Omnilife

Omnilife is a UK insurer that looks after annuities and other life insurance policies it has taken on from other companies, rather than selling new policies to the public. It describes itself as a specialist insurer with over 30 years' experience, focusing on acquiring and managing the liabilities of closed life insurance portfolios, particularly annuities¹.

The company behind the brand is Omnilife Insurance Company Limited, registered in England and Wales with company number 2294080 and its registered office at Level 45, 22 Bishopsgate, London, EC2N 4BQ¹. It is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by both the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority, with Financial Conduct Authority reference number 170734¹. It also appears on the Bank of England's list of UK insurers authorised to carry out contracts of insurance³.

Because Omnilife does not sell new products, most people who arrive here already hold a policy and want to know how to contact it, how to report a death, how to complain, or how their money is protected. This page covers each of those, and explains what Omnilife does and does not offer.

What Omnilife does: an insurer that manages existing annuities

Omnilife's business is built around taking on books of life insurance business that other companies no longer want to write, and running them. Its own description is that it provides "safe and secure life insurance solutions" and focuses on "acquiring and managing the liabilities of closed life insurance portfolios, particularly annuities"¹. In practice that means it does not advertise for new customers, does not have a product range to choose from, and does not compete for new business in the way a high street insurer does.

For a policyholder, the practical effect is continuity. When a book of business transfers to Omnilife, the policies, assets and liabilities move across together, and the insurer's own documents state that the transfer is not anticipated to affect the benefits expected to be paid to any group of policyholders, or to significantly reduce the security of those benefits or the standards of service they receive¹. That conclusion came from an independent expert appointed to review the transfer, which is a standard part of the process when insurance business moves from one company to another.

Annuities are the main type of policy involved. An annuity is a regular income, payable for life, that you buy with the fund built up in a pension⁶. Once it is running, the income is fixed by the terms of the contract, and the insurer's job is to keep paying it. That is why a closed-book insurer such as Omnilife exists: the policies are long-term promises that need administering, not selling.

If you are looking to buy a new annuity rather than manage an existing one, that is a different process. It usually starts with checking what your pension provider is offering, then shopping around using the open market option⁷. Our guide to pensions explains how that works, and the insurance section covers protection products more broadly.

Omnilife annuities taken over from Hodge Life and Generali

Omnilife's name appears on policies that started life with other insurers. The transfer of Hodge Life's insurance business to Omnilife covered all of Hodge Life's insurance business, including the policies, assets and liabilities¹. Hodge Life and Omnilife shared the same owner, the Reinsurance Group of America, Inc. (RGA), so the transfer moved policies within a group rather than to an unrelated buyer¹.

For Hodge Life policyholders, the change was administrative. The insurer's own question and answer document states that the only change customers should notice is that annuity payments are made by Omnilife, shown on bank statements with the reference "Omnilife"¹. The outcome of the court hearing that approved the transfer was announced on the Hodge Life and Omnilife websites¹, which is the usual way these transfers are publicised.

Generali policies have also moved to Omnilife. The same principle applies: the policy terms stay as they were, and the administration moves to the new insurer. If you are unsure which company now runs your annuity, the paperwork you receive each year, or the reference on your bank statement, will tell you.

Annuities are not the only policies that change hands this way. Life insurance policies are commonly held with more than one insurer, either for different purposes or as an additional policy to increase cover⁸, and whole-of-life cover pays an agreed amount whenever you die, providing premiums continue, with some policies stopping taking money at 90⁹. Where a policy has moved to Omnilife, the terms set out in the original contract continue to apply.

EQ runs the day-to-day administration of Omnilife policies

Day-to-day administration of a closed book is often handled by a specialist administrator rather than by the insurer's own staff. EQ is the administrator for Omnilife policies, which means that correspondence, payment queries and changes to your details are usually dealt with by EQ on Omnilife's behalf¹.

This split between the insurer that carries the risk and the administrator that handles the paperwork is common across the industry. Investment trusts, for example, are usually managed by an external management group selected by the board, and that group may manage several trusts at once¹⁰. The same pattern applies here: the insurer holds the liabilities and the administrator runs the systems and answers the phone.

For a policyholder, the practical point is that a letter or a phone call may come from EQ rather than from Omnilife, and that is normal. It does not change who is responsible for paying your annuity. If you are unsure whether a communication is genuine, check the contact details on Omnilife's own website rather than using the ones in the message.

Tax on your Omnilife annuity income

Annuity income is taxable. All pensions, whether scheme pensions, annuities or drawdown, are taxable in the hands of the individual as pension income at their marginal rate¹¹. You pay income tax if your total annual income, including any pensions, adds up to more than your Personal Allowance¹², and when you get money from a pension you pay tax on any income above that allowance¹³.

Annuity income counts towards your taxable income alongside earnings from employment or self-employment, the State Pension, savings interest, dividends, rental income, some benefits such as Carer's Allowance and Statutory Sick Pay, and income from a trust¹⁴. Because it is added to everything else, a change in your other income can change the tax taken from your annuity.

One point that surprises people: income from annuities is not subject to inheritance tax, for both single-life and joint-life annuities¹⁵. That is different from drawdown, where the tax treatment of what is left can depend on the age at which the pension holder dies.

If the tax taken from your annuity looks wrong, your tax code may be incorrect¹⁶. You can check it online on GOV.UK or in the HMRC app, and let HMRC know if it still does not look right¹⁷. A K tax code, for example, is used by an employer or pension provider so that you pay tax for other income or deductions through that pension¹⁸. HMRC will usually collect tax on savings interest through your tax code for people who are employed or receive a pension¹⁹, and if it cannot collect the tax that way it may send a Simple Assessment after the end of the tax year¹³. Our guide to tax covers codes and allowances in more detail.

Contacting Omnilife: annuity customers and other policyholders

Contact details for Omnilife and for EQ, which runs the administration, are published on Omnilife's own website. Because the company does not take on new customers, there is no sales line and no application process to work through. What you will need is your policy number, which appears on your annual statement and on correspondence from the administrator.

Before you call, it helps to know what you are asking about:

• Payment queries, changes of address or bank details, and requests for a statement: administrative matters handled by EQ¹
• Questions about the terms of the policy itself, or about a transfer: the insurer¹
• Questions about tax: HMRC, which sets your tax code, rather than Omnilife¹⁶

If you are contacting a company about a bereavement or an application, it is worth asking how the person would like to be contacted, rather than assuming²⁰. Some people prefer post, some prefer email, and some would rather not be called at all.

The research pack does not give Omnilife's own phone charges. Some helplines are free to call: the Consumer Council's Lifeline service, for example, states that calls to it are free²¹. If cost matters, check the number on the website before dialling, and use written contact where that is easier.

Making a claim or reporting a death

If a policyholder has died, the first step is to contact the insurer to find out about the policy and how to make a claim²². For an employer's life insurance scheme, the route is to contact the family member or friend's employer to find out whether they had life insurance and how to make a claim²².

Registration of the death produces the paperwork you will need. The register office issues a certificate for burial or cremation, known as a Green Form, a unique code for Tell Us Once, and a death certificate, which you need to pay for²³. Tell Us Once passes information about a death to most government organisations, and you report the death once at the register office²⁴. The death must have been either registered, or reported to a coroner with a final or interim death certificate, for the service to be used²⁵.

For financial institutions, the Death Notification Service tells a number of banks, building societies and financial institutions at the same time about a person's death. No account is needed to use it, and its helpline is 0333 207 6574, open 08:30 to 17:30, Monday to Friday excluding bank holidays²⁴. If the person was receiving benefits, use the Tell Us Once service to report the death²⁶, and give accurate information when making a claim, answering questions from the benefits office, or reporting changes, to avoid an overpayment²⁷. Bereavement benefits are handled differently in Northern Ireland, where information and application forms are available through nidirect²⁵.

Complaints: how Omnilife handles them

If something goes wrong with an Omnilife policy, the first step is to complain to the firm. The Financial Ombudsman Service's own guidance is to talk to your insurance provider first, as they need to have the chance to put things right²⁸. A firm should confirm it has received your complaint, explain how it plans to deal with it, and tell you how long it will take²⁹.

Firms have eight weeks to send a final response. If they do not send you a final response letter within eight weeks, or you are unhappy with their response, you can bring the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service⁵. The same eight-week deadline applies to claims management companies, whose complaints go to the Claims Management Ombudsman³¹, and to complaints about underinsurance, where the firm should reply to the consumer within eight weeks³².

The Financial Ombudsman Service is free to consumers and covers a wide range of financial complaints, including debt collecting⁵, individual savings accounts³⁰, and critical illness cover³³. It also publishes case studies, including one where a consumer complained that a business's delay in processing paperwork caused an annuity to start late³⁴. That case is a useful illustration of the kind of service failure the ombudsman can look at.

If your complaint is about how your personal data has been handled, the Information Commissioner's Office handles it in line with its complaints handling framework³⁵. If it is about a claims management company, you can complain to the Claims Management Ombudsman, which states that making a complaint is easy and free³⁶. The process is to complain directly to the claims management company first, give it up to eight weeks, and then escalate if needed³⁷. Our guide to consumer protection sets out the wider framework.

Spotting scam letters and calls that use the Omnilife name

Scammers use the names of real financial firms to make their approaches look genuine. The safest check is to verify the company independently: search for it on Companies House and use the contact details listed there, not the ones provided in the message³⁹. You can also check whether a provider or adviser is authorised by the PRA or FCA on the FCA register⁴⁰.

Warning signs in scam email include blurry or out-of-date branding, links that are different to the brand or organisation the email claims to be from, and requests for personal information or bank details. Scam letters use similar tactics, including lotteries and prize draws, clairvoyant scams, pyramid schemes, and unclaimed inheritance letters that appear to be from legitimate law firms claiming someone has been left money in a will. Suspicious post can be reported through Royal Mail's Scam Mail Reporting System.

Phone scams are common too. One pattern involves callers pretending to be from a big phone network and offering a discount or cheap contract to get your bank details. Others involve calls, letters, emails or texts saying a TV licence is about to expire, that an urgent payment is needed, or that a refund is due. Our guide to scams and fraud covers how to check and report them.

How your Omnilife policy is protected

Annuities provided under a life insurance contract are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Its guidance states that for pension savings or retirement income of this kind, it will pay the entire claim⁴. That is a stronger level of protection than the limits that apply to deposits and investments, and it reflects the fact that an annuity is a long-term income promise rather than a pot of money.

The scheme's protection applies where the provider is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority or the Prudential Regulation Authority¹⁰. Omnilife is authorised by the PRA and regulated by both the FCA and the PRA¹, and it appears on the Bank of England's list of UK insurers authorised to carry out contracts of insurance³. You can check a provider's authorisation on the FCA register⁴⁰.

Two practical points follow. First, because the cover for annuities under a life insurance contract is the entire claim, the size of your annuity does not put you over a compensation limit in the way a large deposit might. Second, the protection is tied to the insurer that carries the liability, not to the administrator that handles the paperwork, so a change of administrator does not affect it.

If you want to understand how this fits with protection elsewhere, our guide to consumer protection explains the role of the FSCS and the ombudsman, and the regulation and policy section covers who makes the rules.