Life Insurance

[jenny82]

Does anyone have this? Any recommendations as to companies to use, what kind of cover is the norm and the payout amount?

I am looking for OH as he is self-employed and I just worry that *touch wood* anything happens to him, we won't be financially secure. I look for regular insurance all the time but life insurance has lots that I have no clue about!

 

[lilyd]

You can choose what amount of money you want to be insured for, it is all down to personal circumstances. There is no 'norm' so to speak as people's financial commitments are so different.

If you own a home then I would get enough to pay off the mortgage as a start.

If you are a SAHM then I would then look at replacing OH's annual salary for however many years you would need before you are able to/want to return to work. If it will be 2 years before your youngest goes to school then 2 x annual salary. If you would only be able to work part time then think about the 'top up' you would need to support your family after this time.

Then think about any long term credit commitments you have.

You take out the policy for a number of years, so if, for example, your mortgage is due to be paid off in 10 years, you can take out a 10 year policy with this amount included, but then drop the level of cover in 10 years time as you wouldn't have a mortgage to pay off.

It really depends how financially comfortable you would want to be in the event the worst happened x

 

[jenny82]

Great thanks! That was really helpful! I guess I'll have to do some sums tonight and then go back to looking into it

 

[Eternal]

We both have a fixed policy for £150,000 over 30 years, about 24 left now I think. Oh also gets cover form work, so I get a limp sun, plus money a year and £1500 a year per child until adulthood.

I guess if I died it's enough to free up some cash, paying for the mortgage etc and paying for childcare.

If he died it enough to pay off mortgage and have some money, plus with his work money I wouldn't have to worry straight away.

When our money is more stable we will probably add another over lapping policy because it's cheaper the younger you are, and we now have 3 kids so although we could survive ok with our current polices it would be nice to have more of a pillow of something were to happen, more so thinking of something happened to both of us, although their would be money there, my parents would need a significantly greater sum of money as they will need a lot of help.

 

[Abigailly]

Honestly you just need to shop about. Our life insurance covers the rest of our mortgage and 6 months 'living allowance'. It's how much we worked out we'd need for all of that. One company asked us to be paying £78 a month, the other £45 a month. For exactly the same cover. However, we still pay a lot.

My advice would be to first have a look round so you get the general jist of how much you could be paying a month and then decide what your budget is.

 

[jenny82]

THanks for all the help to both of you! Yeah I guess I"ll need to shop about. I was hoping to do it all online as wild horses wouldn't drag my OH to a finance-type shop, so looks like I'll need to do a bit of reading first.

Eternal, what you have sounds really good. We would need something like that I think. I don't think I would really need a policy, or would I? I do work on our business, but it's not like I'm needed. If anything were to happen to me, he could continue working but if anything were to happen to him, we would be screwed :/

 

[Eternal]

THanks for all the help to both of you! Yeah I guess I"ll need to shop about. I was hoping to do it all online as wild horses wouldn't drag my OH to a finance-type shop, so looks like I'll need to do a bit of reading first.

Eternal, what you have sounds really good. We would need something like that I think. I don't think I would really need a policy, or would I? I do work on our business, but it's not like I'm needed. If anything were to happen to me, he could continue working but if anything were to happen to him, we would be screwed :/

Ours is with Tesco and cost only £7 for me with health and £12 for him without, so it's excellent value, it's because we took it out young, I was under 25 and he was about 26. Hence while we will set another up young.

I don't need one I don't suppose, but it saves the worry for him, and I'd like to think if I died he wouldn't be left for 4 kids and worrying about money. So at least mine would pay everything and give him a few extras. So if he wanted a nanny for a few years to take the strain that would be affordable.

 

[Pearls18]

Yes I think every parent should have it not just the working one, we both work but even though I'm not the main wage earner I still want to know if I died DH will have money to bring up the boys as if I were there, childcare etc and so he doesn't have any financial worries.

The younger you are the better. We went through Aviva, I pay £11 a month for the next 25 years and if I die he will get £350,000. Worth every penny for the peace of mind.

DH has life insurance through his work, he's military so as you can imagine needs something a little more specific as not many companies would insure him, I'm not too sure what the terms and conditions are for his or what we would get paid but think it is all standard, it comes out his wages directly, I think about £9 a month and then when he's on deployment he takes out "extra units" for more cover obviously paying more.

I would shop around, I recommend Aviva though they were very helpful, but I imagine different companies "specialise" in different cases, any previous medical problems etc are heavily looked into. I was only 22 when I took it out with no medical history so very straight forward, although I still had to talk to a nurse about the fact I had been given therapy in uni to convince them (the insurance company) I wasn't suicidal, although I don't know why because they wouldn't pay out if I committed suicide lol.

Oh the good thing about my policy is that if I get a terminal illness they pay out early. You may also want to look into critical illness cover if he is unable to work through severe sickness, important if you have a mortgage etc.

 

[jenny82]

Thanks! £11 a month isn't a lot just for me I guess. It would be worth it in the long run. Will check out Aviva and Tesco then as a starting point.

 

[Pearls18]

Thanks! £11 a month isn't a lot just for me I guess. It would be worth it in the long run. Will check out Aviva and Tesco then as a starting point.

Just think although you don't earn a wage I am assuming you do most things in terms of childcare, house work etc, if you weren't there your hubby would have to take on everything and work, if you have a policy then that means there is a cushion for him to either be able to work less to keep on top of everything, or hire whatever help he would need to maintain your lifestyle. Or even just so they can have money to do some nice special things and money to inherit. I know it's really morbid and not nice to think about it but it's one of those things. You may feel you don't need as big of a payout as what I am paying towards, some are around the £100,000 mark in which case it might be worth taking out a cheaper policy, because we live on a double income it would hit my hubby if he didn't have my wage and money is the last thing I want him to worry about.

 

[jenny82]

My OH hates discussing it as he thinks it is really morbid! I think he's scared I'm going to 'off' him lol Yes, I do everything around the house as well as his bookkeeping and admin for his business. They would be living on fish fingers & waffles if I ever kicked the bucket

 

[Pearls18]

My OH hates discussing it as he thinks it is really morbid! I think he's scared I'm going to 'off' him lol Yes, I do everything around the house as well as his bookkeeping and admin for his business. They would be living on fish fingers & waffles if I ever kicked the bucket

Lol exactly, I hate talking about it too, we really need to do wills to sort out custody if anything happened to us both but because I'm not entirely sure and it's too horrid we just haven't done it which is really bad :/

 

[lau86]

My mum works in a hospice with bereaved families- she has heard all about it from the other side and says some of the companies just do not want to pay out. Makes sense I guess. She has heard the best things from legal and general so we went with them. We pay alot, I think it £60 a month for me and hubby but we also get critical illness cover which I believe is where the cost mounts up.

 

[Sarahkka]

There is an interesting new product out there that we just went with. It's a combo disability/critical illness/life insurance policy for up to $500,000. We did some math and realized that we were underinsured now that we have a mortgage, and that our disability coverage was way less than what we felt would be safe for us. We were really happy to find something that gave us this really interesting flexibility. I am trying to remember what it was called.

 

[Sarahkka]

Found it!
Manulife Synergy
As I said, it let us cover a few areas and was very affordable. It's easier to explain if you read their case studies. Anyway, a new product. Sort of different. Might be another option to explore.