please help me sort out my life cover

missindecisive

hi all, hope someone out there can give me a bit of friendly advice:j

I am 39 yrs old and dh is 42. we have a family with 4 children, the youngest is 3yrs and the oldest is 12 yrs. Dh works and I stay at home with the monkeys...;)

we have a mortgage of approx £77k and a decreasing life insurance policy with norwich union, which includes a critical illness benefit,for the first £60k-we have topped up our cover when we increased our mortgage recently. we pay £24 per month for this cover. Ive been reading our documents lately, it shows a table with dates on how much the policy decreases over the years and how much it would pay out in certain years-we are roughly on track.

ive read on this site that generally,critical illness cover is not worth it;do you think I should cancel this part of the policy? I do have kidney disease, although at present no symptoms this could change and I might eventually need dialysis. I checked what the policy said about this and it will only pay out if BOTH kidneys fail...not sure exactly how likely this is to happen:cool: My next question is, well im pretty sure we hav'nt got enough cover and we need a level term policy..but don't know how much cover I would need. If anything happened to either of us Im sure that the other one would'nt be able to work much whilst our children are so young. sorry if this all sounds a bit rambley,,,im trying to get our finances in order this year. Ive managed to sort out our wills and i think once ive sorted this I can just relax a bit. we have suffered the death of a very good friend last year and it's really brought home to me that just, well, anything could happen.

dunstonh

ive read on this site that generally,critical illness cover is not worth it

I doubt you have read it from anyone that knows what they are talking about. It has a likely claims ratio of only a little worse than life assurance. You are more likely to claim on a CI plan before retirement than an MPPI/PPI yet you see those recommended.

do you think I should cancel this part of the policy?

Its not for anyone else to decide. How would anyone telling you to cancel it feel if two weeks later you suffered a claimable event?

My next question is, well im pretty sure we hav'nt got enough cover and we need a level term policy

Or a family income benefit depending on your needs and/or budget.

but don't know how much cover I would need.

You need to calculate the how the loss of income and/or replacement childcost will be, take into account debts and other liabilities and savings/investments/pensions and work benefits and then see how an FIB/LTA fits with that. Its a just collections of calculations you need to do.

Willman_2

A conversation with an IFA would seem to be the best option. It will often cost you nothing.