To be concerned that I nor DH have life insurance

[CheeseFiend36]

Husband and I are both early 30s with one DS under the age of 1, and a mortgage.

It's come up in conversation a few times with different friends when just nattering about household bills that they have life insurance and in some cases mortgage insurance (is this PPI or something different?)


Are these definitely something we should be getting now we have a child and a mortgage? When did posters here start, and how did you go about finding the best one for you?

I feel like need to book an appt with an IFA as both DH and I are really clueless about things like this and are starting to worry about retirement already

[TeenAndTween]

YANBU.

You need life insurance, and wills if you haven't done them yet.
Also critical illness cover possible, e.g. if main earner became seriously ill so couldn't work for an extended period of time.

However, if you have a good company pension scheme, some of this may already be covered. e.g. When I worked there was a 'death in service' benefit paying 4x salary or something like that.

[CotswoldStrife]

Did this not come up at the time you got the mortgage, as they are usually keen to make sure you have some way of paying it if anything happens to one of you!

Worth looking in to.

[Me624]

DH and I got life insurance when DS came along. We both have death in service benefit but it would not be enough to pay off the mortgage. Pre-DS we thought it wasn't necessary because either of us could cover the mortgage and other bills in the event of the other's death. Now we have childcare to factor in as well we couldn't do it on one salary. So life insurance to pay off the mortgage, leaving childcare still affordable on one salary.

[harderandharder2breathe]

Most mortgages make you include life insurance, are you sure you don't have some sort of package?

But yes, with a child and s mortgage you need life insurance. It's cheap but it means should the worst happen, the surviving partner doesn't have to worry about paying the bills while trying to grieve and support a grieving child.

[Secretspillernamechange]

I'm a similar age to you but no dc. Work will pay OH a lump sum if I die, and we've got PPI so mortgage is paid if I can't work. I'm sole breadwinner so it felt foolish not to have something in place in case I got sick or lost my job.

[CheeseFiend36]

Teen - I believe my company does pay Death In Service but thanks for the tip, I better check

Cotswold - no they didn't but then again I did use a broker.

Thank you both, I'd better start researching

[Scribblegirl]

We don't have life insurance as we both have a Death In Service benefit of x4 our salaries which would cover at least half the remainder on the mortgage. However if we had DCs, or moved to jobs without a sizeable DiS benefit, then yes to life insurance.

[girlelephant]

You should definitely look into insuring yourselves should the worst happen. You are both young for life insurance/critical illness etc will likely be quite cheap. It's important to plan for not just death but illness/accident too.

It's not nice to think about but imagine a scenario where one of you passed away or had an illness/disability while trying to keep things financially ticking over.

I work in the industry and know lots of positive stories where payouts have meant a person/couple being able to keep their home, pay bills and receive medical attention. (perhaps privately) due to having a policy in place. Unfortunately there are too many people who see it as a waste of money/can't afford it and end up in horrible situations.

I heard a great phrase once of "we can't afford not to protect ourselves and loved ones".

[tornandhurt]

Life cover is really important and is relatively inexpensive (depending on current health) - If you know how much cover you want you can source this really easily on line and apply directly.

Critical illness though is something I'd recommend seeing an IFA for as different companies offer different levels of cover and some only offer severity based cover, which you may not want. if you don't know of an adviser that can be recommended through mutual friends try //www.unbiased.co.uk to locate one. A good adviser will also be able to help you with retirement planning etc.

Wills really are a must and again depending on your circumstances can be done "off the shelf" or by seeing a solicitor.

[girlelephant]

Ps mortgages usually make buildings insurance a condition of the mortgage. Life assurance is completely different and on an advised mortgage would be discussed but the customer does not need to take the recommendation. On a non-advised mortgage it would be mentioned but again usually no need for the customer to take it with the mortgage company or elsewhere.

[Maz2444466]

This is something we have been thinking about recently too, I looked into it and I think it can start from a tenner a month which I thought is the price of a couple of coffees and cakes so well worth it..

[Maz2444466]

Moneysupermarket list a whole range of them...

[PattWV6]

You can get £15,000 free life cover if you have a child under 4 from Aviva, worth having while you sort out some full cover for your mortgage and to provide for your daughter. www.aviva.co.uk/life/free-parent-life-cover/ I'm sure other companies offer similar, sometimes banks do low value cover as part of their account packages too.

[Birdsgottafly]

We lost our home, after my DH developed Cancer, but was undiagnosed (wrongly), I had to become his Carer. So don't think that you could rely on one of you still working. Car crashes are less fatal, but often cause disability, some life long.

There is usually a time period between becoming ill, getting diagnosed and payouts from insurance starting.

We'd been mis-sold an endowment policy, which we meant to replace, but didn't.

I worked in Welfare Rights and lots of our clients were decent earners who had become ill, it was the biggest cause of potential homelessness, that we dealt with.

Also when I worked in support work, low income and homelessness/having to move was an added stress factor and often more difficult to deal with than the health condition.

[Whatabloodyidiot1]

Yes you need it, you also need to make a will to decide what would happen to your child/children in the event of both your deaths. Grim, but sadly it does happen. I remember a family being interviewed on 'this morning' recently, the husband and wife had both been killed in a head on collision and there was a horrible legal battle to decide who would have guardianship of the child. Awful.

[FaintlyBaffled]

My DDad died totally unexpectedly last year. As he was younger than my DM I think they assumed that life insurance was unnecessary. It's only the fact that he had paid into a sizeable pension that DM is able to live the rest of her life in relative comfort rather than scraping by on benefits.
DH and I both took out life insurance the week after he died.

[80sWaistcoat]

I thought you had to have term insurance if you had a mortgage? So it was there to pay the mortgage company an assured sum if you died?

Life insurance - my Dad died young - completely no warning - in his 40s - and it was so important for my mum.

It's quite cheap when you are young.

Critical illness - my DH has just cancelled his as it was becoming v expensive, the kids are grown up and the mortgage is paid off. But I think it was worth it when younger.

[taytopotato]

I had two friends who died leaving their young children.

One had a life insurance which paid put £250,000. His wife was able to pay off the mortgage and debts allowing her to concentrate in looking after the children. She now only works 12 hrs a week.

My other friend had a death in service benefits which paid out enough to cover the mortgage. She also had young children (youngest was 4 at that time).

[80sWaistcoat]

Oh - and get a will sorted.

[80sWaistcoat]

Moneysavingexpert.com website has some useful impartial information on this I think ...

[Jackiebrambles]

We are 40 but have had life insurance and critical illness cover since we were late 30s. We've got 2 kids and a mortgage so thought it was important!

We thought through scenarios of one of us being unable to work long term but not wanting to uproot kids from their home. Also of course of either of us goes the survivor will need to work and have possibly live in help / a nanny so we wanted the payout to cover that sort of thing.

[taytopotato]

My friend had an agressiven form of cancer. He only lived 5 months from the diagnosis.

My other friend had an aneurysm. She was fit and well and at a blink of a second, she was dead.

Life is so fragile. Think about rhw possibilities that could happen.

[Jackiebrambles]

We've both also got death in service benefits through work. 4 times our salary.

[Bambambini]

We have children and took out LI and made wills a few years ago (mid 40's). Husband is self employed and I don't work. it's not just him dying and his wage stopping, it's also if he was ill and couldn't work. Also to make sure our kids would be provided for if anything happened to us.