Life Insurance & Wills?

laurenjs88

Afternoon

I hope someone may be able to help. I'm 21, OH is 26 & we have 2 young children.
I think we should write wills of some kind, but i'm not sure whether it is worth getting life insurance as were so young... I am not sure i know where to begin with writing a will or getting life insurance anyway! What should we do?

paulwf

Hi,

A little bit more background might help if that's not too intrusive? Namely...

- are you married?

- are you living together and do you rent or mortgage a property?

- do you have any debts and/or can you afford life assurance?

- do you have any major assets to distribute in a Will?

Then have a think and answer:

- what financial situation would your OH be in if you died?

- what financial situation would you be in if your OH died?

- if you both died at the same time what would you like to happen to your assets?

I hope that isn't prying by all means ignore those questions...they are more or less what I got asked when sorting out life assurance and a Will in the past month.

margaretclare

You absolutely both do need a will, and you absolutely each need some life assurance.

You're young and you think you're immortal. This is normal. However, young people do become ill, do get involved in accidents, do die of undiagnosed diseases.

My first husband 'didn't believe in' life assurance when he was a young dad. He developed heart disease aged 38, by which time all the insurance companies considered him 'uninsurable'. By the time he died 20 years later, after a downward spiral of health problems and not working for the last 15 years of his life, his death coincided with my redundancy. I was left a widow with a mortgage to pay and no job.

My younger daughter died suddenly, of an undiagnosed heart disorder, aged 39. Thankfully, she had a private pension which was insured. This paid off the mortgage for her widower.

laurenjs88

paulwf wrote: »

Hi,

A little bit more background might help if that's not too intrusive? Namely...

- are you married? - No

- are you living together and do you rent or mortgage a property? - Living together, we rent currently

- do you have any debts and/or can you afford life assurance? - Yes we do have debts, but were going to start a DMP soon, so that should (i think) allow us to budget for life insurance.

- do you have any major assets to distribute in a Will? - No, I have maybe £50 in savings and a car worth about the same in scrap at the moment....

Then have a think and answer:

- what financial situation would your OH be in if you died? - Alot worse off, as 90% of the debts are his

- what financial situation would you be in if your OH died? - Fine, I would finacially better off without OH now.

- if you both died at the same time what would you like to happen to your assets? - Everything would go to the kids, My DD1 has a different father, and i would like a way of securing that she does not go to her "father" and would go to my parents. Her father is not involved in anyway.

I hope that isn't prying by all means ignore those questions...they are more or less what I got asked when sorting out life assurance and a Will in the past month.

Answered next to the questions in quote

chelleybelley

totallyfreewills has been on mse ive just done it a few weeks ago and all went through smoothly. i would definately get life insurance im 34 and i got my first mortgage roughly 8 years ago and became ill with chronic illness 6 years ago out of the blue!

paulwf

Life assurance is almost a "no brainer" in your situation as at your age if you don't smoke premiums are going to be very little...£5 or so a month to get in the tens of thousands of pounds cover. Getting enough to cover any debts and perhaps a years salary would be good for now.

I saw a financial planner at my bank...it wasn't the cheapest policy out there but they did look at my whole financial situation which was a lot more useful than just filling in a form on the internet.

Wills would be a very good idea, partly because if you appoint each other as executor if the other dies it gives you more rights over funeral arrangements etc as you are unmarried (same situation for me and the OH). Obviously a Will will also make sure the money ends up where you want, important as you are unmarried...family can do funny things when money is involved so even if you had made your dying wishes clear a Will could save a lot of stress at a time when you least need it. The last thing you want to do is to be sorting out finances with an uncooperative family when you are grieving.

We used a solicitor to draw up our Wills, probably at the high end of charges at £350 ex VAT for the pair but we needed to talk through everything and make sure everything is done right due to our circumstances. As you don't have any major assets (you name the benificiary on the life assurance policy so that is separate) your Will shouldn't be so complicated so there are cheaper options around.

laurenjs88

Ive just taken out the Aviva free parent life insurance for both of us whilst I look into what will be a decent paid plan for us... Then atleast if god forbid something happens to one/both of us in the next few days/weeks then we have £10,000 of cover each.

paulwf

laurenjs88 wrote: »

Ive just taken out the Aviva free parent life insurance for both of us whilst I look into what will be a decent paid plan for us... Then atleast if god forbid something happens to one/both of us in the next few days/weeks then we have £10,000 of cover each.

Well done Lauren...my grandfather died when my father was just 15 and my partners father died when she was just 13, hopefully it will never happen to you but at least you will have peace of mind.