What benefits do business protection providers offer?
Many business protection providers include wellbeing benefits when you take one of their policies, and the combination varies greatly from one provider to the next. This guide sets out what the main providers currently include, and where those benefits genuinely differ.
What is usually included
Nine things turn up repeatedly across the providers below, though almost never in the same combination.
- A remote GP, usually 24 hours a dayAviva, Royal London, Scottish Widows, LV=, Guardian, The Exeter, Bupa, AXA Health and Unum all include one. Legal & General does not, and says so plainly.
- Mental health supportEvery provider here offers something, but the shape varies. Aviva and The Exeter set session counts, Royal London uses an app, Zurich offers 24/7 counselling, Legal & General and Scottish Widows use nurse-led support, and Unum and Vitality run a dedicated pathway.
- A named nurse rather than an appLegal & General, Royal London and Scottish Widows all use RedArc for one-to-one nurse support, which is a different proposition to a booking screen.
- Second medical opinionsAviva, Royal London, LV=, Guardian, The Exeter and Unum include them. Zurich offers them inside the paid Accelerate option.
- Physiotherapy and musculoskeletal supportRoyal London, The Exeter, Unum, Bupa and AXA Health. Bupa and AXA Health both let members self-refer without going through a GP first.
- Bereavement supportAviva, Zurich, Royal London and Unum. Zurich uses Empathy, which helps with the administrative side of a death as well as the emotional side.
- Legal and business helplinesAviva covers wills, lasting power of attorney and estate administration through Red Apple Law. Royal London adds a recruitment and legal helpline for business customers. LV= runs a business care line for tax and VAT queries.
- Rewards tied to your behaviourOnly Vitality, which links both your premium and your rewards to how much healthy activity you record.
- Support arranged at the point of claimGuardian HALO and Zurich Accelerate, the second at additional cost. Rather than a fixed menu, support is put together around the individual’s circumstances.
Correct as at the review date above. Provider benefits, partners, session limits and charges change frequently, and everything below reflects what each provider was publishing when this guide was last reviewed. Eligibility very often differs between a personal policy and a business protection policy, so confirm the current position with the provider or your adviser before relying on any of it. Nothing here changes what a policy pays or whether a claim is accepted.
Providers that write business protection
Aviva
- Digital GP
- Unlimited video GP appointments, 24 hours a day, shareable with eligible family, meaning a partner and children up to 18, or 21 if in full-time education.
- Mental health support
- Up to eight consultations a year.
- Nutritional support
- Up to eight consultations a year.
- Second medical opinion
- Up to two UK second opinions a year.
- Bupa Anytime HealthLine
- A 24/7 nurse advice line, every day of the year, available to you and family members over 16.
- Legal services
- Legal support and professional guidance including will writing, lasting power of attorney, funeral support and estate administration, provided by Red Apple Law.
- Annual health check
- A finger-prick test checking 20 health markers, now charged at £39.95.
- Personal trainers
- Up to eight digital sessions, shareable between you, your partner and children aged 16 to 18, or 21 if in full-time education. The trainer assesses goals and builds a programme in the app.
- Global Treatment
- For an additional £3 a month on Critical Illness+, Life Insurance+ and income protection policies, access to international facilities, doctors and treatment for serious illness.
- Bereavement counselling
- Help from a qualified counsellor. On top of the eight mental health sessions a year, six further sessions are available in the 12 months after a bereavement, shareable with a partner and children. If you die during the term, your partner and children can keep using the service for a year. Provided by Square Health.
Access through the Aviva DigiCare+ app: unlimited video GP appointments around the clock, up to eight mental health and eight nutrition sessions a year, two UK second medical opinions, up to eight digital personal training sessions, a 24/7 Bupa nurse advice line, legal support through Red Apple Law, an annual finger-prick health check covering around 20 markers which now carries a £39.95 charge, and bereavement counselling.
You, your partner, and children up to 18, or 21 if in full-time education. Some services set a minimum age of 16.
Global Treatment is a paid add-on from around £3 a month, giving access to treatment abroad for a defined list of serious conditions. Availability of DigiCare+ varies by product, and some business and relevant life policies are treated differently to personal cover, so this is one to confirm before you buy.
Legal & General
- Wellbeing Support
- Phone-based mental health and wellbeing support provided via RedArc. Can be used by a partner and children up to 18, or up to 21 if they remain in full-time education.
- Care Concierge
- Confidential telephone guidance on later-life and adult care.
- Rehabilitation Support Service
- Supports a quicker return to work with fast access to expert help.
Wellbeing Support, which is one-to-one telephone support from a registered nurse through RedArc. It covers practical and emotional help across a broad range of situations including illness, bereavement, stress and menopause, and can include a course of counselling. Care Concierge gives confidential telephone guidance on later-life and adult care. Rehabilitation Support helps with a return to work and applies to income protection policies.
You and immediate family living at your address.
This is a narrower and more human proposition than the app-based packages. There is no remote GP service. What it offers instead is sustained personal support from the same nurse over time, available from day one and without needing to claim. Wellbeing Support is included as standard with Legal & General’s business protection and relevant life policies.
Zurich
- Zurich Support Services
- 24/7 access to mental health support and counselling for you and your family.
- Bereavement support
- Telephone bereavement support for families.
- Zurich Accelerate
- Access to experts around the world for a package of medical care services covering cancer, heart and neurological conditions, for an additional fee.
Zurich Support Services provides 24/7 access to counsellors and advisers, available throughout the policy rather than only at claim. Bereavement support is delivered through Empathy, which assigns a dedicated care manager and helps families with the administrative side of a death alongside emotional support. Accelerate is a paid option giving access to virtual consultants, private diagnostics, second opinions, precision cancer medicine, clinical trials support and overseas treatment.
You and your family, for the support and bereavement services.
Accelerate is the substantive clinical element here, but it is an optional extra at additional cost and is offered on personal and income protection policies rather than business protection. If you are buying key person or shareholder cover, Support Services and bereavement support are the relevant parts.
Royal London
- Helping Hand
- Health and wellbeing support including virtual physiotherapy and mental health support for you, your partner and children.
- HealthHero
- Speak to a doctor by video, phone or message, 24 hours a day.
- Dedicated nurse
- One-to-one nurse support provided via RedArc.
- Mental health and musculoskeletal
- Support via Thrive for mental health and TrackActiveMe for musculoskeletal problems.
Helping Hand, included at no extra cost on advised policies. It combines a dedicated RedArc nurse, 24/7 GP access by video, phone or message through HealthHero, the Thrive mental wellbeing app, virtual physiotherapy through TrackActiveMe, a heart-health tracking tool, second medical opinions and bereavement counselling. New customers complete a short online health assessment which produces a personal report and points them towards the most relevant services.
You, your partner and your children.
Business customers get a version that includes a recruitment helpline and a legal helpline alongside the health services. This is one of the few packages with elements aimed specifically at running a business rather than at personal health, and it applies to both the Business Menu Plan and the Relevant Life Plan.
Vitality
- Vitality Programme
- Rewards and discounts for healthy activity across gyms, retail partners and devices.
- Care and recovery pathways
- Dedicated support for cancer, mental health, musculoskeletal and neurological conditions.
- Premium Optimiser
- Up to 40 per cent off your monthly premiums when you keep healthy.
A different model to the rest. Rather than a fixed set of services, Vitality links your behaviour to your premium and your rewards. The programme gives discounts and rewards for healthy activity across gyms, retail partners and devices. Optimiser reduces your starting premium, by up to 30 per cent on fixed-term cover and up to 40 per cent on whole of life, with premiums then adjusting according to how much you engage. Care and recovery pathways provide support for cancer, mental health, musculoskeletal and neurological conditions from the point of a valid claim.
You, with family access depending on the plan.
Optimiser can be added to business protection including key person and shareholder cover. The value here is real but conditional. If you engage with the programme, the savings and rewards can be significant. If you do not, premiums can rise over time. This suits someone who will actually use it, and is less suitable for someone who wants to set the policy up and forget about it.
Scottish Widows
- Support services
- Tailored physical and mental health support for policyholders and their families, provided via RedArc.
- 24/7 GP service
- Round-the-clock access to a remote GP for you, your partner and your children.
Scottish Widows Care, which combines RedArc personal nurse support with Clinic in a Pocket, a 24/7 remote GP service including prescription delivery. Nurse support covers a wide range of therapies and does not exclude pre-existing conditions. There is also access to Macmillan Cancer Support.
You, your partner and your children, available from day one.
Scottish Widows publishes reasonably detailed data on how these services are used, which gives a clearer picture than most of what people actually turn to them for. Use of the GP service rose 57 per cent in 2024, with 42 per cent of appointments booked outside normal hours. If you are buying business protection specifically, confirm eligibility at product level, as the proposition is primarily built around retail cover.
LV=
- LV= Doctor Services
- Remote GP, second opinion and related health services for you, your partner and your children.
- Member Care
- Support services for members and their families.
LV= Doctor Services, delivered by Square Health, covering unlimited 24/7 remote GP appointments, prescription services, second medical opinions and mental health support. There is also a legal advice line, a care navigator service and a business care line for tax and VAT queries. As a mutual, LV= also gives members a vote at general meetings after 12 months.
You and your spouse or partner. Cover for children varies by service.
All the LV= business protection products have eligibility for Doctor Services, which applies to key person cover, share and partnership protection, relevant life and executive income protection, available to the insured employee and their partner. If you want certainty that the wellbeing package carries across to a business policy, this is the most explicitly documented.
Guardian
- Anytime GP
- 24/7 access to a remote GP for policyholders and their family.
- HALO aftercare
- Tailored medical and legal support arranged at the point of claim.
Guardian Anytime gives unlimited 24/7 access to a remote GP with no fixed appointment length, available from anywhere in the world, plus second medical opinions and consultations covering emotional wellbeing and aches and pains. Guardian HALO is the claims-stage service, arranging tailored medical and legal support, counselling, bereavement support, speech therapy or home help according to what the individual needs.
You, your partner, and children up to age 23, which is a wider age limit than most.
HALO is deliberately not a fixed list of services. Rather than choosing from a menu, you get support arranged around your circumstances at the point of claim. That is harder to compare on a spreadsheet but can be more useful in practice. As with the others, business protection eligibility is worth confirming directly.
The Exeter
- HealthWise app
- Unlimited 24/7 GP consultations, physiotherapy, mental health support, dietitian sessions and second medical opinions.
HealthWise, delivered in partnership with Square Health. It covers remote GP appointments by phone or video, often same day, second medical opinions from leading specialists, physiotherapy, mental health support, and dietitian, lifestyle and nutrition consultations. Several of these services are limited to six uses a year. There is also a Health MOT, an at-home finger-prick blood test checking 20 markers including cholesterol, liver health and diabetes risk, included at no extra cost.
Members and their immediate family, at no separate charge. The Health MOT is limited to the main policyholder only.
The Exeter is a mutual, so there are no shareholders and profits are reinvested. It publishes fuller usage data than most: remote GP appointments account for 76 per cent of app usage, with use up more than 22 per cent year on year and 54 per cent of users coming back for repeat consultations. Physiotherapy is second at 11 per cent of usage and mental health third at 7 per cent, where 90 per cent of users return for further support. Users rate the experts an average of 4.7 out of 5. If you are considering The Exeter for a business protection arrangement, confirm which of its products the package attaches to, as HealthWise is most visible on its health and income protection cover.
Health and group providers
These three are worth knowing about, but business protection is not what they sell. Bupa and AXA Health are private medical insurers, and Unum’s cover here insures your employees as a group rather than protecting the business against the loss of one individual. For most firms they sit alongside business protection rather than instead of it.
Bupa
- Blua digital GP
- Remote GP and nurse appointments for covered employees.
- My Bupa app
- Digital access to policy details, claims and health services.
- Anytime HealthLine
- Telephone access to nurses for health questions. Not an FCA regulated service.
- Direct Access
- Self-referral routes for musculoskeletal, mental health and cancer concerns without a GP referral first.
- Mind Matters
- Mental health and wellbeing support, including an employee assistance programme and resilience tools for employers.
- Family Mental HealthLine
- A support line for parents and carers worried about a child’s mental health.
Bupa’s business cover comes with a broad set of services beyond treatment itself. Digital GP appointments are included on most plans, and members also get 15-minute face-to-face GP appointments including tests at 69 Bupa health centres. Annual dentist and hygiene appointments are included for everyone named on the policy across more than 360 Bupa Dental Care practices. There are health helplines covering general medical worries, family mental health and menopause, physiotherapy and primary care pathways giving fast clinical triage without a referral, neurodiversity coaching, and preventive support including DNA testing and medication reviews. Employers also get HR and employment law support through WorkNest, online policy management via Bupa Connect, and CPD-certified e-learning.
Employees named on the business policy. Dental appointments extend to every person named on the policy, so family members included on the scheme are covered for that benefit.
Bupa is joining these services up under Connected Care, delivered through the My Bupa app, with the aim of moving members from first consultation through to diagnosis, treatment and follow-up without dropping between systems. Bupa is a multinational health insurance and healthcare company rather than a business protection insurer.
AXA Health
- Doctor at Hand
- Remote GP service provided via Doctor Care Anywhere.
- Mental health support
- Access to mental health support services through Stronger Minds.
Through AXA Health’s business cover, employees get 24/7 virtual GP appointments via Doctor at Hand, with unlimited access and appointments often available within hours. Health at Hand is a round-the-clock helpline staffed by nurses, midwives, counsellors and pharmacists, with specialist heart and cancer nurses available during weekday hours. Working Body gives direct phone or video access to physiotherapists and osteopaths for musculoskeletal problems with no GP referral needed, included for all members. Stronger Minds gives direct access to mental health support, available when the mental health module is included.
Employees covered under the business plan. Family access depends on how the scheme is set up.
AXA does not offer UK life or business protection cover. It is a private medical insurer, and its plans are modular, meaning you build cover from core hospital treatment and add options rather than choosing a fixed tier. The direct-access services that skip the GP referral step are the distinctive part of the offering, and are among the most used.
Unum
- Help@hand
- An employee app with remote GP, mental health support, physiotherapy and more.
- Support pathways
- Dedicated mental health and cancer support pathways for employees.
Help@hand, delivered by Square Health. It provides remote GP appointments, mental health support, physiotherapy, second medical opinions and bereavement counselling, alongside a fully integrated employee assistance programme. Unum also runs a Mental Health Pathway for early specialist intervention and a Cancer Pathway giving support from diagnosis through treatment and afterwards. There is a dedicated rehabilitation team to help manage absence and support a return to work, plus training sessions for HR staff and line managers on sickness absence, mental health and bereavement.
Employees under the employer’s group income protection, group life or group critical illness policy, and their families, at no cost to the employer. Selected services are available to uninsured employees free of charge, and the full suite can be extended to staff outside the group policy for £4.15 per employee per month.
This is workplace cover, not owner-level business protection. It insures your employees as a group rather than protecting the business against the loss of a specific individual. For many firms the two sit alongside each other rather than competing: key person or shareholder cover protects the business, group protection is a staff benefit. The rehabilitation and absence-management support is the element employers tend to value most, since it addresses the operational cost of long-term sickness rather than only the financial one.
What to check before you buy
Six questions that decide whether any of this is worth anything to you.
- Does the package attach to the business policy?Most of these propositions were built around personal cover first, and several providers say to check at product level. Legal & General, Royal London and LV= are the most explicit that theirs carry across to business protection and relevant life.
- Who counts as family, and up to what age?Most stop at 18, or 21 in full-time education. Guardian goes to 23. Some services set a minimum age of 16. Legal & General covers immediate family living at your address.
- Is it included, or an add-on?Aviva’s Global Treatment and Zurich’s Accelerate both cost extra, and Aviva’s annual health check now carries a £39.95 charge. Everything else listed above is included with the policy.
- Is it available from day one, or only at claim?Scottish Widows and Legal & General are usable from the start. Guardian HALO and Vitality’s care and recovery pathways are claims-stage services, so they do nothing for you while the policy is simply running.
- What are the usage limits?Several are capped. Aviva allows eight mental health sessions and two second opinions a year. Several of The Exeter’s services are limited to six uses a year. Unlimited usually applies to the GP service rather than the rest.
- Would you actually use it?Vitality’s model only pays off if you engage with it. A nurse-led service suits someone who wants to talk to a person, an app suits someone who wants to book at 11pm. None of it changes what the policy pays, so it should not be the reason to accept a materially worse premium or a weaker policy definition.
You might be interested in
Which provider’s extras actually apply to your policy?
Speak to a business protection specialist at IGotCover. We compare our panel of insurers on the wellbeing package as well as the premium, and confirm what carries across to a business policy before you apply. Free, and with no obligation.
Get a Free Quote →Important information: This guide is for general information purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or tax advice. Provider benefits and third-party services are subject to change and are not part of the insurance contract. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and may change in the future. All figures and examples are illustrative only and do not represent a guarantee of cover, premium, or payout. Eligibility for cover is subject to insurer underwriting criteria and acceptance. You should seek advice from a qualified financial adviser and, where relevant, a solicitor or tax adviser before taking out any policy or entering into a legal agreement. IGotCover is a trading name of Caspian Assured Ltd, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA reference [FRN]).
