of the top 12 life assurance providers offering HIV cover continues to improve each year.
Mr Morgan said: “Having more life insurance products available to HIV positive people is obviously a good thing, because this will lead to improved terms and premiums in the future.
“Unusual Risks are constantly liaising with product providers to improve the availability and standards of HIV life insurance.
“I have recently been working with the Association of British Insurers (ABI) to raise awareness of HIV Life Insurance and have written their new HIV and Life Insurance Consumer Guide that is now widely available’.
In another recent survey Unusual Risks established that 33 per cent of HIV positive people were unaware that life assurance was available to them, even though it has been for seven years.
A total of 22 per cent of HIV positive people had cancelled an insurance policy due to their HIV diagnosis.
Mark Dennison, principal of LightBlue UK, said: "It is great news that more people with HIV can now get cover.
“An increase of 25 per cent since 2011 is a good step.
“As medical science progresses we are seeing illnesses that use to be a block on protection becoming better understood and better treated. In turn it means more people are able to receive some form of cover and gain financial peace of mind."
emma.hughes@ft.com
