TV, takeaways and, erm, life insurance – I know which I’d rather commit to tonight when I get home. Admittedly, insurance isn’t exactly the sexiest of weeknight propositions, so it’s hardly any wonder so many of us choose to bury our heads in the proverbial sand when it comes to facing it. But before you fall into a slumber deeper than Snow White on a hangover, let me tell you why it might be worth giving it five minutes of your time (it won’t take any longer than that, promise).
You see, life insurance is one of those things that makes perfect sense on paper - the kind of task you wonder why you didn’t get round to sorting once you realise what it actually involves (before swiftly ignoring it again for another six months, if you’re anything like me). I mean, think about it, how many important things have you taken the time to insure in your lifetime? I can name several - a car, the odd holiday, my home and a smartphone (or six). So why is it we’re neglecting to insure the most important thing of all?
A quick straw poll of my friends reveals the many reasons we don’t. Some figure that not having children, a partner, or owning a home, means they don’t need it – they reason there’s no point spending money on something they don’t actually need yet. But if either of those things could plausibly happen in the near future, it might be worth planning ahead (after all, you’ll have more pressing things to worry about once any #wedmin kicks in, and doing it sooner likely means lower monthly payments, too). It’s also worth asking whether any dependants or loved ones would be financially stable without you, since life insurance could take care of that (something not many of us like to think about, granted).
Life insurance could also be very useful for anybody jointly responsible for mortgage payments. What happens if one person dies before the mortgage is paid (nope, not a fun discussion but an important one)? Experts flag that we shouldn’t assume death-in-service cover or life insurance via your employer means we don’t need to worry about life insurance, either, unfortunately. While useful, workplace cover tends to pay out benefits as a multiple of salary (eg four-years’ salary) to ensure your family has cash available to make up for the loss of your salary to maintain their lifestyle; it may not cover any large financial commitments, such as a mortgage.
What are the available options? Well, Aviva offers two types of life insurance: cover and premiums that increase over time; and cover that decreases.
For the latter, the value of the cover goes down each month, but your regular payments stay the same. People usually use this product to cover a repayment mortgage, which also decreases.
If you’re looking to help cover your salary and maintain loved ones’ living standards or to settle your mortgage and provide reassurance – then you may want to go for the former. Still with me? Good.
The best part is there’s minimal legwork – most customers could get a quote and decision in just over five minutes (reading this is probably the most arduous part, sorry) and it might be cheaper than you think, with policies starting at around £5 a month. So we could all start protecting our loved ones immediately.
Pretty awesome, right? And probably much smarter than putting it off until your next birthday, and spending more when we do bite the bullet (since policies tend to get more expensive the older you are). Making that decision suddenly feels like a no-brainer to me – what about you? Then we can all get back to that boxset and tikka masala …
For more information, visit aviva.co.uk/life
