MetLife has added bereavement support and legacy planning to its Group Life offering in the Republic of Ireland through an expansion of its Everest Funeral Concierge partnership, branded as Legacy. The service is available to eligible MetLife Group Life customers in Ireland from July 2026, six months after MetLife entered the Irish market in January with a broker-distributed product combining financial cover with a 360Health wellbeing service.
The commercially significant detail is the exclusivity. No other Group Life carrier in Ireland or the UK offers the Everest service, giving MetLife a specific and verifiable differentiator in a market it has been building for less than a year. MetLife distributes its Irish Group Life cover exclusively through brokers, meaning Legacy's exclusive position translates directly into a product feature brokers can present to employers that no competing carrier can match. Group life assurance is among the most widely adopted employee benefits in Ireland, typically anchoring broader employer packages alongside pensions and income protection - a market where product differentiation beyond price and sum assured is increasingly what drives placement decisions.
The Irish launch builds on a UK partnership established in October 2022 that has supported more than 76,000 families. Legacy covers three areas: advance planning before a death, active bereavement assistance, and legacy preparation including will writing. Members can use Everest's digital tools to record funeral wishes, store key documents and compare options and costs before a loss occurs. Everest advisers assist with funeral planning, administration and repatriation, and operate independently of MetLife throughout the process. The service covers employees and up to three generations of family members including spouses, partners, parents and in-laws, and is available around the clock on all 365 days of the year.
The Legacy expansion reflects a broader shift in how Group Life propositions are constructed and sold. ABI and GRiD data show group life assurance paid £1.825 billion across 12,730 claims in 2024. Nearly 8,300 health and wellbeing interventions were delivered by group risk insurers in 2025, with mental health accounting for 48% of cases. Those figures point to a sector in which embedded non-financial support has become a standard feature of group risk propositions rather than a premium differentiator - which raises the strategic value of services that remain genuinely exclusive rather than widely replicated.
Everywhen CEO Iain Laws has noted that group risk products with embedded non-financial services are increasingly valued by employers as both wellbeing tools and loss-mitigation mechanisms, and that employees now expect benefits matching their individual needs across mental health, financial wellbeing and practical support services.
Wayne Gibbons, Ireland Country Lead at MetLife, said Group Life insurance "plays an important role in helping families maintain financial security following the death of a loved one," adding that bereavement also brings practical and emotional challenges alongside financial concerns that Legacy is designed to address through Everest's advisory model.
