Life policies are designed to give you peace of mind through knowing that your family and loved ones will receive a lump sum of money in the event that you pass away during the term of the policy.

The amount that the policy pays out is set on the day the policy starts. Depending on the type of policy you require, the policy will either run for a specific period of time or run for the rest of your life.

Why should you consider having life cover in place? Most people don’t want to think about the worst happening to them; however, if you have children or family who depend on you financially, having life cover in place can help reduce the financial strain they may become subject to if you were no longer there to provide for them.

Life cover typically does exactly what it says. It covers the policyholder for a set period of time and for a set amount of money. If the policyholder passes away during that time, then the insurance company pays out a tax-free lump sum to the policyholder’s estate. Some providers will also pay out if you are diagnosed with a terminal illness. This isn’t automatically granted with all providers, but for those companies that do offer it, the policy pays out in the same way for a specified terminal illness as it would should you pass away during the term.

Life policies do have some exclusions. If you were to pass away due to drug or alcohol abuse, then this would not be covered by your policy. If you take part in high-risk sports, then the provider may either increase the cost of the policy or exclude these reasons from your policy and subsequently not cover you for them. If you have underlying health issues, a similar approach is taken by most insurers.

What are the types of life cover?

Term assurance vs whole of life

Term assurance is designed to run for a set period of time. Typically, you’d have this in line with the duration of your mortgage or until you reach retirement age.

If you’re looking to arrange a policy that’s designed to run along side your mortgage, you can opt for decreasing term assurance. This means that, as your mortgage balance reduces over time, so does the level of cover. The policy is designed to pay out a lump sum that will enables your mortgage to be repaid in full. As the level of cover is decreasing over time, the monthly payments for the insurance policy are guaranteed not to change. As a result, you pay a fixed monthly premium from the day your mortgage starts until the day it ends. If you pass away during the term, the policy would pay out enough money to cover the outstanding balance at the time. If you survive the term of the policy, no money is payable by the insurance company and the policy expires.

A whole-of-life policy is designed to run until you pass away. This means that, unlike with the term assurance products, this policy will pay out a lump sum at some point in the future. The lump sum payable is a fixed amount that’s set on the day your policy starts. The monthly payments are fixed and remain the same each month throughout the term of the policy. As long as you maintain the monthly payments, the policy will pay out a tax-free lump sum once you pass away. As these policies have a definite outcome, they tend to be more expensive. The insurance company knows that, with a whole-of-life policy, they’ll have to pay out a lump sum at some point in the future. In comparison, the term assurance polices would only have to pay out a lump sum if you were to pass away during a specific period of time.

Critical illness cover is a policy that’s designed to pay out a lump sum should you be diagnosed with a qualifying illness covered by the insurer.

These policies share many similarities with life cover policies; however, rather than paying out on death, they’re designed to pay out on you being diagnosed with one of a list of specific illnesses. Why’s this important?

We all know that there are two things guaranteed in life: paying tax and passing away. However, over the years, there has been an increase in critical illness diagnoses. Heart attacks, strokes, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease are unfortunately much more common than they were previously. If you were to be diagnosed with a critical illness, you may or may not be able to return to some form of work. If you’re unable to work, but you still have regular outgoings that need to be paid, or if you have family or relatives who are financially dependent on you, then a critical illness policy could help to ease the financial stress and pressure that they could be under during what’s already a difficult time for you.

Not all insurers cover each critical illness, so if there’s a family history of certain illnesses, then it’s important to make sure your provider covers you for that specific illness. It’s also important to note that if you have any pre-existing medical conditions, these must be disclosed to the insurer. Some of them won’t cover you for this illness in the future. Others will; however, they’ll more than likely charge you a higher premium for this cover.

As a mortgage is most likely to be the biggest debt that you’ll sign up for during your life, it makes sense to insure the property just in case something happens to it.

Buildings insurance is a condition of all mortgages. You must have the building insured throughout the duration of the mortgage. The reason for this is fairly simple: until you’ve made the final mortgage payment and the property belongs entirely to you, the bank will want you to insure the property in case of a fire, a flood, an explosion, an earthquake, theft or vandalism.

Once the mortgage has been repaid in full, there’s no longer a mandatory requirement for you to have buildings insurance. Arguably, though, why wouldn’t you? The property now belongs to you as an asset, so you’d surely want to insure it in case the worst happened?

Whilst mortgage lenders will make it a condition that you have buildings insurance in place, contents insurance isn’t mandatory. Again, though, if you’re going to insure the building, it would make sense to insure your possessions inside the property too.

Contents cover is designed to insure your household goods and personal belongings. Each provider will charge different monthly premiums depending on the level of cover you require and whether or not you have high-value items that you’d like to insure. For example, if you own expensive jewellery, the latest smart phone or special pieces of art, the insurance company will add these to your policy so that if they’re damaged as a result of a fire or flood, or if they are stolen, the policy will pay out a lump sum in order for them to be replaced.

When arranging buildings and contents insurance, all insurers will agree an excess with you. This is the amount of money that you agree to pay towards the claim. Typically, the lower the excess you set, the higher the monthly cost for the cover. Most insurers have a minimum excess of at least £50. The higher you set the excess, the more you’re willing to contribute towards the claim, and so the cheaper the monthly payments tend to be.