to expect parents to have life insurance as a matter of course?

[probablyoverinsured]

Is it not the first thing you think about when you first hold your newborn? How can I best care for this little one? What do I need to do/sacrifice to ensure their welfare? in any circumstances?

I appreciate you can't be insured for every eventuality, and with the best will in the world, you can think you have taken out adequate insurance, and in the event it doesn't actually pay out for some reason or other.

But it's about £2 a week, in most cases - surely this is factored into the cost of providing for a child, when you do your calculations? I expect there are a few that can't afford it, but most can.

I am just amazed to hear of someone recently, really struggling, with no life insurance payout for the children, because there was no policy.

Am I living in a fool's paradise? Don't most parents have life insurance? Am I just showing my ignorance? Why wouldn't a parent have life insurance? Do you? if not, why not?

We don't have it. We have a mortgage too. It has been on my to do list for a number of years but with me having health conditions it isn't a small amount of money. I know it needs sorting though.

I think there are a vast number of people who simply can't afford it at the moment. People can't afford to eat and they have to decide what's most important.

I think anyone who thinks about it and can afford it will get it. It doesn't occur to some people. A friend of mine was surprised when I told her we had it and she said she shouldn't probably get round to it.

are you sure you don't have one attached to the mortgage? They are normally sorted out together, aren't they? You normally need the life insurance documents to get the mortgage - at least my generation did - maybe it has changed

We have it but it certainly isn't £2 a week! And we don't have lots of health issues.

Plenty of people simply don’t know it exists or why they’d want it. Besides which, it isn’t “£2 a week” for everyone.

I’ve only just started thinking about it and I’m 12 years in now as a parent. I was 21 when I had my first child and it just wasn’t something that crossed my mind in my youthfulness. I probably should have thought about it, but I didn’t. At that age you take your health and your life for granted.

Do you work for a life insurance company? Your post reads like a sales pitch 🙄
We do have life insurance but like most of these policies there’s plenty of loopholes for providers to worm their way out of. Plus why stop at life insurance? Critical illness cover should also be important if the main breadwinner becomes too unwell to work. It’s a lot of money unfortunately and not everyone can afford it.

That is just a rough guide if you are young and healthy and don't smoke, obviously other factors can raise the price.

For £2 a week there are probably a number on f clauses that won't be covered and may not actually be worth the paper it's written on!

It’s definitely not £2 a wee!! We got ours in our 20s, healthy non-smokers, and it’s nearly £100 a month! (And that is only a small policy, doesn’t include critical illness)

A week not wee! 😂

Same

yes, I agree that in an ideal world, Critical illness cover is good to have too, but again, I think it comes attached to most mortgage agreements.

Of course, the difference is, some one unable to work will still be bringing in an income based on benefits, where as a deceased parent sadly won't

First thing I thought when I read this

I think its like with most things in life, those people who need it most are in the least able position to have it.

No, I don't work for an insurance company. Just interested, and yes, if it maybe jogs some one's memory about that task they were intending to do but hadn't got round to.... maybe we will see less uncertainty and financial insecurity bereaved students at school

I dont think life insurance is the first thing people think about when holding their bloody newborn for the first time 😂

Do you work for a life insurance company? Your post reads like a sales pitch

It certainly does. We didn’t have life insurance because we didn’t have a pot to piss in when mine was tiny, putting food on the table and a roof over his head took all our money.

No. Never did it. Just got a quote and it's 56 quid a month. Without the critical illness cover.

it's never been a condition of my mortgage.

I didn't bother when I had kids, it was the combination of kids plus mortgage that got us to take out cover

a lot of people have it through work though - death in service benefit

Depends how old you are, if you're young you probably aren't considering it.
If you have a mortgage there's usually a condition saying you have insurance to cover the value of the mortgage if you both die.
And it's not £2 a week, unless you get it VERY young... Ours costs us £100 a month, and the mortgage one on top of that

Yes, OP.
The very first thing I thought of when I held my new baby was "Right. Now I need to sort out life insurance."

It wasn't anything like how many stitches will I need or wondering if she looked like me or DH.

We had it - I had critical illness cover, my late husband had two life policies (old school US kind with lump sum payment on death). We ended up needing it too as he died at age 58 and it massively helped.

But the cover I had did get progressively more expensive and I can imagine prices have only gone up since, while people's disposable income has pretty much plummeted. It isn't as simple or as cheap as OP thinks it is.

I do know someone who'd DH died at 40, suddenly and they'd only just got insurance, which thankfully paid out. So awful though it was at least their house was safe and they had some left over. She has 3 kids, so would have really struggled otherwise.

Thats really steep! Husband (smoker) and I are in our early 40s and pay £40pm inc critical illness! Pretty decent cover amount too