Which Insurance Is best For Protecting Your Family?
Summary
It is always advisable to identify precisely what you require in the way of cover as only you understand your personal circumstances. We clarify what you need to understand and how to maintain it after you have it.
Sean Masters, head of investments at Cambridge based financial adviser AGT Independent Financial Services Ltd, warns that it is very irresponsible of people not to have Life Assurance and/or Critical Illness Insurance as he insists that life has 2 potential risks – either living too long and dying too early. “Its very important to have some cover in place – especially if you have got young children,” he states. “In these unsettled times you need to asemble your own little welfare state because no one else is going to do it for you.”
Greg Suttcliffe at LifeSearch says now is the best time to purchase such plans as there are some very competitive premiums about owing to the fierce competition for business within the market. “The cost of life cover has fallen – gone down by about 42 per cent in 5 years. It has never been cheaper,” he states. “The critical illness market paid out on eighty two per cent of claims in 2005 – rising from eighty one per cent the during the last year.”
Be aware of what insurances you have before you take out more. Do you have any investment policies or does your works pension fund give you any cover?
The easiest way to calculate how much insurance you require is to add up how much you would need to maintain the same level of living over a year and then multiply it by 26 years. The minimum amount required should pay off any outstanding debt and provide a lump sum for all your dependants.
Obtaining the best deal
When making a decision on your insurance cover it is very necessary to read the manual that most a lot of insurance companies have of the conditions and illnesses that they deal with. It will record everything and should be clear-cut and simple to understand. You will also want to look at the documentation of the main points of the insurance which will contain all benefits and exclusions.
When people take on the responsibility of a home loan they are usually counselled to take out critical illness insurance but should look around and not just take the first insurance policy offered.
If you commence paying these premiums when you are younger they are a great deal cheaper, distinctly different to leaving it until you are older, when the policy goes up quite apppreciably.
Life insurance quotes can also be lowered by giving up smoking. Rebecca Sharp, head of protection insurance at Tesco Insurance states ” as well as giving a longer and healthier quality of life, giving up smoking can save people a vast amount of money.”
If you quit smoking you can knock as much as a 1 3rd off life, critical illness cover and income protection insurance premiums because the facts that we now have proves that smoking can bring about critical illness and aggravates any other existing medical conditions. You may have to change your policy if your circumstances alter.
Never believe that once you have purchased your policy that you can just carry on with your life and forget about it. Always be very aware of the cover you have and be sure that, should your situation change, or, are going to alter your policy must have capacity for these ajustments. Clear examples are changing your job, or or maybe you would like to have more children; often think about anything that may increase your costs to live and would need to be covered if you are taken ill and cannot work. So get online quotes for life insurance today.