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.

[Bubbles85]

Life insurance and a will are both on our to-do list. I am currently pregnant with our first child so we plan to get all that sorted ASAP for the baby's sake.

[daisybrown]

We have joint life insurance to cover the unimaginable happening, such as mortgage and extra childcare that would be needed if the worst happened to one of us.

[Willemdefoeismine]

I think we've been burying our heads in the sand about this one. I think when I was younger I didn't think I would have children so didn't even consider it a 'must' in an era when I had more disposable money and was more focused on managing my finances for the future....

I think we might need to revisit life insurance ASAP!

[AtticusMcPlatypus]

We both have life assurance with critical illness cover. We don't have a mortgage, only rent so it would hopefully provide a financial cushion should the worst happen or provide a lump sum to put towards a property. I also have death in service benefits from my employer and my husband has a, now frozen, local government pension which will still pay a lump sum on death before retirement age.

[lolancurly]

I don't have life insurance and this is something that bothers me and that I want to sort out. I am 50 with a 6 year old daughter and as my mum died when she was 56, I feel painfully aware of my own mortality. Although I should sort something out, part of me wants to stick my fingers in my ears and sing lalalala and not think about it. My husband has a good job, but as a contractor doesn't currently have life insurance through his employer, so we do need to get our bums in gear on this one.

[RubySparks]

Another be with life insurance and various critical illness and accident cover through my employer. I think the life insurance is joint so husband covered too but not on some of the other insurances as they can be expensive. Would be interested to know how much is enough! I work almost full time so would need help at home is something happened to husband, he would just need enough money to live.

[Dolallytats]

We don't have it. It's on our to-do list and we talk about it often, we just don't have any money to do anything about it.

DH lost his job just before our DD was born. A couple of weeks ago he had a mini stroke and has been signed off looking for work until early Jan. I can't work, I'm agoraphobic. Finances are very tight-£1000 in the overdraft.

As soon as we can, we'll be arranging things.

[EstoyAqui]

DH and I both have 2 separate policies. One through his work provided free along with free critical illness cover. Another that we organised when I found out I was pregnant with DD.

The work one pays out £100k as a death in service payment then an ongoing pension to the survivor. I think if DH dies I would also get £125k as a tax free lump sum on top of the death in service payment.

The independently organised ones are £250k if I die or £150k if DH dies. DH has high blood pressure and is on medication daily for that so to get higher cover for him is ridiculously expensive. I figure we will be able to pay off the mortgage if either of us dies with enough for the other to not work for 3 years at the level we currently do. We will still receive a pension so I'm comfortable with that.

When we move home I will re-evaluate our level of cover and increase as necessary. We are lucky that our mortgage is quite low at the moment but that is my biggest concern long term.

These plans are not our only savings vehicle and I feel comfortable that we have adequate cover. I'd like to hear what is recommended though.

[HairyMaclary]

We have one to cover the mortgage and one to pay out a lump sum in the instance of the first death, of either of us. It's not a big lump sum but it's enough to cover 2 or 3 years. DH also has critical illness cover we pay for and very basic DiS benefits from work, I don't have either as I'm mostly a SAHM.

We got this very soon after DS1 was born as he is disabled and we felt that we would really need the best financial cushion we could afford in the event of the death of a parent. It does stretch us a bit though and we have discussed dropping one of the policies. I am reluctant to though!

[Meglet]

Yes, I have life insurance and income protection. I'm a LP so I've had to do as much as I can to protect the DC's.

I'm never quite sure how easy it would be to claim, or what loopholes the insurance company might use to wriggle out of it. I've been meaning to go back over it and check the fine print again.

[DeathByLaundry]

We took out life insurance with our mortgage. I've recently changed it to fixed term so there would be a little bit leftover after the mortgage is paid off. We also have a joint critical illness policy. DH has good work related benefits (death in service, pension etc) and I have an income protection policy to make up for the lack of work related benefits!

Our monthly outlay on insurance is huge but I wouldn't be without any of it. I'd hate to think I'd leave a mess if I was hit by a bus. I'm fairly financially savvy but DH isn't, and his earning power is less, so I need to be sure they'd have a house to live in.

[ShatnersBassoon]

DH is sorted through work, but I have nothing in place. It's something I think about from time to time, but it never seems pressing or important enough to sort out.

[MakeTeaNotWar]

I have death in service through my employer, DH does not plus we both have life assurance, critical illness policies plus we have made our wills. Tedious and confusing stuff to do bit v glad it's been taken care of just on case

[AndHarry]

I'm covered three times. My company runs a death-in-service payment scheme, which would give a lump sum to my named beneficiaries if I die while I'm employed here. DH and I both have life insurance as a condition of our mortgage so it would be paid off in full if one or both of us died or suffered a critical injury or illness. Last week I also set up additional life cover of £100k lump payment if I die in the next 20 years. Let's hope DH doesn't get any ideas :o

[AndHarry]

Questions:

• Is there any way to make sure that if I died and DH remarried and then died before his new spouse, our children would receive some of my payout? I wouldn't want to leave it in trust to them as I can imagine a lot would be needed to pay for childcare and other expenses but I wouldn't want them left unprovided for either.

• The thing that puts me off getting additional critical illness/injury cover is that it seems that insurance companies try very hard to not pay out. Can you talk a bit about that please?

[asuwere]

We have it, it's a fixed lump sum payout which at the time we took it out was worth our mortgage plus 18months salary so obviously as the mortgage goes down, the lump sum will be worth more. It's a joint policy so if either of us dies, the other will have the mortgage paid off, enough to cover funeral costs plus being able to take at least a couple of years off work if necessary.

[hunhun007]

I don't have a life insurance. OH got it but only because his work provided it.
It was on my "to do list" years back but I never really knew how much money beneficiary will really get in case something will happen and despite doing some research this question was always unanswered ... so here I am still without it

[jennifercrafting]

I have applied for life insurance in the past but it was way too expensive for us and so I didn't take out the policy. It would be great if I didn't have too cover myself for a large amount and then the payments might be more affordable.

[Tigerbomb]

DH has 2 x salary through work and I have 7 x mine - I am able to pay a smal amount to have it increased each year. He will be considerably better off if I died before him then I will if the reverse happens

He has life insurance but I can't get it due to a long term health condition that only appeared 5 years ago - I wish I had arranged it before then

We both have wills though

[mamof3boys]

We haven't got life insurance, although I know that we should. We did try to apply for it a few years ago but I'm not sure what happened to the application. My husband had cancer around 15 years ago so I'm not sure if that affected it?

It really is something that I need to look into as we have 3 children, but to be honest, I'm not really sure where to start. There just seems to be so many different options and it confuses me.

[DoctorGilbertson]

I have life insurance. Got it at the same time as the mortgage.

[DinoSnores]

When I was working, I had a Death in Service benefit but nothing now. One of the things we keep talking about (but not doing anything about) is how even though I don't earn money, it would be very expensive to replace me with a nanny/childcare/cleaner etc if something bad happened. While I like to think they would all miss me as well, I'd hate for life to be practically more difficult in addition.

[MollyBerry]

I don't have any life insurance but also don't have any dependents so don't feel it's currently worth it.

[Tortoise]

I have life insurance but I think it's only until youngest child is 20 but I'm not 100% sure. I should check really.

[ouryve]

DH and I both have life insurance. With two boys with SN, either of us could end up in a very difficult situation, financially, if anything happened to the other.