Please could someone advise us on life assurance?

[BuffaloCauliflower]

Background: DP and I are marrying in the autumn, planning to start a family immediately (biology willing!) Both very early 30s. DP is T1 diabetic, but no other long term health concerns.

Live in expensive bit of London/Surrey, so home ownership is a way off unless someone dies, but we take home about £3800/4000 a month and are comfortable. Both salaries likely to rise consistently over the next few years, though I will go part time when we have a baby.
We rent a good sized house we can stay in a while. Both pay 5% into our company pension schemes.

I want us to get life assurance when we marry. My DF died reasonably young and his pay out was a life line, but I’m really unsure as to the best options. I’ve had a search and it seems a lot of money. Are we better with a joint policy or single ones? If we’re not including mortgage repayment how much should we cover for? If either of us were to die young leaving children we wouldn’t want the other to struggle.

Can anyone advise? Thanks in advance.

Once we had children we took out a joint policy with a fixed lump sum which paid off our mortgage, it carried on until the youngest child was 21.
This was sufficient as I had a fairly low paid part time job. My DH had extra life assurance and Widows pension through with. If I'd died he'd have had the mortgage paid and gone part time.

Get a joint policy that doesn't taper, 25 years term for £500k should be sufficient for now, you can always top up with a second policy or changing it

You might find that it’s cheaper to get them separately. You’re young and with no health conditions, whereas your DP will have to declare his diabetes. Mine is only £15 a month would would pay off our house and provide some living expenses for DH for a while if I died.

Might be cheaper to get separately- I would recommend going to a broker.
My DH is insured for 10x salary, I'm insured for a bit less but enough that he would be mortgage free, cover my funeral, go part time and treat the kids a bit. Such a difficult one as no two situations are the same

I would go to a broker as you might need a specialist provider. DH can't get life insurance from a mainstream company so we get a IFA to sort it for us.

If you’re earning the salaries you say it’s likely you both have good work death in service benefits so check these out first

I would then look at a joint life fixed term top up policy for additional cover. Get a long term - you’ll be glad you did later

When we took out life insurance, we took out two individual policies as it was cheaper AND it pays out for each death. Many joint policies only pay out on the first death.
Cheaper plus double the payout.