Life Insurance - Which insurer, and what policy do you have?

[CommasSaveLives]

I’m 45 and thinking I need to take out a stand-alone life insurance policy for the next couple of decades to protect income in case of life-changing illness or death. We have basic life insurance already provided for our mortgages and our superannuation coverage, however I’m looking for a decent policy that will cover more than the basics - enough to ensure my children’s school fees are paid for the next 7-10 years, for example. I have no major health problems and am generally very fit and healthy.

Who are you with, and what do you recommend I look for? I realise policies differ by country (we are not in the UK). Thank you for any tips and advice. Admin please move this to the right area if I’ve posted in the wrong place, thank you.

I’d also be interested in the replies, like you we have mortgage cover. We also have a policy that uses to cover school fees but we don’t have those now but that’s still being paid. I looked at a vitality policy and that was around £90 for £350,000 I think. But this will be based on age as well and if you still have children in school you’re younger than us

I have income protection and life insurance with Vitality, I pay £60 for the two policies (and seperately £60 for health insurance too) although I took the life policies out around 5/6 years ago when I was early 30s. Age is a factor so look into it now, Vitality do underwrite upfront for life plans so may write out to your GP before confirming cover but that means more likely to know your eligibility and less likely to quibble over loopholes if/when you do need to claim. Things like age and BMI come into play for pricing and also if your awaiting test results etc so if your in a place now where your as well as can be- get looking!!

It can be really varied. My partner and I both have the same cover - £300,000 over 25 years taken out at the same time and we were both 31. My partner got a off the shelf policy at £8 a month, I had to go through a specialist broker as I have a life long condition. Only two companies would even consider an application one at £32 a month and another at over £50 and needed a very in-depth application form listing every time my condition has made me unwell in the previous 15 years.

We went with a fixed amount for the cover rather than depreciating as we figured that as we got older our costs of life would increase whilst our mortgage would have decreased. We also wanted cover that would be fitting should we have moved to a bigger house, which we went on to do. As it currently stands ~40% of the insurance would pay off the mortgage and the remaining would pay for 7 -10 years of living costs.

I used to get 4 times my salary as death in service but have since been made redundant. My partner gets 3 times his salary for death in service.
We have just redone our wills and are happy that with the combination of everything the surviving spouse or the children would get in event of both of us passing would be more than enough and we don't need any further insurance.

We pressure test our finances when we make big decisions to know what protections we need from a income perspective and haven't needed to take out income protection insurance.

I got fantastic advice from a free financial advisor (happy to PM details)

we pay aviva critical illness cover and enhanced CI cover, lump sum in death (£131pm)

the fab advice he gave us is about a family policy. If either of us die, the surviving spouse will get £30k per year tax free until the deceased spouse would have turned 70. If we both die it is paid to the kids (4 under 7)

Have a look at cover my bubble, they were amazing at helping me sort life insurance for me and DH, took all our info and found us the best out there for what I wanted to pay. We have critical illness cover included on our policy and the children are also covered so if they hid forbid are ever ill in hospital and we need time off work then we're covered. We're roughly £50 a month and it's through royal London.