Top Life Insurance Tips

Life insurance can feel like a complex beast to navigate. But fear not – we’re divulging our top life insurance tips to help you get the cover you need for the best price.

In This Guide:

• Buy When You’re Young
• Calculate Your Cover
• Avoid Policies Offered by Mortgage Lenders
• Frequently Review Your Policy
• Life Insurance Tips to Get Cheaper Premiums
• Life Insurance Advice 101: Compare Deals for the Best Price

Choosing the right type of policy in the first instance is our top life insurance tip.

It’s important to remember that, just like any other type of insurance, policies will have a term. That means you won’t be eligible to claim after the term ends, regardless of how long you’ve been paying into it. The exception to this is whole of life insurance, for which there is no policy term and you’ll receive a pay-out whenever you die, be that in five years of fifty. Other policy types are:

• Level term – where the pay-out will always be the same, irrespective of when it’s claimed within a set a policy term.
• Decreasing term – conversely, a policy in which the pay-out gradually decreases over the policy term.
• Family income benefit – a policy in which monthly payments – rather than a lump sum – are made to beneficiaries. These are paid from when the claim is made until the end of the policy term and as such are cheaper.
• Joint life insurance – policies for couples. They tend to be cheaper, but they only pay out once, which is after the first death. After that, there is no cover for the surviving person.

Buy When You’re Young

When it comes to life insurance policies, time isn’t your friend. The younger you are, the more likely it is that you’ll get a cheap life insurance deal that, importantly, still offers the level and standard of cover you need. As you get older, there is an increased risk of health problems and less time you’ll pay in for on the whole, meaning premiums are much more expensive.

Calculate Your Cover

Don’t over-insure yourself unnecessarily – work out exactly how much your family or beneficiaries would need to be comfortable should the worst happen. There are many life insurance calculators available online for this reason that can help you avoid paying more than you need to.

But similarly, don’t under-insure yourself either. Otherwise, you risk leaving your family with less cover than they need to get by – so think about future costs like university fees for children.

Plus, while we all want to get the best life insurance deal going, don’t ever downplay your health or circumstances. If you don’t honestly disclose your situation, you risk invalidating your policy altogether.

Avoid Policies Offered by Mortgage Lenders

When you take out a mortgage, you could find that many lenders won’t loan to you unless you have a life insurance policy. It’s likely they’ll offer you one themselves, but don’t accept it and instead use our search function to run a life insurance comparison. This is because mortgage lenders tend to offer policies at inflated policies, so you’ll get a much better life insurance deal elsewhere.

While having life insurance isn’t a legal requirement, it should be strongly considered; if your family can’t keep up with mortgage payments in the event of your death, their home could be repossessed.

Frequently Review Your Policy

Circumstances change over time. You might take out a life insurance policy when you have a large mortgage to pay off, are at the beginning of your career or have a young family to support. This is when money is tightest. But over time, what you’re left to owe on your house is reduced, your children grow up and become independent and you may be at the top of your career, meaning your savings have increased.

As such, you could afford to reduce your policy – if so, consider a decreasing term insurance plan.

Life Insurance Tips to Get Cheaper Premiums

What life insurance deal you can get is affected by several factors such as: your health, your age, where you live, whether you smoke, the amount of coverage you want and the policy term.  

While your age and certain aspects of health, such as pre-existing medical conditions, can’t be changed, it’s possible to make other adjustments to get a better life insurance premium.

Stopping smoking, cutting back on the drink and improving your health and fitness will considerably reduce your quote. You’ll often have to prove to your insurer that you’ve made these adjustments for at least a year.

How much you want to insure your life for will, of course, also have a significant impact on the price you pay, alongside the policy type.

Life Insurance Advice 101: Compare Deals for the Best Price

You should always compare life insurance deals when you initially want to take out a policy – this’ll ensure you get the best premium. But what if you want to switch from an existing deal say, for example, if there’s been a change in your circumstance or you need a different type of policy?

In this case, you can change policies. However, should you choose to do so, be aware your options will decrease over time. On the whole, you’ll see premiums rise and competitive deals be more limited, which is why we recommend running a life insurance comparison to scope out what’s on offer. On the other hand, if your circumstances have changed in a positive way, you could find you can tap into much better life insurance deals than you previously could.