This research study involves a comparative analysis of marketing life insurance in the UK. The main objectives of this study are: (1) to investigate the attitudes of marketing managers of the large and the small life and composite insurance companies towards marketing life insurance; (2) to investigate the variables which influence life insurance purchasing behaviour; and (3) to conduct a comparative analysis of the attitudes of marketing managers, the insured and the non-insured towards the variables under investigation. The design of this study is by facets. The facet approach helped to compile three sets of questionnaires which were addressed to (a) the insured, (b) the non-insured, and (c) marketing managers of life and composite insurance companies. The data collected consists of both attitudinal and categorical variables. The analytical techniques used to analyse the attitudinal data include: Non-Metric Multidimensional Scaling (MINISSA Programme), Discriminant Analysis, and Spearman RankOrder Correlation Coefficients. As for the categorical data the Multiple Classification Analysis (MCA) is employed in the analysis. Furthermore, Wilcoxon Test and F-Test are used for testing the research hypotheses. Briefly, the research findings suggest that (1) marketing managers of life and composite insurance companies give priority to strategic marketing, direct response marketing, and marketing effectiveness variables and then concern themselves with customer services, competition, economic and sales problems; (2) both the insured and the non-insured attach more importance to saving through other financial institutions than life and composite insurance companies; (3) the insured regard "colleagues/friends", "TV advertising", and "ads in newspapers and magazines" as the main sources of information in keeping them informed and encouraging them to purchase life insurance; (4) both the insured and the non-insured regard "standard of service", "contact by the agent", and "quality of staff" as the most important factors in influencing their purchasing decisions; and (5) both the insured and the non-insured regard "providing for children's education" and "return on investment" as the main reasons for saving through life and composite insurance companies. A comparative analysis of the attitudes of marketing managers, the insured, and the non-insured suggests that marketing managers will need to put more emphasis on "retirement income", and "mortgage repayment plans" in their marketing campaigns; more emphasis should also be placed on the "quality of staff", and "standard of service". Finally, an analysis of the effects of socioeconomic and demographic variables on life insurance purchasing behaviour suggests that selected predictors (i.e., marital status, family life cycle, family size, age, education, occupation and income) when tested together explain a significant portion of the variance of the dependent variable.