Legal & General has launched a Buy Now life insurance policy with Direct Life.

The policy will initially be available on Confused.com.

Since Direct Life launched its Buy Now panel in 2014, over 5,000 policies have been sold with an average sum insured of £150,000. 97% of applications are placed on risk compared to 68% on more conventional application journeys.

Legal & General’s new Buy Now policy will use Direct Life’s common question set, allowing clients to choose between Legal & General, Aviva and Beagle Street Buy Now offerings without needing to complete the full medical underwritten journey. The full panel of Apply Now products sit alongside for where Buy Now isn’t available.

L&G paid out over £606 million in individual protection claims in 2016, a £64 million increase on 2015. In total the insurer has paid nearly £2.6 billion in protection claims over the past five years to over 58,000 of their customers.

Rob Quayle, Direct Life’s managing director, said: “Since its launch, Buy Now has proved exceptionally popular. With 97% of qualifying applicants going on risk immediately it has overcome the issue of clients falling by the wayside as a case proceeds. The average client is aged 37 and has a fairly substantial average sum insured.

“Buy Now has demonstrated that many people are confident enough to purchase simple life insurance unsupported. It fulfils our aim of enabling people to compare and buy without advice, purchasing essential protection quickly and simply.

“With the market’s dominant Term Life Insurers offering Buy Now, we are delighted that we offer excellent products from great insurers in the simplest way possible without loading the premiums or sacrificing quality.”

John Hyde, Legal & General’s managing director, direct to customer, added: “We’re very excited to be taking this step with Direct Life and very much look forward to working with them to drive forward the development of the journey to deliver the sort of service our customers expect and to grow our market.”