How did you decide what life insurance cover to get & who did you go with?

[Ellsiedodah]

Hi all

I'm suddenly feeling terribly grown up with a first child on the way and a sense that we need to get life insurance. I'd love to know from others how they've navigated getting this - from a broker or online? Decreasing term assurance? Fixed-term? Did the stay-at-home-for-the-kids half also get cover? Critical illness cover? My husband is 2-3 overweight too which I'm not sure affects things? Would be super duper grateful to hear from anyone on this.

Thank you!

Sorry... that should have said 2-3 stone overweight... thanks

Disclaimer: I am a financial adviser who is passionate about protection as have had first hand experience of the life-changing difference a good policy makes.

Using a broker will ensure that you get the right policy to meet your needs. Get the underwriting done at outset as this will save a great deal of unnecessary stress and aggravation if you ever need to make a claim. Check what cover you might already have as an employee benefit (eg. death in service). Being overweight will get taken into account when underwriting but only 2 or 3 stones over is unlikely to be much of a problem. Different insurers place a different emphasis on various aspects of health and lifestyle factors and the views about the level of risk they present.

Stay at home parent should absolutely have cover. Consider what it would cost to have someone else do all the tasks they do. Don't underestimate the value of the SAHP!!

We didn’t use a broker for life insurance but did for critical illness, income protection etc. Our rationale was that life insurance is pretty clear cut when claiming.

We have a fixed term policy that lasts as long as our mortgage. It covers the amount our mortgage was at the time we took out plus enough to allow the remaining partner to stay out of work for 5+ years on top of worst were to happen. We both also get death in service benefits from our respective employers. Although we didn’t get the policy through a broker, we had discussed how much to insure for life insurance with him when we got our mortgage.

Both partners need cover whether employed or not - if something happened to the SAHP, the other one would have to reduce work to care for children.

I’m not sure whether your husbands weight would affect the premium or not - pp who is a financial advisor is much better placed to answer this.

Thank you very much for your responses @sunseed and @cantlivewithoutcoffee. My husband is a contractor and I'm currently unemployed, though come Jan I will be hunting for a job again - though since I'm preggo it'll likely be temp work too. So we have no 'death in service' benefits to fall back on and probably won't do for a long time while we have young children and my career slows. Do either of you have any advice on choosing a broker? @cantlivewithoutcoffee, I'd love to hear why you felt it was unnecessary/very straightforward as it seems like a minefield to me (!) and/or whether there was something about using a broker that put you off it (I have no idea how much that adds to costs). What kind of money are we looking at every month - or is that how long is a piece of string stuff? We probably need critical illness cover as well, and cover that takes us to the end of the mortgage. Thanks again - really appreciate you taking the time to share your knowledge and experience.

Brokers get paid a commission from the insurer. Some may rebate this or charge you a flat fee instead. I could provide you with some indicative quotes for you to get a feel of what the costs might be which will give you a starting point. PM me if you'd like me to do this. What some of our clients do is work out what it would look like to be comprehensively insured in all areas (life, CI, IP) and then work within their budget affordability to take steps towards covering themselves. Having at least something in place is better than nothing. Some policies can be increased without further underwriting when there is a 'life event' e.g.new baby, move house, which can be helpful. You don't have to try to tackle everything at once.

@sunseed I can't work out how to pm you (!) Can you advise please?!

I think it depends what device you're on. On mobile I see three dots at the right of each post, click on that and then there's a PM link to that poster. I will send you a messa now.

I don't think life insurance is always necessary. It's a case of taking stock first of all. DH has a bit of cover through work. Other than that we've decided not get any. He's already saved a lot into his pension - that can be inherited tax-free so would provide a good sum. I could also downsize to a smaller house mortgage-free so we felt it wasn't really worth getting more cover.

JoJoSM2 that does seem an unusual attitude when life insurance can be so cheap (depending on your circumstances). Cover for myself and my husband is only £20 per month as we don't drink or smoke, take drugs and are not overweight.

We used a broker and went with Aviva. We pay £46 per month for life cover only. It’s level term over 35 years and will pay out £525k if either of us die or become terminally ill before we are 65. We didn’t bother with critical illness etc as we get similar benefits though employment.

I meant to add - I am 2st. overweight and it didn’t affect the premium.

Yes to critical illness as it's normally only one or two pounds more a month. This is separate to terminal illness cover which is almost always included at no extra cost. You should both take out cover but I always advise you take separate cover so one can be entrusted to the other and vice versa. If you have a joint policy and left it to your child, it would only pay out when both of you dies as opposed to twice.

Thanks again all for sharing your choices. @JoJoSM2 I suppose if you have a particularly large pension that you could draw down early without it affecting old age requirements, then sounds reasonable. Unfortunately we're not terribly well prepared for old age financially so don't have anything to fall back on. Can I ask - did people feel the need to meet their brokers in person? I have a couple of brokers to consider now but neither are close enough to have a meeting in person. Thanks.