aibu to ask about life insurance?

[colourmehappytheresasofainhere]

sorry if this is a rubbish aibu but im thinking about life insurance - we have no assets, no savings and we rent our house - so i think if we got life insurance we would be being responsible to our ds, 3.5.

anything to avoid/ pitfalls/ tips?

for some reason im quite nervous about this!

Life insurance is cheap - esp if you are youngish, female, and don't smoke

we have no kids but have a mortgage, so we are each covered enough to pay most of that off so if one of us carks it the other doesn't lose the house.

thanks badger. who did you go with?

wow freaky! an aviva advert for life insurance has just popped up on the side bar!!!!!!

i'm not in the UK, sorry. Can't recall who we used in the UK....was a loooong time ago

sometimes the banks do good rates - have a little shop about

I personally think anyone with children should have life insurance as a priority.
I would suggest speaking to a broker to advise how much you need to be covered for.
Are you married? If not look at it being in trust.

I'd recommend getting some independent advice- do you have a friend who can recommend an independent adviser? Is it only life assurance you would want- or critical illness cover too?
A good adviser will talk you through the options affordable and right for you with no pressure.

Never lie or it will not pay out. get it written into trust then if one of you dies it pays out straight away, there are compare websites to find the cheapest ones but i think i would go with the one that has the highest rate of paying out some insurers will find anyway to not pay out maybe go through a broker also there are some that pay a montly amount for a set amount of time they are cheaper than paying out a lump sum.

Compare prices on something like money supermarket.

I pay £10/ month for £300k of cover. Started in my early 30s

Life insurance is a must, we're with legal & general I think and it means that if DH dies I'll get about £500,000. (Must bump him off...)

I'm worth a lot less though!

If you have permanent contracts you may get death in service benefit from your employer which offers a pretty good life insurance payout, although obviously only works while you're with that employer.

I can't get life insurance and am single mum with a mortgage

You might want to have a look at the moneysavingexpert website.

As suggested there we used an online broker, Cavendish online. We bought an Aviva policy through them and our monthly premiums are half what they would have been if we have bought it elsewhere - they refund the commission and just charge you an initial admin fee instead. The admin fee was about £80 and we save about £25 a month, so it has really saved us money as the policy was for 25 years. I don't think they give advice so if you aren't sure what you want or need then speaking to a broker would probably be better.

Oh - and while you're at it, write a will.

Watching with interest .

Find an IFA and work out exactly what cover you need and how much.

We're redoing our insurances (life, disability, critical illness, income protection) and every time I mail the advisor back with "please remove X as we don't need it" he mails back an updated quote with X removed but Y added (he's on commission). So then we mail "remove Y we didn't ask for it" and an update comes back with Y removed but the cover on Z increased to far more than we need.

It's slightly unsettling to sit down and work out how much money you or your OH would need to pay bills, rent, funeral expenses, etc if one of you were to die, you have to remove the personal element and be very objective. We had the "what if you meet someone else" discussion as a result of which everything is tied up in trust for the boys (so he can meet someone else but she's not getting my hard earned$$$!)

Once you know what you need and how much, shop around on a comparison website. Get quotes, see if companies will quote match and be brutally honest with your medical history.

Yep, absolutely do get it. I understand it's scary to think about but it's not at all scary to actually do.

It is a little complicated as there is more than one kind of life insurance, and as others have mentioned you may also want to get insured for disability. You can do quotes online quite easily, but I would ask around at work/school/church for a recommendation for a good agent who can explain your options. Good agents are very nice; they expect new clients to be confused and ask questions, so will be happy to discuss patiently and won't pressure you.

I did the same as dontyouknow - always check with moneysavingexpert.com first then went through Cavendish. Paid the year upfront in one block as cheaper. Am going to write the insurance into trust naming my DS as absolute beneficiary therefore doesn't need to go via probate.