10 reasons to buy life insurance
What are the 10 reasons to buy life insurance? Find out in…
6 min
The main benefit of life insurance is that it provides a financial safety net for your loved ones if you were to pass away.
Losing a loved one is not only an extremely overwhelming time but it can also bring about added financial stress without the right protection in place.
But how will your loved ones benefit from a pay out and what aspects of your life should you cover?
At Reassured our award-winning team can take you through the whole process of securing life insurance and provide quotes for you to compare to get a great deal.
Keep reading to find out the benefits of life insurance…
Life insurance is extremely beneficial for securing the financial future of your loved ones.
Here’s a quick overview of the main benefits of having a life insurance policy:
9 key benefits of life insurance
The main benefit is that a life insurance pay out can ensure that your loved ones have the funds to help continue living their current lifestyle, without worrying financially, after your passing.
Amongst other things, a pay out can help your loved ones to pay off the remaining mortgage balance - allowing them to remain in the family home.
Upon your passing, any outstanding debts will fall to your estate. A life insurance pay out can help to ensure there’s enough money to settle these debts, as well as provide for your loved ones.
You’ll also benefit from additional layers of cover, such as terminal illness cover. Which will allow you to make an early claim on your policy if you’re diagnosed with a life-threatening illness and predicted to pass away within 12 months.
Overall, it helps to give you peace of mind that your loved ones will be taken care of financially when you’re no longer around.
There are different types of life insurance, each type is well suited to protecting different aspects of your life.
Each type of life insurance policy will also have its own set of benefits.
Continue reading to find out the benefits of each life insurance policy…
Term life insurance
With term life insurance you’ll be covered for a specified period of time (the term).
If you pass away during this time, your loved ones will receive a pay out from your policy.
If you don’t pass away during the term of your policy, your cover will simply expire.
You’ll pay a monthly premium and the price you pay will be calculated using the following information:
Typically you’ll be offered term life insurance with either level or decreasing terms.
Level term life insurance
Level term life insurance provides a fixed pay out amount (sum assured), meaning your loved ones will always receive the same amount no matter when you pass away during the term of your policy.
Due to this, this form of cover can help to protect an interest-only mortgage or other large debts, as well as being left as an inheritance.
Decreasing term life insurance
With decreasing term life insurance, your pay out amount will reduce over time.
This makes it an ideal option for helping to protect a repayment mortgage as you can have your sum assured reduce in line with your remaining mortgage balance.
Whole of life insurance
A whole of life insurance policy will provide you with lifetime cover, therefore it’s a form of life assurance.
You’ll need to provide information such as your age, health and wellbeing and smoking status at the point of application in order for your premium to be calculated.
Premiums will need to be paid for the rest of your life in order to keep your cover in place.
For this reason, whole of life cover can become a costly option if you take a policy out at a young age.
This makes it a great option for those who’re later on in life but still in good health as you can secure a greater sum assured than with an over 50s plan.
A pay out from a whole of life policy can be used to cover any large expenses or can be left as an inheritance for your loved ones to enjoy.
Over 50s plan
With an over 50s plan, there’s no need to provide medical information, any UK resident aged 50 - 85 is guaranteed acceptance.
This makes it ideal for those in this age bracket who have struggled to secure life cover due to less than favourable health.
It’s likely your sum assured will be capped (often at £20,000).
This makes a pay out from an over 50s plan ideal for helping to cover funeral costs.
Insurers will also often add a ‘waiting period’ to your policy. This refers to the first 12 - 24 months of your policy where if you pass away due to natural causes, a pay out won’t be made.
However, any premiums paid into the policy will be refunded.
At Reassured we can compare all of the above policy types from some of the UK's leading providers.
The main benefit of whole of life cover is that your loved ones are guaranteed a pay out when you pass away (not if you pass away).
Whereas the main benefit of term life insurance is its affordability.
Which one is best for you will depend on your needs and budget.
If you’re looking to help protect large debts, such as a mortgage, you may choose term life insurance.
If you want to guarantee your loved ones an inheritance, you may choose whole of life insurance.
Talking to a life insurance broker, such as Reassured, will allow you to gather all the information you need about both options so you can make an informed decision.
We can also compare policies on your behalf to ensure you’re getting the best price we can offer on a policy that meets all of your needs.
Securing more than one policy
Depending on your budget it’s completely possible to take out more than one life insurance policy.
For example, you may choose to take out a decreasing term life insurance policy to help protect a repayment mortgage.
You may also decide that you want to take out whole of life insurance to guarantee your loved ones an inheritance.
It’s up to you and what you think would best meet the needs of your loved ones.
Many young people may overlook taking out life insurance, as it often associated with those later on in life.
This is because at a younger age you may not have started a family, bought a house or be considering arrangements for what will happen when you’re no longer around.
However, the benefit of taking out life insurance at a young age is that you can lock in super-low premiums.
The younger you are, the better your health and the less risk you’ll pose to the insurer.
Taking out life insurance at a young age will allow you to secure low-cost cover which can accommodate your changing needs.
At Reassured, our life insurance for young adults starts at just 20p-a-day.
Group life insurance is often provided to employees by their employer and is more commonly known as death in service benefit.
If you pass away while in service with your employer, they’ll pay a lump sum to your loved ones.
This pay out will typically be a multiple of your salary.
This can be an extremely beneficial work perk as it can provide a level of financial protection to your loved ones if the worst were to happen.
However, not all employers will offer this benefit and even if they do, it can't be taken with you if you decide to leave your job.
It’s also likely that the amount paid out will not be enough to help cover all the financial obligations that will be left to your loved ones (such as paying off a mortgage and paying for your funeral).
This highlights the importance of having your own personal life insurance in place.
Please note, at the time of writing this article Reassured do not sell group life insurance policies.
There aren’t many disadvantages to life insurance and at Reassured we believe that most people would benefit from having some form of cover in place.
However, there may be certain factors you may want to consider when taking out life insurance.
With term life insurance your loved ones will only receive a pay out if you pass away during the term of your policy.
If you don’t pass away during the term and outlive your policy, your cover will simply expire and you’ll need to secure new cover.
With whole of life insurance you’ll be required to pay premiums for the rest of your life to keep your cover in place.
If you take out a whole of life policy, this can lead to you paying more into the policy than it’ll pay out.
If one policy type doesn’t fit your needs, it’s likely there’s an option out there that will.
Our team here at Reassured will be able to take you through all of your options until you’ve found one that meets all of your needs.
Critical illness can be added to a term life insurance policy for an additional cost.
If you’re diagnosed with a life-changing illness (listed within your policy) you’ll be able to make an early claim on your life insurance policy.
This can be extremely beneficial if you’re left unable to work as the pay out you receive can help to replace any lost income.
You’ll pay extra in your monthly premium to benefit from this additional benefit.
Terminal illness cover comes as standard with all term life insurance policies taken out through Reassured.
The benefit of terminal illness cover is that if you’re diagnosed with a terminal illness, and are predicted to pass away within 12 months, you’ll be able to make an early claim on your policy.
This helps to add an additional safety net to your policy.
You can use this pay out to help fund any private medical treatment you may need to undergo or you can use the money to enjoy with your family.
Whether you need life insurance will be a personal decision, depending on your needs and circumstances.
If you’ve got dependants, it’s often a good idea to take out some form of cover to help ensure they can:
If you were to pass away a life insurance pay out could help to take care of all of the above and relieve your loved ones of any financial stress at an already stressful time.
Working out how much life insurance you need may seem like an intimidating task, but it doesn’t have to be.
You can ask yourself some simple questions to work out how much cover you’ll likely need. These can include:
Alternatively, you can use the calculator below:
Everyone will have different needs, talking to a life insurance expert can also help you to understand the level of cover you’ll require.
We hope this article has shed some light on the benefits of life insurance.
If you’re looking to secure life cover, we recommend comparing quotes from multiple providers.
At Reassured, we work with a panel of insurers - meaning we can compare quotes from some of the UK's best life insurance providers.
Our free quote service will allow you to secure the best price we can offer on a policy that meets all of your needs.
The best part is our cover starts at just 20p-a-day.