A NEWLY launched Stirling business has teamed up with employee-benefits specialist the Birmingham Hospital Saturday Fund (BHSF) to offer life insurance policies to people who are locked out of the traditional life assurance market.

Run by former financial adviser Bill Thomson, the Assured Benefits Club is offering policies with cover of either £50,000 or £100,000 and is targeting people who may be turned down for policies elsewhere because they have previously had excluded illnesses such as cancer.

“I have seen in my own family issues with very close relatives who haven’t been able to get life assurance because they had had a serious illness even though they had recovered and their prognosis was excellent,” Mr Thomson said.

“The demographic we expect to take this up is anything from age 30 to 55 who has had or has an existing condition.

“We think there’s a huge market - about 2.5 million people - who have diabetes, for example, and that can be difficult in terms of getting life cover. With us, someone with diabetes will be able to get cover of up to £100,000 without having to go through their family history.”

The policies, which are underwritten by Lloyd’s, also carry a range of employee-style benefits provided by BHSF, such as access to a 24-hour helpline staffed by GPs.

“We’ve set it up as an affiliate club, which is like having employees, but instead of being employed policyholders become members of our club,” Mr Thomson said.

The business aims to have 100,000 members in the next year.