Summary
A extensive and succinct initial introduction to life insurance cover. the article explains all the important technical terms and what type of cover different policies provide.
Life insurance quotes help your dependants to be financially secure in the event of your death.
When you purchase set the cash value you want the insurance company to pay out when you die – this money is called the sum insured”. The monthly payment is based on this sum insured, and on your age and whether you are female or male.
Our premiums will also be based on the type of insurance policy you need. There are two fundamental types of life insurance: level term assurance and decreasing term insurance plus many variations within these categories.
Term assurance is often aquired at the same time as a mortgage and should cover the same period of time as the mortage. If you haven’t died at the end of the insured period, you will not get any money back. It is a basic insurance with no element of investment. It can protect your family by paying out a cash sum should you die within a specific time period.
There are two basic types of term insurance. Level term gives a constanly maintained level of payout during the entire life of the cover which means that you beneficiaries would receive the same amount whether you died on day one of the policy or whether you died right at the end of the term. It is usually sold with an interest-only mortgage, where the fullamount borrowedhas to be paid off on the final day of the mortgage’s term.
Decreasing term insurance is where the cash paid out reduces by a fixed amount each year, finishing at just one penny at the end of the term. Since the level of insurance cover reduces during the term, premiums on this kind of insurance are cheaper than on levelplans. This cover is usually only taken out with repayment mortgages, where the value of the outstanding mortgage reduces during the term of the mortage.
There is also a type known as increasing term insurance. It is also known as index linked insurance. This means that the payout sum increases by a small amount each year in line with inflation. Index linked insurance is a good way of protecting the buying power of the sum you have insured for.
With convertible term assurance, the policyholder has the option of moving to another type of life insurance – for instance a “whole of life”. If a person does take up this their convertable option, they do not have to have any more medical investigations.
If you chose a type of insurance called family income benefit your family would receive a tax free monthly income if you were to die and this income would continue until the policy reached its termination date. This gives your dependents regular payments from the date the policyholder died to the end of the policy’s term.
Critical Illness Insurance can be aquired on-line or from the high street through insurance companies, brokers or from some friendly societies. Many sell directly to the public. Other outlets selling insurance include websites and mortgage brokers.
Factors affecting monthly premiums include the sum assured, sex, age and whether or not you are a smoker. Some insurers insist on a medical before offering cover, but this is not so common as in the past.
Life insurance prices can alter over time and if you already have a plan it might be worth shopping around to find out if you can get a cheaper deal. You can always stop your existing insurance policy without penalty – but always make sureyou have another one in place before you cancel your existing cover.
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