Scottish Widows, Royal London and Guardian are the three mainstream insurers we use most for people with type 1 diabetes. If you have complications or a higher HbA1c, Royal London Diabetes Life Cover and The Exeter are the specialist routes we use most. The best one for you depends on your age and health, which is why we check every insurer before we recommend one.
Our figures come from our own clients’ applications and are correct as at 11 September 2026.
Which are the best life insurance companies for type 1 diabetes?
In our experience, Scottish Widows, Royal London and Guardian. We have analysed more than 1,100 applications, over 450 of them from people with type 1 diabetes, and these are the three mainstream insurers that have offered cover to the most of them. Each one suits a different kind of person.
Your own situation decides which is right for you, and there are other good insurers too. Before we recommend anyone, we check every insurer we place with against your age, your HbA1c and your health.
Royal London
Royal London is where our younger type 1 clients with good control have usually got the lowest price. Almost all of the type 1 clients we have placed with Royal London’s ordinary life insurance were under 40, and more than eight in ten had an HbA1c below 59.
For example, our type 1 clients under 30 with no complications typically paid around £8 a month per £100,000 of decreasing cover (normally used to pay off a mortgage) with Royal London. That is for the 16 to 25 year terms our clients chose; a longer term costs more.
Scottish Widows
Scottish Widows has offered cover to more of our type 1 clients than any other mainstream insurer, from people in their twenties to people in their sixties. It is also the mainstream insurer we place most often when someone has background retinopathy, meaning early changes at the back of the eye that have not needed treatment.
More than a quarter of our type 1 clients with Scottish Widows had background retinopathy, and nearly a third had an HbA1c between 59 and 75.
Guardian
Guardian is the mainstream insurer we use most for type 1 clients in their forties and fifties. In our experience, if you are over 50 with a low HbA1c and no complications, Guardian often charges the least extra. Some of our type 1 clients like that have been offered Guardian’s standard price, the same as someone without diabetes.
More than nine in ten of the type 1 clients we have placed with Guardian were 40 or over. It is not a promise, because Guardian still looks at your whole application, but it is often where we start for someone over 50 who manages their diabetes well.
Speak to a specialist
Not sure where you’d stand?
Tell us about your diabetes and we’ll check the insurers for you.
Which life insurers specialise in cover for type 1 diabetes?
The two we use most are Royal London Diabetes Life Cover and The Exeter. We turn to them when complications, a higher HbA1c or another health condition means the mainstream insurers say no or charge a lot more.
Royal London Diabetes Life Cover
This is life insurance made only for people with diabetes, and it accepts people other insurers turn away. If you have had laser treatment for retinopathy, for example, your application typically goes through on the call with no GP report, where many other insurers would decline.
What else makes it different:
- Your cover can start on the call. Any GP checks happen afterwards; if the report does not match your application, the price can change or cover can be declined.
- It accepts a higher HbA1c than most. More than half of our type 1 clients with it had a reading of 59 or above, and about one in six had a reading between 76 and 90.
- Each year you can send Royal London an updated HbA1c reading, and if it has improved you get the opportunity to reduce your premium.
- It does not ask whether you have been declined for life insurance before.
The Exeter
The Exeter and Royal London are the two insurers that have offered cover to the most of our type 1 clients. About three quarters of those at The Exeter had at least one complication. It is one of the few insurers that will consider nerve damage, called neuropathy: tingling, numbness or loss of feeling in your feet or hands.
In our experience most insurers decline neuropathy straight away, without taking the application further or writing to your GP. The Exeter will look at it, and it has accepted our type 1 clients who had it. About a third of our type 1 clients there had had laser treatment or injections for retinopathy. Expect a higher price, because the price reflects the complication.
Ready to see your own number?
Tell us about your diabetes and what the cover is for. We check the insurers and explain what we find.
Does diabetic retinopathy change which insurer is best for you?
Yes, a lot. It depends on which kind of retinopathy you have and on how each insurer asks about your eyes. The same eye history can mean a decline with one insurer and cover on the call with another.
None of this is guesswork. We have specialised in life insurance for people with diabetes for nearly eight years, we speak to people with diabetes every day, and the patterns in this article come from the applications we have analysed.
What if you have background retinopathy?
Many insurers can accept background retinopathy. More often than not the insurer asks your GP for a targeted report, a short report about your diabetes, which normally takes two to three weeks to come back, and most insurers wait for it before your cover can start.
Depending on the insurer and your age, you can sometimes be accepted straight away with no GP report. Royal London Diabetes Life Cover, for example, typically accepts background retinopathy on the call, and among mainstream insurers Scottish Widows is the one we place most often. This is why we check every insurer before we give any advice, so you go to the one that suits you. It is part of our service.
What if you have had laser treatment or injections?
This is where it gets harder. If you have proliferative retinopathy, the more advanced kind where new blood vessels grow at the back of the eye, have had laser treatment or injections, or have eye checks every six months, you are usually down to one or two insurers, and the price goes up.
Royal London Diabetes Life Cover can accept laser treatment, but injections or other eye surgery are usually a decline there. The Exeter has accepted our type 1 clients whose retinopathy was treated with laser or injections.
Why does the way an insurer asks about your eyes matter?
Because insurers ask different questions, and you answer the questions your insurer asks. Aviva and Zurich, for example, ask whether you have ever had or been advised to have more than one eye screening a year. Most other insurers ask straight out whether you have ever had a diabetic eye condition.
So if you have retinopathy but have only ever had, and only ever been advised to have, one screening a year, the honest answer to Aviva’s or Zurich’s eye question is no. With an insurer that asks about any diabetic eye condition, the honest answer is yes, and that can change the outcome. Always answer every question truthfully. The point is to choose the insurer whose questions fit your history.
Specialist help
Living with diabetes complications?
Insurers take very different views of complications. We know which ones to try first, and we’ll check them for you.
How should you decide which insurer is best for you?
By matching your details to the insurer that treats them best. Your age, your HbA1c, any complications and the type of cover you need all change which insurer comes out on top, so before we recommend one we check every insurer we place with. The insurer still makes the final decision.
If another insurer has already turned you down, don’t panic. In our experience a decline usually comes from one of the follow-up questions, such as a complication or an HbA1c reading, rather than the diabetes itself, and a different insurer is often the answer.
These details help most, so have them ready if you can. It is fine if you do not know one of them, and please mention any other health conditions you have been diagnosed with.
- Whether you use insulin.
- When you were diagnosed.
- Your most recent HbA1c result and when it was taken.
- The date of your last diabetes review.
- Any diabetes complications, for example changes in your eyes, or tingling or numbness in your hands or feet.
- Any diabetes-related hospital stays.
Talk to a diabetes insurance specialist
Tell us about your diabetes and what the cover is for. We’ll check the insurers available to us, compare the realistic options and help with the application. The insurer makes the final decision; we make sure you go to the right one.
Where these figures come from
Our own clients’ applications and the final terms insurers offered them: more than 1,100 applications, over 450 of them from people with type 1 diabetes. The insurer patterns, age ranges, HbA1c ranges and complication patterns in this article come from those records. The Royal London price is what our clients typically paid a month per £100,000 of cover, for the policy terms they chose.
Type 2 diabetes and other insurance products are left out. Where a point comes from our advisers’ experience rather than the records, the article says so.
The patterns show what insurers have offered our clients so far, not a promise of what they will offer you. Every insurer looks at the whole application before deciding.
Our own figures are correct as at 11 September 2026. Insurer positions can change. We regularly review them and check the current position again before we apply.
