Life Insurance

Life insurance (also known as life assurance or life cover) helps to ensure your dependents are financially protected with a lump sum being paid out on your death.

This lump sum can be used to repay outstanding debts, such as your mortgage, or to help replace your income in the event of your death. Before you obtain a life insurance quote, you need to decide on the type of cover you need, how long you want your life cover to last and how much you'd like to be paid out upon a claim (the sum assured).

There are different reasons for needing life cover which will determine the type of life insurance policy you select:

Mortgage Life Insurance

If you have a repayment mortgage you can arrange a mortgage life insurance policy. This keeps the costs as low as possible because the sum assured automatically reduces as you repay your mortgage. If you have an interest only mortgage you can purchase a level term assurance policy. With this form of life cover, the sum assured remains the same throughout the term of the life insurance policy.

Family Life Cover

You can arrange a level term assurance policy to pay a fixed amount to your dependents in addition to your mortgage amount. This could be used to repay other debts or to provide an income for your family to live off.You may prefer the sum assured to be paid as a regular income by the life insurance company rather than a lump sum. This is known as Family Income Benefit and is one of the lowest cost forms of life insurance. With this type of life cover, the income is paid from the time of claim until the date the life insurance policy was due to end.

Obtaining an Online Life Insurance Quotation

Our life insurance quotation software offers a comparison of premiums from the leading providers including Legal & General, Norwich Union and Scottish Widows.

It will only take you around a minute to input the information needed, which includes your date of birth, whether you smoke, the type of life cover you want, the benefit amount and the term of the life insurance policy.

To obtain an Instant Online Life Insurance Quotation, please click here

The results will appear in a table format, with the lowest charging contract appearing at the top. Some of the contracts will have reviewable premiums, which means the premium may change during the term of the life insurance policy. Other contracts will have guaranteed premiums, which will not change during the period of the cover.

You can obtain more information about each life insurance policy by downloading the insurance company’s written quotation and Key Features brochure.Once you have decided which company and contract you would like, you can print or request a copy of the application form.

Once you’ve completed the application form, you can send it to us using our freepost address and we will submit it to the life insurance company on your behalf.

Please note that the premiums provided by each of the life insurance companies are subject to you being in good health for your age. The application form will include questions about your medical history and the terms offered may change after underwriting.

If you are replacing an existing life insurance policy, it is important that you do not cancel the life cover until the new policy is in force.

It is worth considering that any proceeds from a life insurance policy will be added to the deceased’s estate. If this takes the overall estate above the nil band threshold for inheritance tax, this tax would be payable for any amounts in excess of the threshold. This can be avoided by placing the Life Assurance in Trust and therefore separating out these proceeds from the ‘estate’ and keeping them tax free.

If you would like to know more about life insurance and related issues, you can click on our Online Guide section. If you would like advice on selecting and arranging your life insurance policy, you can contact one of our independent financial advisers by phone or e-mail.