Life insurance for SAHM

[Mycarsmellsoflavender]

I am approaching a semi-significant birthday soon and it dawned on me recently that I really should take out a life cover policy for myself as a SAHM to cover death and critical illness. DH has cover through his employer. Can anyone give me any advice or recommendations on where to start, please? How do I work out how much I want to insure myself for? Anything to particularly look out for / avoid?

Background : 4 DCs aged 3 to teenager, 2 of whom have ASD. No family on either side who could step in and help with childcare, so in the event of my sudden death, either DH would have to give up work until the DC were older or we would have to pay someone to do everything that I do, including a nanny. I'm guessing that 15 years on a decreasing level assurance might be suitable as that would cover the youngest to adulthood, but hoping someone on here might be able to advise. I am in good health and a non smoker.
Thank you.

Ps. Mortgage is paid off and we have about £22k in diverse shares-based funds into which we contribute £500 per month from DH's salary (nice position to be in, I know), so we have some back-up funds already.

I got mine through financial advisor
Didn’t pay them a penny
And they get access to fantastic deals not publically available

How did you find a financial advisor ( who would work for free) ? Was it connected to a product you already have ( mortgage, pension etc)?

He was recommended to me.
He charges a flat fee for mortgages
For life he gets commission from the insurance company.

It’s the norm

You can’t beat a recommendation though, so ask around

I bought Legal and General online
separate policies for DH and I as its the better method

We have L&G life and critical illness cover as they offer cover if any of the DC get ill and a very broad range of illnesses they'll pay out for (critical illness side)

Life insurance per se is very simple as if you're dead, you're dead and they'll pay out (providing you've been honest at application and kept up the payments)

I wanted enough cover that DH could go part-time at work until our youngest DC is grown up.

Consider length of term too - ours is long enough to see all DC through university.

Thank you. I'll have a look at Legal & General since that has been mentioned by two of you. Agree that best strategy is to cover me and DH separately and that critical illness cover is important too. Eggbert does your plan pay the same if you die when your child is, say 18 but still covered, as it would if they were much younger? You've given me a good starting point to work out what value plan I need as well - by how much we would need to cover DH's cut in salary if he worked part time to cover childcare.

Legal and general here too

Admittedly I've never had to claim on it so do not know what they are like when it comes to the crunch !!!!

They were shite when my endowment matured but I ran rings round them and it was fine

That's very true

I just found a very helpful MSE article explaining it all.

www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance/cheap-life-insurance
Posting here for reference as it will probably help others in a similar position.

As suggested by MSE, have just done an online search with discount broker Cavendish online and compared it with L&G, and Cavendish comes out much cheaper for the same thing. Getting closer to understanding what I need now.

Having done lots of number crunching, am planning to go for level term rather than decreasing term as there's not a big difference in cost but a big difference in payout if I did die towards the end of the plan term. Just trying to decide on the term - until my youngest finishes full time school (15 years) or to try to cover university as well (18 years)? DH is older than me so would be retired by this time although I would probably be working so it's likely to be a very different situation to how we are now. So difficult trying to plan this far ahead.

Go for the longer term. The price difference per month will be minimal. If you get to the 15 year point and decide you no longer need it you can cancel the policy. If you took the shorter term and wanted to extend it that will be much more expensive as you'll be 15 years older.

Ugh. Wrote long post and it disappeared.

Go for long term and level term imo. Usually little price difference and life insurance for you will never be as cheap as it is now (as you'll get older, potential health issues along the line etc.) Remember life ins is one of those products you can just stop paying for and although you don't have cover then, you aren't locked into a contract if down the line you can't afford it.

DH's parents died in his teens. He inherited a modest house and a small life insurance payout. It does go some small way to compensate some of the things he has missed out on - obviously emotional support is gone but he could afford childcare (no GPs to help out), house deposit (no parents to live with while saving), driving lessons and uni costs (parents often help out, he also left first uni to be his dad's carer which affected student finance). He was also able to take some time out from work when his MH was very poor (IMO due to traumatic loss at bad time).

Thank you. I think I will go with the longer term (18 years). Should try and work on DH to do the same now as he won't be covered by his work one by then.

I'm intrigued what the deleted post could have been - didn't think this was that sort of a thread!

@Mycarsmellsoflavender did you go ahead and arrange this?

I am in a similar situation and only need cover for myself as DH has this through work and we have a joint policy for the mortgage already in place but I wanted extra for peace of mind that DH would be able to go part time / stay at home where needed as our children have some additional needs .

May I ask how much you’re paying?

£61 a month here.
37. On excellent health other than underactive thyroid.
Single mother
£150 critical illness cover
£300 life
14 year term

I haven't yet. After careful consideration, I finally decided on what term / how much cover to go for. I then picked the cheapest quote on the broker's website and followed it through. Only to discover when I got to the end that they wouldn't insure me because of some of my answers. I had a close relative with a colon cancer and I requested a colonoscopy last year mainly as a precaution, but also because I had some symptoms which could have been attributed to colon cancer. The colonoscopy gave me the all clear but the very fact that I'd been tested meant that the cheapest insurer wouldn't touch me with a barge pole. Going to go back and look at some of the other quotes, but the fact that I've had my birthday since then means that all the premiums have gone up.

Alittleconcerned, if you want to work out whether you're on a good deal, try putting your figures into Cavendish online or Moneyworld. You can get instant quotes from a range of insurers.

In that case def go to advisor
If you don’t tick the “normal” box then online is fruitless.

I’m getting a good deal.
The perks are brilliant
50% off my gym membership. I was paying £78, not £39
Lots of other bits and pieces

Most importantly, coverage is extensive.