Help on choosing Life Insurance

Neilfuture

Hi I've been looking at getting life insurance lately.

I've mainly been looking at some of the high street brands who are out there and was wondering whether anyone had any opinions or experience with the Post Office, Tesco, ASDA, Sainsbury's and M&S.

I'm finding it difficult to understand which ones are best value.

Thanks

dunstonh

I'm finding it difficult to understand which ones are best value.

Life assurance isnt that difficult to understand in that it will pay out on one specific thing. Death.

However, it starts getting more complicated when you look at addons and features. Is there guaranteed insurability options? Guaranteed or reviewable premiums, family benefits (pay out on death of a child for example) etc. Then you have the type of policy. Whilst there are around 15 different types of policy, only 5 are really in the mainstream nowadays. Level term assurance, Decreasing term assurance, whole of life assurance, family income benefit and yearly renewable term assurance.

You are currently looking at the basic end of the market with the supermarkets. They wont be the cheapest, they wont be the best in features and they are mostly white labled versions of an insurance company product. Most supermarket retailed financial service products are cut down versions of the main insurance company product.

I think by limiting yourself to supermarket versions, you are not doing yourself any favours in quality or price.

hedion

I have my life insurance with HSBC. fair premium and they have a good payout percentage. as for the others I would say they are as good as one another. the only thing to check for is the criteria for not paying out nd see if it include critical illness

dunstonh

I have my life insurance with HSBC. fair premium and they have a good payout percentage.

easily beaten on price though even on full commission basis, let alone DIY basis.

Last time I looked, HSBC premiums were reviewable and not guaranteed and HSBC are one of the few companies that have increased premiums at a review point (on non investment linked plans).

as for the others I would say they are as good as one another

They are not. Whilst the primary requirement is the same. The addons or things they will also cover vary. Those addons or extras may not be important to you but they may be. Guaranteed insurability increases are something that I have found put to use a number of times over the years and many dont offer that.

the only thing to check for is the criteria for not paying out nd see if it include critical illness

If critical illness is going to be included then you start needing to check the number of areas covered as the differences increase further.