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Gay men face an upward battle when applying for health insurance, according to gay financial adviser Compass.

Research, undertaken by the London-based IFA between February and April, revealed 80 per cent of frontline customer service staff for the top 10 insurance companies gave incorrect information around gay men and insurance.

At the bottom of the list were Legal & General and Scottish Equitable. Both providers had the lowest limits at which they would send gay men for HIV tests and both gave information that indicated different limits dependent on age - a variable which is not believed to make a difference for heterosexual men.

Royal Liver and Bright Grey were pegged for praise over their industry-beating limit of £1m of cover without HIV testing for gay men within a civil partnership, available only through IFAs, highlighting the importance of taking impartial advice before taking out cover.

Chris Morgan, managing director of Compass and a member of the Association of British Insurers’ Working Party on HIV, said the results were disappointing. He said: "It is remarkable that so many insurance companies - apparently trained to look after IFAs and customer applications - are falling down when looking after gay clients.

"It is quite fair to say the situation towards gay men has certainly improved in the last two or three years. But what has been shown is there is a lack of understanding among staff of product providers in how single gay men and gay men in civil partnerships should be treated. It is no good having guidance and standards if they are not going to be adhered to."

Russ Whitworth, director of underwriting and claims for Legal & General, said: "We fully support, and are compliant with, the ABI Statement of Best Practice on HIV and Insurance. HIV risk is assessed based on exposure to the risk of HIV infection and never on the basis of sexual preference. We take no account of whether a male customer is gay, we do not ask customers if they are gay at any time. Our policy is to ask an applicant to take an HIV test for high sums assured for life cover - for single males, this is over £300,000 and for married males, males in a civil partnership and all females, this is more than £1m. The latter matches the highest limit in the industry."

Roger Edwards, product director for Bright Grey, said the industry would see a gradual harmonisation in the HIV-testing limits. He said: "It is likely that over the next few months we will see companies start to have to harmonise their HIV testing limits between men and women. It will not be the case that the limits will come down, it is more likely that the tests will go up for single males - some people are saying we could see the limits go up to possibly £750,000 or even £1m."