Life insurance

You may wish to consider life insurance if you have family or dependents whose lifestyle depends on your income. Life insurance could pay out a cash sum if you die during the length of the policy. Depending on your individual circumstances and the policy chosen, the money could be used to towards outstanding bills, debts and living costs or to cover a mortgage - helping your loved ones to remain in the family home.

Life insurance is designed to protect your family’s lifestyle, the amount of cover remains the same for the whole time you have the policy. Decreasing life insurance is designed to protect a repayment mortgage, and the amount of cover reduces roughly in line with the way a repayment mortgage decreases. With either product, your monthly premiums remain fixed for the duration of your policy, unless you make any changes to your policy.

How much life insurance you need will depend on your individual circumstances. You may want to think about leaving a lump sum to your dependants or helping to clear an outstanding mortgage on your death. If you'd like more help, our life cover calculator (found on the first page of the quote journey) may be useful. Alternatively, speak to an independent financial adviser.

The cost will depend on your individual circumstances. Premiums start from £6 per month. To get a more accurate idea of the cost, you can get a quote based on your age, how much cover you need, how long you need it to last and whether you smoke. You can choose to add critical illness cover to your life insurance policy for an additional cost. If you decide to apply, you will asked some additional questions to assess whether you can be offered a policy and on what terms. Once your policy application has been accepted and cover is in place, your premiums are guaranteed not to change unless you make any changes to your policy.

You should think carefully about how long you need cover for. Some people decide to get life insurance to cover the length of a mortgage term; say, 25 years, while others think about how long their children will be financially dependent on them. Ultimately, it’s a personal decision and you should factor in your family’s unique circumstances.

Critical illness cover is an option that can be added for an extra cost when you take out life insurance or decreasing life insurance. It’s designed to help minimise the financial impact on you and your family if you become critically ill with one of the specified conditions, and can act as a back-up plan to alleviate some of the financial stress of the situation. Some people may use their savings to supplement their loss of income, others may rely on an employment benefit package, while others may find that critical illness cover is their best option.

To help you decide how much critical illness cover you might need, consider your existing financial obligations: everyday living costs, bills, childcare costs etc. You may wish to consider this with the amount of time a critical illness could put you out of work. You might also wish to consider the cost of potential lifestyle changes, such as making modifications to your home.

No. If a valid claim is made a joint policy would pay out once and then end.

Premiums would no longer be collected, and your cover would end. At this point, you may wish to consider taking out a new policy depending on your needs and circumstances.

You have the flexibility to cancel your policy at any time with no penalty. When you take out your policy, you'll have the opportunity to cancel. If you cancel within 30 days, you will receive a return of any premiums paid. However, if you cancel after this period you won't get anything back.