26 Apr 2024

Do you Need Life Insurance to Start Today?

If you have been putting off taking out your life insurance waiting for a medical is a delay you may not want.

Many insurance companies have underwritting limits. This means even if you are healthly if your apply for a certain level of cover a medical may be required.

These are Free but they will delay the cover starting.

So How can you Obatain Instant Cover?

Well one option is to limit the amount of cover you apply for to the maximum the insurance company will allow without a medical.

Some companies suggest going for a level term insurance policy. This means life insurance that, if you die, offers a fixed level of payout at any time during the period you are insured for (usually the life of your mortgage). If you get a larger mortgage in the future, it is easier to alter the amount the policy covers compared to doing so with the other option, a 'decreasing' policy, where the estimated payout gets less and less as you pay off your mortgage.

There is no obligation to buy life cover and, if purchasing alone, you might not bother, because if you die the mortgage can be paid off when the house is sold. The issue becomes less straightforward for someone who eventually shares their home.

As a young person, life insurance is relatively cheap: insurance broker Lifesearch offers a premium of just £6.10 a month for a non-smoking female aged 30 looking to cover a 100,000 pounds interest-only mortgage over a 25 year period. It does get more expensive as you get older. If you do not buy until you have dependants your premiums could be more, and if you become seriously ill in the meantime, you may find you are refused insurance.

'Critical illness' cover is another product often sold with life insurance. It also offers a one-off payment of a sum you decide at the outset and also pays out if you suffer one of a number of serious illnesses (like cancer) during the term of the policy. Since the odds on this are higher than you dying, it is more expensive. For a 30-year-old woman, a dual life and critical illness policy for a mortgage of 100,000 pounds costs about 28.77 pounds per month.

Do you want Advice on Life Insurance?

After you have compared the life insurance information on Go Direct if you would like Life Insurance Advice, please complete our life insurance enquiry form and we will contact you to discuses your insurance needs.

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