Whether child life insurance is worth it usually turns on a smaller question than parents expect: what a parent's own policy already pays if a child dies. At Royal London, Scottish Widows, Legal & General and Aviva that payment is a fixed sum attached to a parent's critical illness cover rather than a policy written on the child.

This page looks at why parents consider it, whether whole of life works as a savings idea for a child, what it might cost for a baby, and how public help with a child's funeral fits in. None of it is a recommendation; the right answer depends on your family.

If you would find it easier to talk it over, an FCA-authorised broker can look at what your current or planned cover includes for your children. Asking is simple: the form on this page goes to that broker, who rings you free, with nothing you have to agree to.

Why do parents consider life insurance for a child?

Two reasons come up. One is help with the cost of a funeral. The other is the idea of building something long-term for the child, usually through a whole of life policy. They lead to very different products, and the first is often already part of a parent's plan:

  • Royal London offers three levels on its Children's Critical Illness Cover page (undated; Royal London says the next step is to speak to a financial adviser): none, Standard, which pays £5,000 on the death of a child, and Enhanced, which pays £10,000. Cover runs from a child's birth until age 22 (23 for a child still in full time education).
  • Scottish Widows includes children's life cover of £10,000 with its Critical Illness Cover and Life with Critical Illness Cover, according to its Protect policy summary (January 2026), which it hosts on its adviser website. A child is covered from 30 days old until their 22nd birthday, £10,000 is the most it pays across all your Protect policies, and there is no payment where a child's symptoms, condition or cause of death began before the policy started.
  • Legal & General's direct policy summary (QGI14786, October 2026) includes Child Funeral Benefit with Critical Illness Cover but not with life cover on its own, and says it will "contribute £4,000 towards funeral costs". Its terms (QGI14872) allow claims for at most two children and exclude a condition present at birth.
  • Aviva's page on children's critical illness benefit (last updated 15 May 2026) says that benefit covers children from 30 days old to 18, or 21 in full-time education, and that a separate benefit, included as standard with its critical illness cover, pays "£5,000, which could be used towards funeral costs".

So a parent with critical illness cover at one of these insurers may already hold the funeral-cost part of what people mean by child life insurance. The fuller conditions, and what happens to the parent's own policy after a claim, are set out in life insurance for children.

Is whole of life insurance on a child a good investment?

Whole of life cover is protection rather than a savings account, and Aviva's adviser literature shows the difference plainly. Its policy summary for Whole of Life Insurance+ (AL50007, February 2026, from Aviva's adviser document library) says the lump sum "will be paid whenever you die" and that "This isn't the kind of policy that you can 'cash in' - so you don't get any money if you cancel it." With premiums due for the life of the cover, the summary warns that the total you pay could end up larger than the payout. It sets 18 as the youngest age to apply.

A plan on those terms would leave nothing to draw on for university or a first home, and would be paid for over decades. Other insurers' plans differ in detail. The general trade-offs are in the pros and cons of whole of life insurance, the tax angle in life insurance as a tax shelter, and borrowing against a policy in borrowing against whole of life.

How much does whole of life insurance cost for a child or baby?

For a baby or young child the first hurdle is age rather than price. Aviva's FAQs put the age range for applying for its Life Insurance Plan at 18 to 77. LV= says its own life insurance covers only your own life or a joint life, so insuring someone else means speaking to a financial adviser, and that any such policy needs insurable interest: a financial reason to insure somebody that the law where you live recognises. How that works between relatives is in life insurance on someone else. Whether any insurer would look at a policy on a young child, and what it might cost, is something a broker can find out for you on a free call-back.

Where a policy is possible, Aviva's whole of life summary says premiums depend on the amount of cover as well as the age, job, health, lifestyle and smoking habits of the person covered; what moves whole of life prices more generally is in how much whole of life cover costs.

How public help with a child's funeral fits in

If a child in your family has died, Child Bereavement UK offers bereavement support on its helpline, 0800 02 888 40, and by live chat, email or text/WhatsApp; these run on weekdays between 8am and 8pm, bank holidays excepted.

In England, GOV.UK (read 22 October 2026) explains that the Children's Funeral Fund for England pays towards some costs of a funeral for a child under 18, or a baby stillborn after the 24th week of pregnancy, whatever the family earns or has saved, as long as the burial or cremation is in England. It covers burial or cremation fees (with the doctor's certificate for a cremation) and a coffin, shroud or casket costing up to £300. The burial or cremation provider claims its own fees, and claims have to be made within 6 months of the funeral. If you or your partner get certain benefits, you may also be able to claim the Funeral Expenses Payment for other costs.

In Scotland, mygov.scot (read 22 October 2026) says there is usually no charge to bury or cremate anyone aged 17 or under, babies included. If you or your partner are getting certain benefits, Funeral Support Payment can add £1,327.75 towards other costs such as the service or a funeral car; Age Scotland's April 2026 guide gives that as the 2026/27 rate. mygov.scot adds that the payment usually will not cover the full cost. Wales and Northern Ireland have their own arrangements, listed in the guide to children's cover and child funeral funds.

That is worth knowing before paying for cover whose main purpose is help with a child's funeral, because part of the cost may already be met.

Children's critical illness cover is a separate decision

The same parent's plans can also pay if a covered child is diagnosed with one of the illnesses the insurer lists. That is a different choice from the sum paid on a child's death, with its own amounts, ages and exclusions. Aviva, for instance, treats a claim under its children's benefit as a partial claim, so the parent's policy carries on. What the cover pays and when is in what child critical illness cover is, and whether the adult cover itself is worth having in whether critical illness cover is worth it.

Weighing it up for your family

A few questions can make the decision clearer:

  • What does your own or your partner's cover already include for children, and until what age?
  • Is the aim help with costs if a child died, or money for the child's future? They point to different products.
  • If it is the future, would a policy with no cash-in value, like the Aviva plan above, do what you want?
  • Would premiums that run for decades stay affordable?
  • If university fees are the goal, have you asked a regulated financial adviser about ways to save?

Should you want someone to go through these with you, an FCA-authorised broker can check what your policies include for your children when they call back, at no cost, after you send a request with the form on this page.

Frequently asked questions

Do children need life insurance?

It is a choice rather than a requirement. What it could add depends on the cover your family already holds and on what you want the money for, both weighed above. The wider question of who has a reason to buy cover is in who needs life cover.

Can a whole of life policy pay for a child's education?

Not by cashing it in, if the policy works like Aviva's Whole of Life Insurance+, which pays on death and gives nothing back if you cancel. Saving for school or university fees is a question for a regulated financial adviser.

What happens when a child outgrows the cover on a parent's policy?

The children's cover stops at the insurer's age limit: a child's 22nd birthday at Scottish Widows, and 22, or 23 in full time education, at Royal London. From 18, a young adult can apply for a policy of their own within limits such as Aviva's 18 to 77 for its Life Insurance Plan.

If any of this raises a question about your own family's cover, sending your details by the form on this page means an FCA-authorised broker phones you for an unhurried conversation, without charge.

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