Not to have life insurance. Do you?

[BrilliantBetty]

Do most people have life insurance?
Even if you're young-ish?
I've always thought it was some sort of money making thing that's a bit of a scam maybe.

But i'm getting more and more adverts for it and beginning to think perhaps I should get it.

Is it something most people have?

Yes, I’ve seen far too many women left penniless (both young and old), because their partner didn’t have life insurance. We have a life insurance on both of us which covers the mortgage, DH’s work also pays out x6 of his salary on death or diagnosis of a terminal disease. We also have an old endowment policy from when I first bought in the late 90s that pays out £45k for me.

Two of my friends have had sadly critical life payout (one of them didn’t know she was terminal until it paid out - that was a shock!) but it made their end of life care much easier for their families.

I was turned down as I attempted suicide many years ago. Also, I have a condition that’s not life threatening or likely to shorten my life, but makes me uninsurable.

I don’t own a home or have any assets so I’m a bit fucked really.

Look at the whole picture.

We never had life insurance: to begin with we had endowment policies on the mortgage that would pay it off in the event of death.

Then later naming each other as beneficiaries on pensions that would have been enough for mortgage plus ongoing expenses.

Critical illness cover through work.

Thrifty lifestyle, not much to uphold.

Saved any money that would have been spent on LI etc.

I don't. I have a chronic condition which made the life insurance very expensive and also it would not pay out for critical illness etc only death. Dh and I have death in service payments through work- this would pay off enough of the mortgage to make it affordable on one income.

I have death in service benefit from work.

We then met a financial advisor last year (when I was 30) and started extra policies based on their advice.

We pay a lot, but we are covered for lots of possible events.

Yes we do, it covers the mortgage.

If one of us drops off our perch then paying the mortgage or selling the house won't be an immediate concern. We both have death in service lump sums as well, but like a PP I've heard this can take a while to come through.

If the worst happens then I just want the surviving spouse to be comfortable long term and have options financially (such as going part time).

No, I don't have it. No dependants anyway.

I don't have life insurance but my mortgage is paid off and I get a hefty death in service payment so it should be OK assuming I die before I'm 68. And if I die after that my kids should able to fend for themselves!

Yes I took out life insurance just after DD was born

Yes. We have young kids and neither of us could (comfortably) afford the mortgage on our own. It is term life insurance so will end just after our mortgage is paid off (which is also when our youngest will be an adult). About £20 per month each - we only started in our mid-30s though so it was more expensive than if we had started in our 20s.

I have it through work, DH doesn't have it. We have no mortgage, no children together and his children are adults so it shouldn't be a problem.

@ShingleBeach

Look at the whole picture.

We never had life insurance: to begin with we had endowment policies on the mortgage that would pay it off in the event of death.

Then later naming each other as beneficiaries on pensions that would have been enough for mortgage plus ongoing expenses.

Critical illness cover through work.

Thrifty lifestyle, not much to uphold.

Saved any money that would have been spent on LI etc.

Your endowment policy was a form of life insurance. Very few people have endowments these days which creates the need for a separate policy to make sure the house is paid off (assuming there is a dependent/spouse you wish to have it, of course)

Do you still need life insurance if you have good savings? We both work and earn equal amounts. If anything happened one of us, the other could pay the bills in our house. It would be tight though.We have savings for dcs college. Dcs are tweens now so minding costs are reducing.

User it's just worth thinking about. Funeral costs, therapy costs (I had therapy for 2 years after dh died traumatically), what if you both died together, what about all the help parents give their children even if grown up, what about care needs for an adult who gets older while living alone?

In my early 20s I was in a houseshare with a man who'd lost both his parents when relatively young. In some ways he was 'rich' at the time compared to the rest of us - he owned a washing machine!! - but there would never be another penny he could call on. I know I was lucky and privileged to get financial and time help from my mother (I sent money to my dad), but it's hardly unusual.

I have only ever had death in service insurance through work, never had my own. I don’t have children.

Death In Service will only cover you for the time you're employed. If you decide to retire at 60/70 and want insurance it will be triple the price.

Well yes, but not many people would need / choose to take out life assurance at 60 / 70.

@ShingleBeach - an endowment policy IS life assurance. It is a policy that pays out when you die.

Do you still need life insurance if you have good savings?
Then it becomes a judgement call.
Can your household run solely on either one of your salaries? How good are you at ringfencing savings? etc. Obviously as the dc become young adults there is less to pay out directly, but it depends on how much the thought of everyone tightening their belts and 'making do' at the same time as grieving for the lost parent and spouse bothers you, vs how much money it would cost you to set up a policy. In your case, you could probably buy a policy for a much smaller amount.

@user1471554720

Do you still need life insurance if you have good savings? We both work and earn equal amounts. If anything happened one of us, the other could pay the bills in our house. It would be tight though.We have savings for dcs college. Dcs are tweens now so minding costs are reducing.

It depends what you intend to use your savings for. We want to save ours for retirement. I look at life insurance as replacing the income of my partner or myself for 5 years if anything should happen to one of us and also paying off the mortgage and covering daughters future education costs (in the US)

Yes I have it. £100,000 to my spouse /children when I die.

No, because we don't have a mortgage. I have considered getting it for me (no point for DH, I wouldn't be worse off financially if he died and with his bipolar it's probably really expensive) but whenever I've looked into it I get lost in the options and never know what to choose. If we had a mortgage I could see the point and would have an idea of how long I need it for and how much.
I do have death in service with my job, though. So that would pay for funeral and cover living costs for a while.

When i got my mortgage you had to have life insurance to cover the mortgage or you could not have one - when did that change?

i do not have it now as i don't need it. i have enough in savings to cover my funeral and own my house outright.

Yes, myself and DH have it against our mortgage, should one of us die, we'll get 240k to either pay off mortgage or use as we please.

He also has critical illness cover as he is the breadwinner and of if he was to get ill, we wouldn't want to lose our home!

He also have death in service with work, which is 4x his salary. So 320k. So basically, id be a rich women if he died and he'd be mortgage free if i died. (don't worry I have no intentions of killing him )

Woman

DH and I have life insurance and critical illness cover. The mortgage cover decreases based on how much is left, so if one of us dies the other will always receive enough to pay it off. We took it out when we found out we needed IVF, as it made us realise that unfortunately you never know what is going to happen.

Yes but reading this feel maybe I'm paying through the nose as I got it in mid 20s and pay about 50 quid a month for life and critical illness insurances combined.

I have life insurance that will pay off most of the mortgage if I die. I didn't have it before we owned our home.