Life insurance for pilots is sold by the usual insurers, but flying is one of the things their application questions cover, and your answer can change the terms: a higher premium, an exclusion, or neither. Which one depends on the insurer, the kind of flying and how much of it you do. Income protection works differently, and pilots have a separate product, loss of licence cover, built around the risk of losing a medical certificate.

Want to talk through your licence, aircraft and yearly hours? The short form here is free to send, and the FCA-authorised broker who gets it will phone.

Can pilots get life insurance and income protection at standard rates?

Sometimes. Insurers have no single rule for pilots:

  • Legal & General's consumer guide to jobs, a page dated 20 June 2023 whose list may since have changed, includes "You are a pilot or member of a flight crew" among the situations in which a job can change a policy.
  • LV='s high-risk guide (27 April 2026) puts "Pilots." on its list of higher-risk occupations, and says such work can mean higher premiums or exclusions tied to the job, though not automatically a refusal.
  • Royal London's underwriting guide (June 2026), a document marked "for financial adviser use only", shows ordinary rates, with no extra premium, for some private and recreational flying at low annual hours.

Nothing here promises standard terms to an airline, private or helicopter pilot, and how an airline or other commercial pilot is rated depends on the insurer. Medical history, age and smoking are assessed alongside the flying; what underwriting means explains the whole process.

How do insurers ask about flying?

Questions come in two forms: about your job, and about flying as an activity. Scottish Widows' adviser pages, which carry no date (read October 2026), say that, depending on the job title, it may ask if the occupation involves "flying, other than as a fare paying passenger". Legal & General's 2023 jobs page says that after an application you may be asked for an outline of your duties, the share of your job they take up and any injuries at work.

Royal London's adviser guide asks, for any hazardous pursuit, how many times a year someone takes part and how often. Its flying table is set out by hours a year, separately for fixed-wing, helicopter and student pilots, and covers private and recreational flying only, not pilots who fly for a living. If flying is your job, rating differs between insurers, and a broker can ask them for you, free, once they call back.

So expect to give licence type, aircraft, hours and what the flying is for. Gliding, microlighting, parachuting and similar are, in the guide's words, "subject to individual consideration".

When do insurers add a loading or an exclusion for flying?

Royal London's guide explains its terms. "Standard rates" means "no evidence of increased risk". "Rated" means the person "has been charged an extra premium", which can follow from "occupation" among other reasons. An exclusion means "cover with particular aspects excluded". The same guide uses the shorthand "Excl" for "The relevant condition/activity will be excluded".

Its table, headed "Private/recreational aviation", gives a decision for each of four benefits: life cover, critical illness cover, total permanent disability and income protection. For fixed-wing flying the first row is "‹ 50 hours a year": ordinary rates on the first three and an exclusion on income protection. From the next band, 51–150 hours a year, life cover is rated and the other three are excluded. For helicopters the first row is "‹ 25 hours a year", with ordinary rates on all four; from the 25–50 hours band, life cover is rated and the rest excluded. Student pilots, fixed-wing or helicopter, are shown with a rating on life cover and exclusions on the rest.

Other insurers set their own terms. On critical illness cover for armed forces personnel, Legal & General's adviser pages, which carry no date (read October 2026), say "Certain occupations may attract specific exclusions, for example, those who work in diving and aviation". Its underwriting guide (W10188, September 2025) gives private aviation as an example of a hazardous activity, and says it "may also apply an exclusion where the risk is too high to be covered by an increased premium".

A loading raises the premium; an exclusion narrows what the policy pays for. A broker can find out how your own hours and aircraft might be treated if you fill in the form.

What does an exclusion mean when someone claims?

Legal & General's guide to extreme sports (11 November 2025) says exclusions are listed in the policy booklet under "What you are not covered for", and that "We can't pay a claim for anything excluded from your policy". It adds that the person "won't be covered under some additional policy benefits, such as Accidental Death Benefit, if your death occurs from taking part or attempting to take part in hazardous activities".

Royal London's guide says the client "will still be covered for all other conditions". An exclusion for flying is therefore about the activity, not the whole policy. Read the wording of any offer to see what counts as flying, who it covers (pilot, crew or passenger) and whether it applies to every benefit. A loading on its own changes the price rather than the cover, though the guide adds that underwriters "may use a combination of ratings and exclusions".

What must you tell the insurer about flying?

The rules come from the 2012 Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act. Its section 2 applies before a policy is taken out or varied and places a "duty of the consumer to take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation to the insurer". Among the examples section 3 gives of what may be weighed is how clear and specific the insurer's questions were, and a dishonest misrepresentation always counts as a lack of reasonable care.

The insurer's remedies are in Schedule 1. Where a misrepresentation was deliberate or reckless, it may avoid the policy and refuse all claims, keeping the premiums unless that would be unfair. Where it was careless, the test is what the insurer would have done with a correct answer: if it would not have offered cover at all, it may avoid the policy but must hand back the premiums; if it would have offered other terms (apart from price), those apply if it requires; if it would have charged more, it may cut a claim in proportion.

LV= puts it more briefly: leaving out relevant details "could invalidate your policy later". For pilots that means hours, aircraft and any plan to move from private to paid flying. What you must disclose covers the rules in full, and when a claim can be refused the consequences.

What do income protection and loss of licence cover add?

Income protection pays a monthly sum while you cannot work through illness or injury; how income protection works is covered elsewhere. For pilots the question is how the insurer defines being unable to work. Royal London's table shows an exclusion on income protection even for private fixed-wing flying of fewer than 50 hours a year. Ask any insurer how it defines your occupation; the difference between own-occupation and any-occupation cover matters most for a job that needs a medical certificate.

Loss of licence cover is a separate product. Everywhen (formerly Towergate), which its own site gives as a trading name of Advisory Insurance Brokers Limited, explains it on an undated pilots' page (read in October 2026): "A Loss of Licence scheme pays a lump sum benefit if the Insurer is satisfied that your licence will not be reinstated with 5 years of the disability." Depending on the scheme, it "may also pay out a temporary monthly benefit if your licence is suspended due to ill health or accident", and any temporary benefit "will draw down on the lump sum amount payable". In a press release of 4 October 2013, Hiscox, describing itself as a "specialist global insurer", said its loss of licence insurance "protects commercial pilots against the financial consequences of loss of licence resulting from bodily injury or illness". That is a 2013 description, and the product may have changed since.

The broker's page also calls it "the traditional form of insurance for professional Air Crew" and describes a Pilot Income Protection alternative paying a monthly income for "normally 5 years". It says that normally the airline, a pilots' association or a union buys a group scheme for all crew, so check what your employer already provides before looking at a personal policy; whether you need both life cover and income protection sets out the questions. These are one broker's descriptions, so the policy wording governs.

A broker can check these definitions against your licence, aircraft and hours, and can approach specialist insurers, though no one can promise an offer. Fill in the form on this page to arrange that call.

Frequently asked questions

Is life insurance more expensive for pilots?

It can be. LV= says working in higher-risk occupations "may increase your premiums", and Royal London's adviser table shows ratings on life cover for some private flying. No figure applies to every pilot, so the broker's quote is the way to a number; what moves the price covers the rest.

Can private and helicopter pilots get life insurance?

For private flying, Royal London's adviser guide gives ordinary rates on life cover in its lowest hours bands and a rating beyond them. Flying helicopters for work is outside that table, so ask an insurer or a broker how it would be treated.

Do military pilots get life insurance?

Legal & General's adviser page says every serving member of the forces fills in an armed forces questionnaire when applying, and that on life insurance for them certain occupations "may attract premium loadings", aviation among them. That is one insurer; others set their own terms.

Can I get life insurance with a health condition as a pilot?

Health is assessed alongside flying. See life insurance with medical conditions for how that works and what a declined applicant can do.

Sources

  • Royal London, Information on our underwriting guidelines: Measuring Risk (for financial adviser use only, June 2026, P8G0011/15), read 19 October 2026. royallondon.com
  • Legal & General, Does your job affect your life insurance? (20 June 2023), read 19 October 2026. legalandgeneral.com
  • LV=, High-risk life insurance guide: How to secure cover (27 April 2026), read 19 October 2026. lv.com
  • Legal & General, Occupation and armed forces (adviser site), read 19 October 2026. legalandgeneral.com
  • Legal & General, Underwriting explained (W10188 09/25), read 19 October 2026. legalandgeneral.com
  • Legal & General, Does life insurance cover extreme sports? (11 November 2025), read 19 October 2026. legalandgeneral.com
  • Scottish Widows, Protection Underwriting (adviser site), read 19 October 2026. adviser.scottishwidows.co.uk
  • Everywhen, Pilots' Income Protection Insurance, read 19 October 2026. everywhen.co.uk
  • Hiscox, Hiscox Global Flying launches new direct website, read 19 October 2026. hiscoxgroup.com
  • legislation.gov.uk, Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012, sections 2 and 3 and Schedule 1, read 19 October 2026. legislation.gov.uk