To ask how many have life insurance for both of you and critical illness cover?

[missslc]

Okay so I have never had life insurance but suddenly think we should have it as our son is 15 months. I was ill a month back and was concerned it was going to be something serious. My first thought was if the worst came to the worst my DH would be in a real pickle as he could not afford to pay child care....so am now looking into getting it.

I think it is a no brainer but am trying to decide what coverage to get and whether a 21 year term is enough? I guess that means that in 21 years time we stop paying and stop being covered and hope we will never need the coverage?

Just wondering if the critical illness is worth having- fairly small lump sum (36K) for about 28 quid a month. The life insurance is about the same for modest but wage like monthly pay outs to both of us, in the event of one of us trotting off this mortal coil before we would prefer.

Any advice from people who have it in terms of the length of term worth having? I know kind of silly question but you know what I mean.

We have life insurance - both of us for 500k each - Dh for Euro100k for our mortgage in France and I have about 200k worth of cover for mortgages here - we do not have critical illness cover as when we read the conditions it was problematic and the payouts were small. I think we have done ours for the same terms as our mortgages. I also pay life insurance on my ex H (keeping finers crossed even though I know this is wrong)

There is a broker called cavendish who is recommended by Martin Moneysaver, they are the cheapest around.

We don't have critical illness either, seems there are a lot of clauses.

We've got life and critical illness on the same policy for approx USD 200k (need to up it now we've got two kids). Costs a fortune though as DH smokes and we're expats.

DH and I have critical illness and long term illness cover for both of us and something to cover paying the mortgage for both of us.

But......... we only have life insurance for DH, so if something were to happen to him DD's and I would be okay financially. The reasoning behind this is because we cannot afford life cover for both of us right now, so as DH is the only earner in the house it seems prudent that he should be covered.

We look at it as if something were to happen to me while the DD's are young and not in full time education, DH would get some state help (childcare element of tax credits) for the DD's nursery fees and as the mortgage would be covered he would still be able to pay any top up fee of the childcare in a nursery setting.

Also MIL has she would leave work/go part time (step FIL would still work) and help DH out with childcare and we feel very lucky and grateful for that. My parents cant do this as they are not well, although young, and it would just be too much for them to help with childcare.

As soon as the DD's are in full time education I plan on getting a job and once I have we will be taking out life insurance for myself as well. I hate the fact that we cannot afford life insurance for myself as well as DH so we have done the only thing that our means at the moment can allow us to do.

We also finally got the will sorted a couple of years ago and the DD's are sorted financially if anything were to happen to us both, also appointed several 'minders' for our DD's should the worst happen to us.

Can you tell I get paranoid and anxious lol.

Don't have a partner but have a DS. Life insurance to cover the outstanding mortgage balance, yes. Critical illness, no, because there are too many get-outs for the companies and there are some horror stories about them failing to pay because the cancer sufferer didn't own up to having had tonsilitis or whatever 20 years earlier.

Having worked in the insurance industry for over 15 years, I'd advise you to get life assurance cover. It usually makes sense to insure yourselves for at least the amount of your mortgage and perhaps some extra for funeral expenses. Really you need to decide what each of you would need if the other were to pass away.

Critical illness cover isn't worth the paper it's written on. It's cover is very limited to certain conditions and there are lots of exclusions. Personally, I think it's too expensive for the liklihood of you being able to claim. But it depends on your own attitude to risk...

Life for both of us, but not critical illness. Too much small print gets them out of paying the critical illness, so if you are going to have it, then make sure you fully read EVERYTHING

We both have life insurance. My DH is the main earner and his is to cover loss of his salary, mine is to cover loss of the main childcarer as he'd need to cover the rest of his working week (as I work part time) including the fact that his long days including travel time are longer than normal commercial childcare and school before and after club hours, so a nanny might be required.

We also have wills drawn up naming guardians and trustees. My siblings live abroad so our children would go to a UK based couple of friends who are in lieu of godparents (we're not christian) and who we skype and try see regularly so that, though they don't live terribly near us, the children remember and recognise them and wouldn't be going to relative strangers. The trustees include one of the couple and my brother, so that the financial responsibility is split between family and one of the people with day to day care. Our children are 7 months and 2 years 4 months and we organised the insurance and wills when I was halfway pregnant with the elder, but allowing for our plan of having 2.

We both have life, DH more than me as I am not in the best of health and to cover me to the same level as him was more than we could afford.

We don't have a mortgage so it is to provide care for our son if anything happens to one of us and to give me time to sort my head as I am an American expat who would need to decide if I should stay in the UK or not if something happened to my husband.

Life cover for mortgage plus some extra. Critical illness as I run my own business and am single, but it's very expensive and I am going to rethink it when mortgage is paid off now I have a dp on a steady income. I really must write a list of what do have; no point if I get run over by a bus and nobody knows it's there

We both have life insurance - lump sum type. But didn't bother with critical illness. IMO it is a good idea, if you can, to try and save a small emergency nest egg in case of problems - illness, unemployment, etc.

We are both getting life insurance when we buy a house next month. We are getting critical illness cover - mainly because my mum does financial advice in a cancer hospital & so has a thing about it - she sees so many patients absolutely stuffed financially as a result of their illness. She also has a thing about payment protection insurance.

We both have life insurance, I've had mine since I was 18 as I always had horses and was worried they would be put down if anything happened to me!

We have 2 DC now and our cover is enough to pay off the mortgage and for the one left behind to take as much time off work as they need and enough to keep them comfortable for a good few years.

We also have critical illness. I added this on a few years ago when a very good friend had cancer and was panicking about how they would all cope. Her critcial illness plan paid out.

She is now in remission and hasn't been left with a heap of debt.

Yes. Bloody loads. We have had as much cover as we can afford for both of us since we had ds1 17 years ago.

My sil died leaving my brother a widower when his son, my nephew was 2.
The following years were a mess. I would never want dh dealing with that if anything happened to me. And vice versa.

We have life insurance to pay off the mortgage. DH then has sizeable cover through work if he pops his clogs.

We recently took out a "Family Income Benefit" policy for me through Legal & General, which pays £5k a month to my DH for 5 years if I die. It's to pay for childcare and help him take a work sabbatical if he wants. It costs around £12 a month. We thought this was more useful than a lump sum, because the other policy would pay off our mortgage and then there would be money from my savings and pension fund.

Life insurance and as soon as I'm back at work salary protection (I don't know if everyone can get this or just medics) as I am the main breadwinner. It means that if I had to leave my chosen specialty job for a medical reason (incl. stress or my particular worry hand injury) I would still receive my equivalent salary until retirement age. The other reason I chose this is it specifically allows me to work (in a different field) for less pay and they'll top up to my old salary and I just don't have to be able to work as a surgeon not as a doctor per se IYSWIM. As I'm relatively junior it costs about £40 a month at the month (although obviously as I get more senior it goes up and up). I had looked at critical illness but as others have said the get-out clauses are ridiculous for a relatively small amt.

We have a whole variety of insurance. Number one Dual life and terminal illness for mortgage decreasing amount with 20 years left to run same as mortgage, pays of mortgage if either of dies or gets terminal illness.
Me critical illness cover (cancer etc), permanent health insurance (pays out if injured and unable to do my job which is very risky) and lump sum life insurance. DH works 8 to 4 so would be able to cope with childcare if something happened to me.
DH primary carer life insurance if he dies it pays out 25,000 per year till DD is 18. I work nights and weekends as well as regular hours so if anything happen to DH I would need a live in nanny. In truth this would not fully cover this, but I wouldn't have the mortgage to pay.
It's really hard to think about what life would be like if something happened to one or even both of you. However, from tragic close family experience I know that if good insurance is in place no one has to consider money if the worst happens. Also from close family expreience enduring power attourney (sp) is also something to consider a family member has paid thousands of pounds over the last 10 years to solicitors and the court of protection as everything was in her DHs name and he unfortunatly now has the mind of a terribly pleasant 6 year old.

Ex Financial Advisor here.

Yes, we both have life AND critical illness cover. We took out 70K on a level term for 20 years. At the time it was to match our mortgage (70K interest only 20 year term). We have since repaid our mortgage, but have kept the life & CI cover.

I can honestly say that at no point in my adult life would I have been without either- and especially not since we had DD. I actually think that it's nothing short of irresponsible to not have these sort of insurances if you have children. It never ceases to amaze me how many people 'can't afford' life insurance etc, yet manage to have mobile phone contracts, Sky TV etc.

Couldn't afford loads but have taken out cover that pays monthly lump sum roughly equivalent to salary until DCs are 18 if one of us dies.

Looked into critical illness cover for DH but premiums were extortionate and the get out clauses meant we would probably never qualify if we needed to claim.

no critical illness, but we have a small amount of life cover. we each have enough to pay off the mortgage. this only costs about £6 each per month, as we are relatively young. we each get a death in service lump sum benefit from work as well (DH more than me). It's not much, but would mean that we would keep the family home in the event of the worst happening, and we can't stretch to more cover at the moment. we'd each get tax credits as a lone parent.

we have not taken out critical illness cover, as the affordable policies had a limited number of conditions they pay out on. imagine how galling it would be to find out you have the "wrong' sort of critical illness...

Oldenough- good idea re writing that list. I have done exactly the same. There is a list of all policies etc in the front of a file containing my documents. A sort of idiot's guide to my demise if you like. It took me 5 minutes to do, and should the worst happen, will save a lot of anguish for those left behind at an already difficult time. Also, let people know where said list etc is.

Sounds simple, but having spent years working in banks, you'd be shocked at the amount of bereaved people who simply don't have a clue where to start with a deceased family member's estate. Also, goes without saying but make a will.

Life insurance and critical illness which covers all of us, plus the endowment pays off the mortgage if either of us dies. Actually I need to check that, as we changed to tenants in common when we made wills, so that the half of the house belonging to the deceased spouse would go into trust for the children.

Life for both, each enough to cover the mortgage as it was when we took it out, outstanding mortgage is about half that now. No critical illness, DH can't get it because he has a pre-existing condition, I decided not to because of restrictions etc. When I was the major earner I had salary replacement cover but the premiums went through the roof a couple of years ago and I stopped it when I became SAHM. We haven't got it for DH, but have got substantial savings now. Would review this if we took on a larger mortgage or used the savings up for any reason though.