How much insurance do you have?

[bramblina]

Critical Illness? Death? Mortgage cover? Unemployment? Buildings? Contents? You? DP? I can't believe how much money we have going out in DDs every month- and at the moment it seems for nothing. We really can't afford it just now and I wondered does everyone have the same problem? Is it worth it? I know I wouldn't be in this dilemmna if I lost a limb tomorrow- and would be quite happily sending off my claim form for £££ but is it worth paying out all this money in the meantime? What basics does everyone else have in place? I must cancel a few of them

We have lots too and it does seem a heck of a lot of money going out for all this stuff. But, it is always the what ifs...isn't it?

We have building and contents, life, critical illness, etc. Also have pension and mortgage stuff on there. Our insurances cover us for illnesses of me, DH or DD, for death, mortgage cover, cover if made redundant, etc.

A very high life insurance policy so my children will have a proper house to live in if I die before being able to provide them w/one.

LOTS of renter's insurance in case of fire or burglary.

Oh god so it really is the norm then? Yes, the what if's are the killer- last sept dh's aunt & uncle cancelled their kids' policies, no less than 3 wks later dh's cousin was in an horrific car accident, on death's door, had half his brain & skull removed, learning to walk again etc, he's only 17.
Said aunt & uncle are now beginning to sue the driver's insurance company for around £1m. Fair enough their lives have changed a lot, financially too so they will need to be compensated for that, but it isn't all about money is it? I guess I'll have to work out what we would need if it ever came to that and pay for what we do need.

Expat is that all you have? Just death? (I don't mean is that all you have) Do you need to cover your income incase you lost it due to critical illness?

No. I don't have a mortgage and my income is so pitiful, I'd just go on benefits if I got critically ill.

Couldn't afford critical care insurance as it is. Hence, only have life insurance and renter's/contents.

I am very lucky dh and I both get Death in Service about £400k each and PHI (ie they pay for life about 70% of your salary index linked if you can't work)

We are worth a lot more dead than alive!

Don't bother with unemployment cover as we both have 3 month notice periods and enough savings to cover us for a while.

Yes Building, contents with all extended stuff like legal cover and cover for items outside the home

sorry meant to say we get it as part of our work packages

Oh, I should be doing what you're doing then!

You're welcome, I can go home then!

Are you any good at re-planning projects in a cunning way to ensure that a live date can't be hit as that as what I am currently doing

Hmmmm perhaps not.

Life, house and car.

Never bothered wth unemployment or critical illness.

house, car, bit of PHI for me, quite good death in service benefits (so I believe, never actually checked it out), term insurance to pay off mortgage
No mortgage payment protection - think its a scam really, would just use savings.
Need to get life cover really - kids bit exposed if we were to go under a bus...

Bramblina, we don't have critical illness or mortage cover or unemployment.

We just do a small life assurance which covers mortgage if one of us dies. and of course we have buildings and contents.

Look at it this way, add up how much you spend on all these policies over 20 years, 30 years ... would you not be better saving the money yourself to cover costs if one of you lost your job, got ill etc

none. cancelled home and contents when dh lost his job.

dh get 3 x my salary if i pop mi clogs whilst employed.

Thanks for all the advice, I think Hattie's right, it makes you think about how much money really is wasted. After all these companies DO make an awful profit...at our expense. I always refuse the extra cover when buying household appliances etc for that reason but a morgage repayment is somewhat bigger than a bill to rapair the tumble dryer! Unavoidable, too! Oh still a dilemmna though.

Get yourself a good financial adviser ti go through your protection, they can tell you the things that are most important to keep covered and those things where savings can be made, rebroking can often save a fortune in quite easy steps\ (especially if any if the policies have been around a while).

A lot of advisers get paid commisions rather than fees so there is no outlay for you. My only advice would be IMO avoid high street bank advisors as the quility of care IME seems much lower.

Haven't got critical illness as when I looked at the list of exceptions and provisions I really doubted that they would pay out on anything except a fatal illness. Have also heard horror stories about the lengths the Insurers will go to to prove that illnesses must have been "pre-existing" so they don't have to cough up. Having said that, we have whacking great life insurance policies that would pay someone to look after and educate our DD until she's 25 or so if anything happened to us. And all the usual car house contents stuff.

I am self-employed and the main breadwinner, so I have pretty much a full house of insurance for myself :

a life policy for me to enable dh to run the household without me should I get runover by a bus;
smallish life policies for me and dh to cover the outstanding amount on the mortgage;
Income protection for me;
Criticial illness for me;
Private health insurance for me (but a v. low-end policy).

It is a lot of money, but our financial situation would become v. difficult quite quickly if I couldn't work. If you are employed the story is different, so you need to check the sickness and death-in-service benefits provided by your employer. Agree you should see a good financial adviser (fee-based, so has no incentive to flog you products you don't need). Actually see a couple to see if their advice matches up. You may be able to cut costs by reinsuring anyway, as premiums have come down on a lot of these products. Alternatively (or in tandem) you can work on building up a nice fat cushion of savings, which is effectively a form of self-insurance.

But sh*t does happen my BIL is the sole breadwinner in their house and has just been off work for 5 months having chemotherapy. The outlook is good in his case, but it's taken a massive toll. And the partner can't just stay home carrying on as usual in this case dsis has spent a fortune on extra childcare trying to keep her kids' lives as normal as possible while she supports her dh at the hospital.

Bramblina, this is quite a difficult one, if you feel you cannot afford it. Insurance is basically a safety net for your family. Fine if you never need to claim on it (yes, all those premiums go wasted), but if you do, you will thank your lucky stars because usually no amount of savings will compensate you for that kind of loss.

As other posters have suggested, go see a financial adviser to see which ones are important. This depends on whether your dh and/or yourself are in employment with benefits (death-in-service, long term disablity, private health insurance, pension).

Off the top of my head, based on pure affordibility alone, if you are a home owner, get buildings insurance at least (if your home burns down). This is fairly inexpensive. Contents insurance is more expensive and for if you are burgled.

If you own a car, motor insurance is compulsory.

Critical illness is very expensive and relatively limited in cover. Mortgage cover is a rip-off IMO. Better to get term life insurance to cover at least the mortgage for each of your and dh's life. So in the eventuality that one dies, the home is paid off. Term life insurance is fairly inexpensive and you can get a joint policy.

These are the basics, I feel. But check if your/dh's employer supplements this.

Thanks all, again. I had just switched the computer on to write a letter to cancel our employment cover- we pay £27 pm. My maternity leave ends in July and I do not plan to go back it's taken me so long to cancel it. Last year, at 25wks pg dh lost his license for 6m and consequently his job, too, he's a long distance lorry driver. I would have quite happily claimed everything we're covered for (and it seems would have been eligible for a £500 sure start grant) but pride took over and within 2 days he had a job in a local bar. He was on min. wage, we would have been better off on income support, I had to drive him everywhere until ds was 3 months old (yes even in labour, quite amusing actually but that's another thread!!) so the income insurance had never been used and I can't believe I've been so daft to be paying £27 pm for nothing. In short what I mean is we still made ends meet so it is obviously unnecessary but cancelling an insurance policy is just tempting fate! I'm going to do it now!

I saw a fin. advisor a couple of yrs ago, but she was from our building society. I am by no means dense but she really baffled me with terms she expected me to understand and I did not have a pleasant experience. I will find an independant one and make an appointment.

Bramblina, please do, there are some really good ones out there and they will help make sure you don't let pride get in the way of claming what you have paid out for all that time too

We have life insurance, a policy to pay off our mortgage, buildings and contents insurance. DH is in a v.secure job (Forces) so gets some good benefits through that. We're most at risk of something happening to me - our mortgage would be paid off (flat rented out so would provide some income for DH/DS), and they'd get a largish lump sum, but it wouldn't get them many years of the kind of support that they get for free from me as a SAHM.

How much did they say it would cost to get the services of an average housewife?