New Home - What cover do I need?

Denzel86

Hi,

We complete on our brand new home on the 28th of this month. In 10 days!

Our mortgage advisor was supposed to be sorting all our insurances for us, he has now let us down, but not only that he has bamboozled us with tech terms and now we have no idea what insurance we need.

Here is what we currently have....
Mortgage - starting on 28th for 35 years (we are young and needed a longer term to get mortgage)

Critical Illness cover of £100,000 each - provided as a benefit via my work.

I have a sick policy of 6 weeks full, 6 weeks half pay.
My husband works in the public sector so had 6 months full, 6 months half.

What cover do you think we need in case of long term sick, or death? Basically we need to make sure we can pay the mortgage if one of us were to break! :-)

Ive tried to look into it all myself but its so confusing.
Our advisor was talking about Life Insurance, Sick cover (being stepped for my husband and deffered for 13 weeks for me) and unemployment cover.

We arent worried about unemployment as we would do any job possible if that were to happen, and its unlikely for both of us at the moment.

Please help. What do we need and what should we search for?

Thanks!

phill99

You need three insurances in life: car insurance as its a legal requirement, home insurance to protect your major asset and contents in case of peril and life insurance so that the spouse or dependants are protected in the event of death.

All other insurances are sold for the benefit of one person. And that's the person that has sold it to you.

In terms of what your advisor has suggested, just put it into perspective: there are people that we all know who have been ill or off work for a while. We all get ill but very very few of us have illnesses that are life changing and require months or years off work.

If o can afford all that our advisor is suggesting, you would be better off putting it towards your mortgage and paying it off early.

InsideInsurance

Denzel86 wrote: »

Please help. What do we need and what should we search for?

You really need to speak to an IFA or Protection Broker

Ultimately it comes down to your appetite for risk. Some who are happy with a risk will take the approach of Phil99 and save any insurance premiums and put it to "better" use. Others are more risk adverse and will buy cover to ensure if the worst does happen they have nothing to worry about.

Ultimately it is your choice, obviously on average people are worse off with most classes of insurance otherwise the insurance companies would all go bust but there are plenty of stories of people being paid out many many times what their life long premiums will ever be able to amount to.

weighty1_2

phill99 wrote: »

You need three insurances in life: car insurance as its a legal requirement, home insurance to protect your major asset and contents in case of peril and life insurance so that the spouse or dependants are protected in the event of death.

All other insurances are sold for the benefit of one person. And that's the person that has sold it to you.

In terms of what your advisor has suggested, just put it into perspective: there are people that we all know who have been ill or off work for a while. We all get ill but very very few of us have illnesses that are life changing and require months or years off work.

If o can afford all that our advisor is suggesting, you would be better off putting it towards your mortgage and paying it off early.

HOGWASH! (especially the emboldened part) Attitudes like this infuriate me. :mad:

I arrange insurance plans and specialise in finding cover for those people with high risk jobs and hobbies or those with health problems. I've come across numerous clients who have claimed on critical illness and income protection policies and also numerous clients who would have been able to claim on them had they had them in place.

Many of them are looking for additional life insurance after such a life event. The ones who have previously had critical illness or income protection in place are ALWAYS in a much better place financially, in my experience.

OP, you may waste your money taking out life insurance/critical illness/income protection, however, it you ever need to claim on it I think it is likely to become the most important insurance purchase of your life.

From a professional point of view I normally see life insurance and income protection (long term versions) as being the top priority with critical illness being a more "luxury" purchase, however, it is very much dependent on personal circumstances.

As always, you should speak to an IFA or protection specialist if you need advice.

phill99

weighty1 wrote: »

HOGWASH! (especially the emboldened part) Attitudes like this infuriate me. :mad:

I arrange insurance plans and specialise in finding cover for those people with high risk jobs and hobbies or those with health problems. I've come across numerous clients who have claimed on critical illness and income protection policies and also numerous clients who would have been able to claim on them had they had them in place.

Many of them are looking for additional life insurance after such a life event. The ones who have previously had critical illness or income protection in place are ALWAYS in a much better place financially, in my experience.

OP, you may waste your money taking out life insurance/critical illness/income protection, however, it you ever need to claim on it I think it is likely to become the most important insurance purchase of your life.

From a professional point of view I normally see life insurance and income protection (long term versions) as being the top priority with critical illness being a more "luxury" purchase, however, it is very much dependent on personal circumstances.

As always, you should speak to an IFA or protection specialist if you need advice.

Of course this is your response. You sell insurance for a living. Enough said.