Life assurance - Joint or First Life Only?

honestsammy

Hello,
I've been on the cavendish online website to get life assurance quotes but I'm a bit confused between Joint insurance and 1st Life only. Everything I've googled says that Joint insurance is effectively 1st Life only insurance, however when you get a cavendish quote the there are 3 tabs - Joint, First Life Only or Second Life Only - each being cheaper than the previous.

Also when you add Critical Illness Cover the costs get too much. I've had a look at some income protection sites and that looks more affordable, particularly if the payout is after 6 months, and covers redundancy. All views on this subject are welcome!

stephenni1971

It looks like you really want to have your cake and eat it!!!

You are going down a route can may possibly provide you cheaper premiums than going through an adviser - but from your post evidently don't have the first clue about the type of cover you are looking at.

If your car broke down would you buy a manual from Halfords and try and fix it yourself or would you go to a mechanic?

Ensuring you have sufficient cover is too important to get wrong...

OshayAway

Ditto to Staphenni's comments above. Also, the income protection you mention, sounds like its ASU, which is fraught with problems due to the exclusions.
Definately sounds like you would benefit from proper advice.

honestsammy

Err thanks I think? I'm not sure what the "cake" comment was about??? I just wanted to understand the difference between Joint and First Life Only. Joint appears more expensive than first life only so I wanted to know why (what's the additional benefit you're paying for)? I would have thought that it is a very straight forward question which wouldn't need professional advice!

I'm familiar with ASU and the list of exclusions and I'm mulling that over. Critical illness cover, as taken as part of the cavendish life insurance quote, is really expensive and appears to also have the same restrictive list of exclusions, so I wanted some views as to the pros and cons.

honestsammy

stephenni1971 wrote: »

It looks like you really want to have your cake and eat it!!!

You are going down a route can may possibly provide you cheaper premiums than going through an adviser - but from your post evidently don't have the first clue about the type of cover you are looking at.

If your car broke down would you buy a manual from Halfords and try and fix it yourself or would you go to a mechanic?

Ensuring you have sufficient cover is too important to get wrong...

Oh and to answer your question I would try and fix it myself .

dunstonh

Everything I've googled says that Joint insurance is effectively 1st Life only insurance,

Suggest you change the way you input info into google as thats wrong.

owever when you get a cavendish quote the there are 3 tabs - Joint, First Life Only or Second Life Only - each being cheaper than the previous.

Thats because they are three different options affecting how and when it would pay out.

Also when you add Critical Illness Cover the costs get too much.

It would do. Especially if you are over 30. You are significantly increasing the odds of a claimable event with CI. Indeed, for many groups, a claim on CI is more likely than life assurance.

I've had a look at some income protection sites and that looks more affordable

As you are looking online you are only going to see the budget version of income protection. Not the full version which is so much better. There is hardly any internet coverage of the best type. Effectively, you are paying peanuts for those as the odds of payout are slim.

Echo those comments by the above posters. In your attempts to save money you could end up buying the wrong policy types and/or setting it up wrong which could cost you a lot more in the long run.

stephenni1971

honestsammy wrote: »

Err thanks I think? I'm not sure what the "cake" comment was about??? I just wanted to understand the difference between Joint and First Life Only. Joint appears more expensive than first life only so I wanted to know why (what's the additional benefit you're paying for)? I would have thought that it is a very straight forward question which wouldn't need professional advice!

I'm familiar with ASU and the list of exclusions and I'm mulling that over. Critical illness cover, as taken as part of the cavendish life insurance quote, is really expensive and appears to also have the same restrictive list of exclusions, so I wanted some views as to the pros and cons.

No offence meant... simply that too many people focus on saving a few quid by buying a policy online when they had little idea what they are actually buying.

You were asking a very, very basic question about joint/first/second life - and you also were comparing income protection with ASU - which led me to believe that there was a possibility buying online may not be the best option for you.

The only time you will find out if you got the wrong policy will be when very serious problems will have occurred, so there is no point in exposing yourself to any risk.

honestsammy

Well I think before taking any professional advice we should all endeavour to find out everything you can about what you're buying. How many people have been mis-sold policies over the years simply because they didn’t really understand what they were undertaking? However I do feel a certain amount of protectionism over the what should be a straightforward answer.

What I’ve worked out is that:

For a joint life assurance policy -
First life only:- pays out when the first person dies and then the policy ends
Second life only:- pays out when the second person dies
So how does joint work? Both people have to die at the same time???
I know it’s not the equivalent of having 2 separate life policies so I’m sort of lost.

Wiki doesn't seem to have the info:
"Joint life insurance is either a term or permanent policy insuring two or more lives with the proceeds payable on the first death or second death."

lisyloo

Thats because they are three different options affecting how and when it would pay out.

So can someone explain the difference?
First and second is obvious, but what does joint cover? both? so can you keep paying it after first death to cover 2nd?

stephenni1971

The breakdown is as follows

You are applying online and I presume have entered the details of you and your partner.

Joint Life First Death Covers the FIRST person to die ONLY.

Joint Life Second Death Cover pays out on death of the last surviving partner only.

First Life Only will just be a single life policy for the first person on the application/quote ONLY.

Second Life Only will just be a single life policy for the second person on the application/quote ONLY.

Call it protectionist if you want but I am only trying to protect YOUR interests and if you need this explained then there could be catastrophic results if you buy the wrong policy.

Nicko67

And all this is before you've even started filling the application forms out! Then the fun will really start.

Seriously, the best advice I can give is...

GET SOME ADVICE.