Legal & General life insurance after skin cancer is possible in principle: L&G assesses each application after a cancer individually, and its application asks whether you have ever had cancer or a melanoma. Its critical illness add-on leaves out some skin cancers. Melanoma or another skin cancer is the kind of history an FCA-authorised broker can weigh against questions like these; using the form on this page puts a free call-back in motion.

L&G weighs each case on its own facts, so this page sets out its questions and its policy wording rather than a likely outcome. For what insurers generally ask once treatment is over, see life insurance after cancer; the rest of L&G's range is in Legal & General life insurance.

If you are having treatment for skin cancer now, rather than applying with a history of it, the Macmillan Support Line is free to call on 0808 808 00 00, 8am to 8pm, seven days a week. If treatment is still going on, there is a separate page on applying for life cover while you have cancer.

Which skin cancer questions are on Legal & General's application?

L&G's application form for advisers (W11904 02/26) warns that it does not always match the questions in its interactive application, so read these as examples of the kind of question, not the exact wording you will see. Three of its questions touch skin cancer:

  • In the questions about your health at any time, whether you have "had cancer, Hodgkin lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, leukaemia or a melanoma?"
  • For critical illness or income protection applications only, whether in the last 5 years a health professional has seen you about "a mole or freckle?". A note says to ignore birthmarks where no treatment or specialist referral has been advised.
  • Among symptoms in the last 3 months, a "Mole or freckle that’s bled or changed in appearance".

If a medical report is needed, L&G's leaflet of examples (W14026 03/26) says it may ask your GP about "Any history of cancer" and about conditions affecting your skin, so a skin history can come up in more than one place.

How does Legal & General assess life cover after skin cancer?

L&G's guide to life insurance and cancer (21 April 2026) says: "In theory, you can get L&G life insurance after a cancer diagnosis, but your application will be assessed individually." The decision also takes in your age, other medical information and how much cover you want. There is no fixed remission period, the guide says, though there may be a wait after cancer and the premium may end up higher; a long spell without cancer symptoms could potentially mean standard rates.

Whether L&G would look at a particular type, size or date of skin cancer differently is something a broker can talk over with you.

How does L&G's critical illness wording treat melanoma?

Critical illness cover is an optional extra on L&G life insurance, and it pays only if you meet one of its listed definitions; L&G's critical illness policy has the full list. Among the items its cancer definition lists as not covered, in the Critical Illness Cover Policy Terms and Conditions (QGI14872 - 2026/10), is this one:

Malignant melanoma skin cancers that are confined to the epidermis (outer layer of skin).

L&G's consumer guide (21 April 2026) describes the same line in plainer words: "Malignant melanoma, for example, is not covered unless it has been ‘histologically classified’ (referring to the scientific study of tissues) as having caused invasion beyond the outer layer of skin, or epidermis."

How does L&G's critical illness wording treat other skin cancers?

The same list in QGI14872 says this is not covered either:

All cancers (other than malignant melanoma) that arise from or are confined to one or more of the epidermal, dermal, and subcutaneous tissue layers of the skin (including cutaneous lymphomas and sarcomas).

Because that line takes in cancers that arise in the skin as well as those confined to it, a non-melanoma skin cancer falls outside the main cancer definition whatever its stage; a melanoma is left out only while it stays in the epidermis. Both lines match the Association of British Insurers' Guide to Minimum Standards for Critical Illness Cover (updated April 2023). L&G's cancer guide is looser, saying other skin cancers can be included once spread to distant organs or the lymph glands, but its Guide to Critical Illnesses Covered (QGI14860 01/26) says the terms and schedule sent after you take out cover show exactly what you have.

A wider version of the policy, sold with Critical Illness Extra, adds a further payment for "Less advanced cancer of the skin - of specified type and severity". Its terms (QGI13939, 2026/10) are hosted in the adviser section of L&G's website, and the definition opens:

Non-melanoma skin cancer diagnosed with histological confirmation that the tumour is larger than 2 centimetres across and has at least one of the following features:

Five features follow, among them a thickness of at least 4 millimetres (any thickness for squamous cell carcinoma), invasion into nerves in the skin, and recurrence despite previous treatments.

Melanoma is not covered under that definition. Extra's additional cover pays the lower of 100% of the amount of cover at the time the definition is met and £35,000, and L&G says such claims do not reduce your amount of cover or change your premiums. The standard Critical Illness Cover terms (QGI14872) list only low grade prostate cancer and carcinoma in situ of the breast under additional cover. Which version applies depends on the policy you are offered.

What should you tell L&G about a skin cancer or a mole?

The Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012 says: "It is the duty of the consumer to take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation to the insurer." The Act treats a careless wrong answer differently from a deliberate or reckless one, and it is for the insurer to show that an answer was deliberate or reckless.

L&G's form asks you to "tell us anyway" if you are unsure whether to mention a condition, and warns: "If you don’t answer fully and accurately, it will very likely mean that a claim may not be paid and your policy may be amended or cancelled." Wrong answers, and what an insurer can then do, are covered in the duty to disclose and refused claims; what insurers commonly ask is listed in medical questions for life insurance.

If an application is postponed or declined, read what to do if you are declined; the general picture for health conditions is in life insurance with medical conditions. Not sure how a mole or melanoma question applies to you? A broker can talk through the wording during the call-back you request on this page.

Frequently asked questions

Does Legal & General life insurance cover skin cancer?

Life insurance pays out on death or on a terminal illness diagnosis during the policy, and L&G's cancer guide says cancer that is the cause of either is covered. Critical illness cover is separate and pays only when a diagnosis meets the definitions above; critical illness cover and skin cancer takes the wider question.

Is there L&G cover without health questions if I have had skin cancer?

L&G's guide points people who have had cancer, aged 50-80, to Over 50 Life Insurance, "which has guaranteed acceptance with no medical questions". It gives the maximum amount of cover as £10,000 and says full cover is payable after one year. Life insurance over 50 sets out how that kind of plan works.

No broker can promise an offer, but one who phones you back can say which insurers might consider a skin cancer history, and this page's form starts that call at any time. Other health questions are gathered in health and underwriting.

Sources

  • Legal & General, Life Insurance Policy Terms and Conditions (QGI12849 - 2026/10) and Critical Illness Cover Policy Terms and Conditions (QGI14872 - 2026/10), one PDF, read 26 October 2026. legalandgeneral.com
  • Legal & General, Guide to Critical Illnesses Covered: Definitions Explained (QGI14860 01/26), read 26 October 2026. legalandgeneral.com
  • Legal & General, Life Insurance with Critical Illness Cover and Critical Illness Extra: Policy Terms and Conditions (QGI13939 - 2026/10), read 26 October 2026. legalandgeneral.com
  • Legal & General, Life insurance and cancer (21 April 2026), read 26 October 2026. legalandgeneral.com
  • Legal & General, OLP Connect Application Form (SA26) (W11904 02/26), read 26 October 2026. legalandgeneral.com
  • Legal & General, Medical Report: Details we may ask your GP about (W14026 03/26), read 26 October 2026. legalandgeneral.com
  • Association of British Insurers, Guide to Minimum Standards for Critical Illness Cover (updated April 2023), read 26 October 2026. abi.org.uk
  • Macmillan Cancer Support, Macmillan Support Line (undated), read 26 October 2026. macmillan.org.uk
  • legislation.gov.uk, Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012, sections 2 and 5, read 26 October 2026. legislation.gov.uk