Life-insurance - do you have it sorted or is it on the to-do list? Share your thoughts and ask Aviva's expert your questions - £150 high street voucher to be won - ANSWERS BACK

[AnnMumsnet]

We've been asked by the team at Aviva to find out if life insurance is ticked off your list of things to do, lurking at the bottom, or is something you keep meaning to get around to but never quite manage it? If you sorted it, why? If you're yet to do so, why not?

Aviva says "As parents we instinctively do everything we can to protect our children. We cover them in sun tan lotion, make them brush their teeth and take steps to keep them safe on the move. Yet, despite our best intentions, when it comes to financial matters, such as sorting out life insurance, other things often take priority. If the unthinkable happened, life insurance can help protect what matters most to your loved ones. That's why we want to make it easier for you to find out answers to your pressing questions."

If you have a question about life-insurance post your questions on the thread and we'll choose some for *Aviva's expert, Louise (see image), to answer. Her responses will be posted on this thread by 18 November.

About Louise: "Louise has worked for Aviva for 24 years and, after gaining a wealth of experience across the insurance business, is now Distribution Director. She is also responsible for the marketing and communication strategy for protection. Louise is extremely passionate about families protecting themselves financially and is a dynamic spokesperson in the national press on the subject.

Aviva's free new parent life cover initiative, which has helped more families become financially protected, is Louises brain-child. She was also instrumental in developing an emotionally engaging approach for Avivas life insurance TV advertising campaign, which created considerable interest, debate and praise.

Louise's contribution to raising awareness levels of protection and challenging customer behaviours has been recognised through a number of key industry accolades. Louise is married with 5-year-old twins and lives in Yorkshire."

So please share your thoughts below - have a look at their info on their special pages on Mumsnet - everyone who adds a comment or a question below will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £150 high street voucher.

thanks and good luck

PS Please note your comments, anon of course, may be used by Aviva on MN and possibly elsewhere.

[MadMonkeys]

We have DH insured through work and both have life cover in a bundle with critical illness and mortgage payment protection. We need to go through it all and make sure we aren't paying more than we need to through as we haven't shopped around for a while.

[IncaAztec]

We get optional life insurance through work. Otherwise, it would probably languish at the bottom of our 'to do' list forever. I think for some, it is probably just another cost they can't afford at the moment. However, it is important to think about how your family would cope, particularly if the main breadwinner passed away or became critically ill.

[BikeRunSki]

My husband and I both have death in service cover through work, him 3 x salary, me 2 x. We have had life insurance since we bought our first house, 13 years ago, and critical illness cover. DH was made redundant 2 years ago, but very fortunately got a new job, same salary a month later, but we have income protection cover now too. When DS was born (he is now 5) put IFA suggested we made wills, so we saw a solicitor who did them, much cheaper than I thought it was going to be. The will says who is to care for ds in the event of both dh and I dying. We made sure there was insurance cover for financial provision for ds too. We reviewed the will and insurance when dd (2 now) was born.

My dad got ill when I was 12, and his health and capacity to work deteriorated over 11 years. He had no life insurance or anything and put huge pressure on my mother who had 4 children to raise! It blighted that period of my life too, and financial insecurity makes me very stressed and upset, to the point that I have physical symptoms. We deliberately live in a v modest, slightly-too-small but easily affordable house, which was a blessing when dh was made redundant when dd was 4 weeks old.

It would never occur to me not to have life insurance with children and a mortgage !

[gretagrape]

We've both got 2x salary cover for death in service, but that's it. Once I go back after maternity leave we'll hopefully have enough money to take out decent cover for illness/unemployment/death but at the moment there just isn't the money to cover the premiums.

[WhisperingPea]

We've both got life insurance taken out 16 years ago when our daughter was born; one is straight life assurance the other would pay a set amount each month. They both end in less than 2 years and we're wondering what to do at that point. The house is paid for and we've savings that would support her for a good few years. Does Aviva have any advice?

[CheeseTMouse]

We have life insurance which we got when we bought our home together. The reason we got it sorted is that although we are both youngish, we didn't want the other to have to worry should anything awful happen. This is compounded by now having a young family. Next on the list is to sort out our wills... something we have both been putting off for ages!

[StillNoFuckingEyeDeer]

I have no idea about life insurance. It's on my to-do list, along with getting a pension.

I think DH must have some kind of cover through work, but I don't know. I really should look into it.

[RedBushedT]

I have 3x salary cover through work and also a substantial policy I've taken out privately. I think it's given me a little bit more peace of mind knowing that my children will be financially secure should anything happen to me. Money is extremely tight for me since I got divorced but life cover is something I couldn't be without.

[GetKnitted]

Sorted out the life insurance this year, it will cover the house and more should the worst happen to one or both of us. My worst fear was not what myself or my dh would do if the other died, we'd be devastated, but the boys would be looked after one way or another, but the thought of them being alone in the world with our families carrying both the emotional and financial repercussions of losing us, too awful to imagine.

[Dededum]

We have life insurance which would pay off mortgage and DH has insurance through work.
We pay £37 a month

[Want2bSupermum]

Yes we have life insurance. DH has $1.5 million and I have $1.25 million. It is term insurance - 30 year level term so cheap at $70 a month for me and $90 for DH. I got to the amounts based on costs to cover raising our children should both of us pass away. It would be enough to cover everything including their university/college education.

BTW - don't know the law in the UK but in the US minors can't inherit money. We have a living revocable trust set up which inherits the money and allows it to be spent by the guardian before the children at 18.

[Roundles]

When should I start panicking! 31, no children, no life insurance, but a partner of a similar age who I would hate to leave with nothing.

We are both on low-ish incomes, job security at the moment is an issue for both. Where do we start?

[Want2bSupermum]

Roundles - Im no expert but I did was work out what income was needed to enable me or DH to continue with life should one of us pass away. I then worked out what my brother would need to raise our 2 DC should both of us pass away now.

Since you don't have children I would calculate the insurance need based on what you would bring to the table in terms of retirement contributions and cost of your funeral. I think anything in addition to that is gravy.

I don't know about insurance in the UK but here in the US it is far cheaper to do a level term insurance. That means for x number of years you pay y amount. Should you pass away during those years of coverage you will get paid out the amount per the insurance. I have 30 years coverage and will be 63 when it expires. My kids will both be old enough at the point and we will have enough in retirement that we won't need life insurance at that point.

[Lily311]

Can I urge everyone to take out life insurance cover? My partner died at the age of 35 last year and we had a joint life insurance policy Also he had a death in service package, twice his salary. I was left alone pregnant with our daughter who was born 5 months after. The money paid off our mortgage and now allowed me to stay on mat leave for a year. Without it I would have needed to go back to work after 6 months and with a possibility of an extra £5000 debt. When something awful happens unexpectedly it is good not to worry about finances.

Yes, I have a new cover as well as a will. I pay £12 a month for £150000 life insurance cover and £15000 critical illness cover.

[elizaco]

My husband and I have a life insurance and critical illness insurance policy each PLUS an extra one that pays out on death of first. All policies were 25-year when we first took them out - probably about 12 years left. We took them out just before starting a family. We live in a tied house (with my husband's employment) so if I was to lose my husband I would of course, need to then buy a house. Still need to get wills written though :-(

[MissRee]

I have 4x salary through my work and a life insurance policy on both myself and my partner which we took out when buying our house. My partner doesn't get a death in service benefit from his employer, should we be looking at something else to help me should anything happen to him?

We did have critical illness cover but I think the policy lapsed. I must dig out the paperwork for that and renew it!

[heyday]

My daughter had her son when she was only 17 so as soon as she was 18 I took out life insurance for her. As she is so young the premiums are low and the pay out would be enough to somewhat help look after little boy. To anyone with children, if you do not have decent life insurance then stop putting it off and get it sorted. It really does give some small piece of mind if the worst was to happen.

[trilbydoll]

We both have 3x salary through work and we have a policy that matches the mortgage, so the cover decreases in line with the mortgage outstanding.

I'm not being naive in thinking they would both pay out if one of us died am I? This has only just occurred to me, I have always assumed the mortgage would be cleared and then the work cover would pay out a lump sum.

I think we need critical illness cover as well, but it wouldn't know where to start, I am deeply suspicious of those policies because of all the stories about them not paying out.

[Lily311]

trilbydoll yes! both pays out. It did for us.

[jobwoes]

My DP has death in service cover through his pension scheme, but can't get critical illness cover as he has had a critical illness, even though he has fully recovered .

[KnottedAnchorChief]

DH and I both have life insurance that we sorted out when DH started his own business. It's something we got quite organised with quite a few years ago and we both feel is very important. Even when we were struggling financially a couple of years ago it was one of the things we hung onto.
I also have some sort of cover with my job but I confess i can't remember what it is exactly.
It's the sort of thing you hope you'll never need but I know a family who sadly experienced a tragedy and if it hadn't been for the insurance I can't imagine how they would have coped.

[LegoCaltrops]

I have a pension & life cover through work, there would be 4x salary on death (with Aviva I think) but nothing else. DH is currently a student & we're on a tight budget so I'm not sure about cover for him at present. We rent so we wouldn't benefit from unemployment cover for me at the moment - or would we? I worry that we aren't covered for this sort of thing.

[Dancealot]

Both my partner and I took out like insurance when we took on a bigge mortgage. It means if anything happns to either of us at least the house will be secure for our family.

[MyNameIsInigoMontoya]

We both have insurance through work, but it's worth mentioning that this is often based on your salary. So if you are part-time, you might not actually get a huge amount (but the remaining partner would then have to cover all childcare costs etc if they were to continue working). So we got an additional policy to top mine up to a more realistic level.

Also, while we're on the subject of unexpected deaths, can I remind everyone again about making wills - it's really important even if you think you know what would happen to your property (it may not...and gives the survivors a lot more stress), and it allows you to consider things like what would happen to your estates if you both died, how you would want your children cared for and so on.