Life insurance / critical illness query

[Orangesandlemons77]

Just asking for some advice really. DH asked me to look into the above for him.

However I am wondering if it is really needed or not / may be too expensive as he has a chronic illness and is in his fifties...

To clarify, the mortgage is paid off so it's not needed to cover that. He has some money in a private pension so I'm guessing that would be inherited as well...so I'm unsure if it is needed...

Any advice on a good place for cover for those with pre-existing conditions would be welcome also. I have seen one in an article once but forgotten the name

It may well be good to have something to help cover if he got worse illness wise as he's self employed- I think this may be what he is thinking. Thanks for reading.

You need to be clearer about exactly what risks it is that he want to protect himself against, and what benefit he wants - is it to get money for him, to replace lost income if he can't work because of ill health, or is it to provide money for you in case he dies?

If he's trying to protect his self-employed income then he might be thinking about either an Income Protection plan or a Critical Illness plan. Income Protection will cover a much wider range of conditions, but is probably going to be much more expensive than Critical Illness cover too. If he has a pre-existing condition that is going to impact on the medical underwriting and could make the costs unaffordable, but you won't know for sure until you get some quotes.

If he is thinking that he's going to die before you and wants to leave a sum of money to help you maintain your current lifestyle then he may just be looking for a life cover policy. The best value option would be a term plan, which pays out if he dies during the term of the plan. More expensive would be a whole of life plan, because it will be certain to pay out regardless of when he dies.

Once you understand the problem he's trying to solve it will be easier to point you towards the most appropriate solution.

Thanks Sunseed that's really helpful. I need to have a chat with him...

Fwiw I was unable to find either critical illness or income protection cover for me (I have diabetes) when I was in my 30s. He may get cover but I think it'll be expensive.