Should I have life insurance? Heading towards 50 this year....

[Sunshineandrainbow]

I am a single parent heading to 50 this year.

I rent a property so have no property to leave my children.

Should I be looking at getting life insurance? Any advice on particular companies to use? I have no clue on this and not really sure what made me start thinking about it recently.
Any things to avoid?

Thankyou

Do you have death in service through work? A workplace pension? How old are your DC? Enough savings to pay for your funeral?

If you’ve not got it already I wouldn’t bother at nearly 50 as the premiums will be loads.

Im a single parent but my dd is 19 now, I’ve had life insurance since I was mid 30s, it’s around £22 a month. When I looked at if I could get it cheaper now (I’m now 47) I was shocked the cheapest premiums were £50-£60 a month.

In your circumstances I’d have a will and try and put some money into savings each month.

Why do you think you might want/ need it? What are you hoping to achieve?

(I'm in my 50s and have none anymore. My DH would manage the bills fine without me).

Dc are both in 20's
Do have public service pension with death in service award.
I have also worked hard at savings and have enough to cover funeral.

I was thinking it would give children a payout as I have no property to leave them as I have rented all my life! General guilt!

If your DC are in their 20s then that’s different to leaving money so small children can continue to be housed and fed. Your death in service cover is important.

Life cover is expensive way of making sure there’s an inheritance.

Critical illness cover might be more important- what would happen if you couldn’t work for 6 months/ a year?

I'm a financial adviser. I'd say the only thing I'd get if I were you is power of attorney if the kids are financially independent.

if your children are non dependant and live elsewhere then I would not contemplate a life insurance policy.

If though your dc are non dependant but living with you in the rented property, I would contemplate saving for rental money until they get themselves sorted

Putting a joint application in for social housing (though likelihood is you'll only get a flat not a house)

Put together a death book with all the information they are likely to need in the event of your death.

Do you also have income protection as part of a work scheme, if you were to be ill for a long period and unable to work?

This is more critical and you can ensure any policy you take out includes this.

People often fail to consider how they would manage if they had a long term medical condition requiring months or more off work.

Your death in service award will probably be at least two times salary, so a reasonable sum to your DC should the worst happen. Are they named as beneficiaries?

If they still live with you, probably worth looking into whether they will be allowed and be able to afford to stay living in your current home.

Do you still work in the public sector? If so, you'll have good sick pay entitlement, so I'm not sure I'd bother with income protection insurance although if you're very worried about a long term illness, you could look at taking out income protection insurance with 6-12 months lead in time, which should reduce the cost significantly.

Income protection would be sensible and yes- I would pay for life insurance. I pay nearly £100 a month and it means if I die I know there is enough money to give each of my children enough to buy a small property outright or to be a sizeable deposit on something larger. I have included pension related lump sums in my calculations.

If I survived the expiration date there will have been all sorts of ways I would contribute to their lives and in my absence I would be pleased to know that the money had softened some of the challenges of life.

term life insurance is for anyone who has people who are dependent on their income ie non- independent children or a spouse or partner below retirement age it is generally fairly cheap as it tends to finish around ages 55-65
whole life insurance is more expensive and is not usually best way to invest for an inheritance you would be better off placing the same sum of money in an ISA ideally a stocks and shares ISA as it is for the long term not short term and if you did need the money it would be there as cash in values of life insurance are generally lower
make sure as you reach retirement you have full years of national insurance, and therefore full state pension check how much your works pensionis likely to be and if it is index linked
and that you try and set aside money for a savings pot so you can buy a new car without a bank loan etc during your retirement
as you are 50 and I hope healthy the chances are it will be 30-40 years before they inherit so that is room for a lot of growth in an investment
you are ten times more likely to have to retire early due to a medical reason that you are to die before retirement
check how much sick pay you get at your job if long term sick getting critical illness cover is not cheap but if you can self cover for 6 months with an emergeny fund the cost drops considerably
mostly you can take your pension early if it agreed you won't be able to work again

I wouldn't bother at your age, to be honest.

I would start a savings account in your shoes rather than buy a LI policy.

Thanks everyone for your advice..

Does anyone know roughly how much a POA costs?

You might have left it a bit late in terms of affordability. Check it out and then decide.

https://www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney

All the info you need is here, including costs.