How long should life insurance cover last?

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I recently took out life insurance until the age when the children will be grown up to cover child care etc. The insurance company just phoned me back and tried to convince me to up the life insurance age to 85 because the policy will be more likely to pay out. It was going to be £8 more a month (£96 a year). While I could probably afford that at the moment, to me life insurance is a fairly small amount of money that you (hopefully) throw away each month to cover a tragic event. I also don't have much pension and my husband is older than me. So, in the very likely event of him dying before I'm 85 I'd be left on my own trying to pay almost £300 in life insurance premiums on my tiny pension. My grandmother has just had her 90th birthday. I don't want to pay all the way to 85 and then think 'darn I'm still alive, my grandchildren won't get the money now and I've throw away 12 grand). It just seems better to hit the age my children grow up and thank the Lord that I'm still alive and have one less expense to worry about each month.

Do you think I did the right thing? The life insurance person claimed that most people take out a policy until 85 or it's a waste of money. Is that true? I hate being pressured to make these decisions quickly on the phone!

Just to add. Nobody's ever phoned me up to try to convince me to increase my husband's life insurance to 85. I got in contact with this insurance broker through an advert targetting 'mums' to get life insurance. I don't want to get all paranoid, but are life insurance companies trying to convince women to take out more life insurance than they need because women on average live longer? Is this a thought through strategy?

Definitely up until children are well grown. Most children are not independent at 18 so I'd think until they're 21 maybe 25. After that it's definitely optional, don't forget the company will be trying to up sell their products.

I don't understand why you need it past your children being grown up and your mortgage being cleared.

Mine and dh's are both till 70. At which point mortgage/debts will be paid off and children well into adulthood. Can't see a need for having it any longer.

Paddingtonsmarmlade,

An 18-year-old doesn't need a nanny or childminder, which is what the cover is for. I've already put money by for when they're 18 my husband has life insurance to cover that kind of thing. That was slighly annoying though. I wanted to add on maybe another 5 years and she wouldn't look at that. Eventually I got a bit tired of her 'do you want 85 or 90' type questions and told her I didn't want to prolong the policy at all. That's the problem with people phoning you to sell you what they want you to buy rather than you phoning them after you've thought through what you need.

We kept ours going until we paid our mortgage.

Thanks very much. This is what I was thinking - people take it out to cover what they need (mortgage etc.) not until 85 like the woman tried to convince me on the phone! As I explained really clearly to them when taking out the policy, my husband pays the mortgage and his life is already insured. I'm not working. While I hope to be able to contribute in the future, my policy is so my husband isn't left as a single dad paying mortgage and childcare for the kids I can no longer look after. I didn't want another really expensive insurance policy on top of all the other insurance we pay for my husband.

Maybe I'm overreacting, but just feels like there was something a bit dishonest about the second phone call. The first person was genuinely trying to sell me the cover I wanted at the best price, which is what an insurance broker is for, so no complaints about the first time.

I'd be more inclined to add critical illness cover for the duration of you your mortgage.

Reading your updates. Check your husband has critical health insurance if he is the main earner and pays the mortgage.

It is far cheaper to take out insurance whilst young, fit and well. I'm a single parent, I took out life and critical illness over whilst married. Thank god I did, as I've claimed on it this year. If your unwell the last thing you want is financial worry as well.

We don't have life insurance, mainly due to health conditions which although not life threatening, would greatly increase the cost.

However we have paid the mortgage and DC are teens. I'm considering one of those over 50 plans in future. Not sure what others thoughts on them are. Might need to do some research first.

They were trying hard-sell tactics on you which I think is basically morally corrupt of them.

The best thing would be to make an appointment with an IFA (independent financial adviser) who, for a reasonably small fee, will look at your whole financial position for both of you and come up with the most sensible alternatives.

85??? Golly. Mine expires when I turn 55, so when DD is about 20. We have money put by for her uni education and our mortgage is paid off so I can't see much point in keep on paying for it.

Sorry about your situation Blueskythinking. Glad your policy paid out.

I took out critical at the same time as the life insurance and I'm happy with that. Actually, it's my husband who doesn't have that. Owing to various cultural taboos it's very difficult to discuss these things, which leaves me feeling very frustrated trying to make these decisions on my own. He only has life insurance because I insisted when the baby was born and organised it all myself.

You need to consider what you originally took out the life insurance for. There's no point paying beyond that if you don't need it any more.

In our case it was to pay off mortgage and to cover costs of bringing up children for the remaining parent.
So for us that will be when youngest child reaches 20 in about 4 years time.
We will be late 50s and will have no need for life insurance after that.
We do both have death in service benefit through our work if one of us should die before retirement

Yes, think this quite a dishonest hard sell. Her point was that the policy was very unlikely to pay out as the average life expectancy is 85. But who takes out life insurance hoping to get something back! And what life insurance company sells life insurance on the basis that you're likely to get something back? they'd go bankrupt!

I told her if I wanted something back I would have taken out whole life insurance. She then claimed 'being honest with you, most people go for 85 as they'll have a much higher chance of it paying out', which wasn't being honest at all - where did she get that information from?😡

I'm tempted to cancel the whole thing, but then I'd have to spend another hour answering all the questions about health etc. to take out another policy.

Hard sell bullshit. We had life assurance to cover the mortgage. Now my wife has generous death in service benefit and I have some life cover to provide a little extra towards the kids' university fees if anything happens to me. Truth to tell I'm not sure we really need that.

We don't have life insurance as both mine and dh work offer generous death in service so if one of us dies, the amount paid out will more than clear the mortgage.

In the event we both die: Our children will live (pre agreed) with relatives, one of whom doesn't work so no additional childcare costs, and the 2x death in service plus any equity in our home (which will be sold) will be split between our kids and the relative who is taking them on.

Once they are adults, if we die then, the deaths in service will go to the dc (plus any equity in the home).

Over 50 plans appear to be overpriced regular term life assurance policies. If they have an advantage it is the "no medical questions", which may make the good value fr some people n poor health . Get a quote on a regular term assurance and compare and contrast with an over 50s plan.

If it's not a fixed lifetime payment but a reviewable plan then I guarantee you you'll have it cancelled long before 85 anyway as it will have become too expensive!