Help me navigate the life insurance minefield!

[ProseBeforeHoes]

Hi all,

First time poster here! I've been lurking on Mumsnet for a little while as I find many of the threads so helpful for all manner of things - admittedly I'm not a Mum (certainly not for a while yet!) - but need some advice anyway!

Myself and my boyfriend recently bought our first house together. I'm still trying to figure out if we need life insurance or not. I have insurance with my job, but my boyfriend doesn't. As we don't have children and probably won't for a couple years yet, is it being a bit overzealous/waste of money to each take out a level term insurance policy? Or would Mortgage Payment Protection be a better fit for now? We could pay all the bills if one of us was made redundant tomorrow, but things would be very tight!

Obviously if we came around to having kids I'd want us to take out a policy. I'm also aware that I probably won't stay in my current job forever, so I'd need to sort something out eventually. I just don't know what to do for the best right now given our situation! It's a sodding minefield.

We're 24 and 25. Thoughts?

Cheers! 

If you have a house, you need life insurance otherwise the unfortunate partner left could be faced with grief as well as selling a house.

Also, people tend to have other things on their mind when pregnancy occurs so sort it out now.

Oh and make a will, including provision for the A's yet non existing children

Buying now will be relatively cheap.

Can you afford the mortgage, bills without him? If so, leave it a few years. If not get it

Thanks both.

@MarieG10 Yep, definitely planning on getting a will sorted. I'm something of a worrier at times..

@HermioneWeasley I am I actually the higher earner (not by much!) and could afford everything in theory - like I said, it might be a bit tight though.

I guess that's why I wondered if MPPI would be worth looking into? Or if perhaps only my partner took out life insurance, whilst I still have cover with my job...

We had to take out life insurance with our mortgage even though in theory one of us could afford everything in their own. In any case we had it anyway because we have three children - we just had to extend for the lengthy of the mortgage.

It’s not expensive - £24 each a month for cover of £450k each.

@GorgeousLadyofWrestling Wow that's a lot of cover for the money! It was stipulated as being 'advised' but not compulsory for us to take out life insurance when we got the mortgage.

I think you are all right in that considering our ages it's probably too cheap not to...there are so many different insurance options out there - I think I've abused the MoneySavingExpert website recently!

Buy a cheap joint term policy the length of your mortgage, pays out on the first person. It's critical illness and redundancy cover that's expensive

I would definitely consider it now, because it will be cheaper. Also, level term is advisable (although more expensive than decreasing cover) as it will give you a "cushion" as you pay your mortgage down.

I would also look at critical illness cover (from personal experience) - you don't need to have the whole of your mortgage covered but if one of you cannot work for a period of time you are likely to need a pot of money to get through it. At this stage, presuming you're both in good health, it will be a nominal additional sum.

Also, consider individual policies rather than joint policies - a joint policy only pays out once, so if either of you dies, the survivor is not covered. 2 x individual policies aren't always more expensive than joint cover.

@Africa2go I think I've decided that if we get insurance it should be level term! I like the idea of a 'cushion'. Also agree that each having our own policy is sensible - I imagine there isn't much in it RE price difference anyway.

I've heard a lot of mixed things about critical illness cover - stories of people not getting their payout, ect. I guess I'm more concerned about redundancy/non-terminal temporary illness as I imagine those situations might be more likely. Ahh, brain fart!

I don't suppose anyone knows if adding more dependents in future (like children) is a huge faff/effects the premium? Possibly a silly question...