Life Assurance/Insurance?

milek

Hello,
I am in the process of getting a mortgage for my first home and they of course want me to have life insurance of some description (to cover the mortgage if I or my partner was to die) not to mention this would be handy anyway.

Now, I have been advised on the following (by my mortgage broker)
Critical Illness with life, the cover amount is the amount I am borrowing from the bank for mortgage, and it says under the life assured column, My name and my partners name as though the cover is joint. However, I do not particularly want a joint insurance.

Can anyone recommend the best cover for me based on the following,
- Would prefer a non joint policy
- To cover at minimum £70,000
- To cover life, ideally critical illness as well
- Mortgage term is 35 years
- Both Non smokers
- First time buyers (mortgage)

Now my mum said she had a policy where she paid x amount a month, and at the end of it, she was guaranteed her money back, but even more if she was to die, that sounds good to me? What type of policy is this? How exactly does it work and are they good? She said the term was 25years (and Im assuming it wasnt directly linked to any mortgage as such)

Thanks,

dunstonh

However, I do not particularly want a joint insurance.

Why not? - joint mortgage usually means joint life assurance.

Can anyone recommend the best cover for me based on the following,

No. That would be a regulated activity and the board is not authorised to do that and even those of us that can in the flesh cannot do it on the board. Just discussion only.

Now my mum said she had a policy where she paid x amount a month, and at the end of it, she was guaranteed her money back, but even more if she was to die, that sounds good to me?

Obsolete, expensive and you would find it hard to find one nowadays. They were called endowment policies. You would pay around 10 times more than a typical term assurance for the same amount of life assurance.

Quentin

milek wrote: »

Can anyone recommend the best cover for me.....,

Don't buy off your mortgage broker, you will get cover cheaper elsewhere - see cavendish or moneyworld.

If you want advice, try lifesearch, or, (cheaper), moneyminder, tqonline, lifeassure online.

See this article for links and advice:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/cheaper-life-insurance

milek

dunstonh wrote: »

Why not? - joint mortgage usually means joint life assurance.
Which would be cheaper for the effective same cover, so covering £70,000 if one was to die?
In the unlikely chance that I was to separate from my partner, what would it entail getting the policy changed from being joint etc?

No. That would be a regulated activity and the board is not authorised to do that and even those of us that can in the flesh cannot do it on the board. Just discussion only.
So what you are saying is, it is purely down to me what level of assurance I have?

Obsolete, expensive and you would find it hard to find one nowadays. They were called endowment policies. You would pay around 10 times more than a typical term assurance for the same amount of life assurance.
I dont think theres much to say in regards to this, I suppose if they're not around much now then thats for a reason.

As above,
Thanks

milek

Quentin wrote: »

Don't buy off your mortgage broker, you will get cover cheaper elsewhere - see cavendish or moneyworld.

If you want advice, try lifesearch, or, (cheaper), moneyminder, tqonline, lifeassure online.

See this article for links and advice:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/cheaper-life-insurance

I figured that,
Even home insurance, he managed to get me a quote of around £400 pa (contents and building)
I shopped around online and found even BETTER cover for £175, comparable insurance I found for around £200.
I thought the idea of a broker was to get me good deals!!

I assume the company he has chosen for the life assurance etc is not the cheapest either, just the one he will end up getting most commission for??

I will have a look at the links you provided and get quotes for similar policies.
Thankyou

ACG

Nobody on here can recommend what you should have as we do not know enough about you.

That being said, your broker is there to do a job and part of that is to discuss protection. In that discussion it should have been mentioned that you have a preference towards (im assuming) 2 x single life policies?

Im surprised the broker has not mentioned Income Protection. You are more likely to claim on that than life and cirtical illness combined. Although there could be a reason for it?

ACG

milek wrote: »

I figured that,
Even home insurance, he managed to get me a quote of around £400 pa (contents and building)
I shopped around online and found even BETTER cover for £175, comparable insurance I found for around £200.
I thought the idea of a broker was to get me good deals!!

This is not uncommon. I tell all of my clients i can arrange cover but it will never be the cheapest - although it will be through a company im confident will pay out should a claim be made. No sales tactics, its an option and its their choice.

I assume the company he has chosen for the life assurance etc is not the cheapest either, just the one he will end up getting most commission for??

No, we are not allowed to recommend based on Commission. If you want the cheapest we will come back with the cheapest. If you want quality we will come back with policies that have the bells and whistles.

I will have a look at the links you provided and get quotes for similar policies.
Thankyou

Hope that helps.

dunstonh

I assume the company he has chosen for the life assurance etc is not the cheapest either, just the one he will end up getting most commission for??

In which case you should raise a complaint as that is not allowed. Given the small differences that exist between providers, it is not something you see often. However, given the seriousness of your allegation, you should not allow the adviser to get away with it if it is happening.

That said, I do wonder if your broker is an independent. The pricing difference seems to indicate they are not. Tied or multi-tied rarely offer best pricing. However, an independent would still not beat commission free pricing. Just that the difference wouldnt be that great. You are paying for advice and setting up whereas online you make the decisions. Plus, price should never be the primary driver. Quality for the budget available should be.

milek

ACG wrote: »

Hope that helps.

I understand that, I thought the idea of a broker though was to find the best deals whether that be a combination of quality and cost, just cost or just quality, rather than just one company the broker deals with a lot which is what he appears to have done.

ACG wrote: »

Nobody on here can recommend what you should have as we do not know enough about you.

That being said, your broker is there to do a job and part of that is to discuss protection. In that discussion it should have been mentioned that you have a preference towards (im assuming) 2 x single life policies?

Im surprised the broker has not mentioned Income Protection. You are more likely to claim on that than life and cirtical illness combined. Although there could be a reason for it?

I understand that you cannot make recommendations,
It was not discussed whether we have 2 single policies or a joint, he chosen joint from what he thinks would suit best id imagine.

The broker has got quotes for income protection for both of us (from the same company as the life cover), however, I don't think it would be beneficial for us based on the following
- We should cope pretty well for a few months if only one of us was off work
- We should cope pretty well for a month or 2 if both of us was off (savings)
- We have a good family around us which would help us out if it came to it
- I know its not much but I have a months full pay if I was off sick, which could possibly be increased to over a month but not full pay, depending on circumstances.

milek

dunstonh wrote: »

In which case you should raise a complaint as that is not allowed. Given the small differences that exist between providers, it is not something you see often. However, given the seriousness of your allegation, you should not allow the adviser to get away with it if it is happening.

That said, I do wonder if your broker is an independent. The pricing difference seems to indicate they are not. Tied or multi-tied rarely offer best pricing. However, an independent would still not beat commission free pricing. Just that the difference wouldnt be that great. You are paying for advice and setting up whereas online you make the decisions. Plus, price should never be the primary driver. Quality for the budget available should be.

I don't want to sound like I am accusing him of anything of such but I do feel that he has not made attempts to compare anything with regards to the insurances. I seen him look through a list of comparisons for mortgages though, he came to his decision pretty fast though which was not the cheapest on the list, he chose this mortgager as it was one who provide an AIP for 3 months.

The home insurance was from a company (I do not want to name), which was different to the company who has quoted for life assurance etc. I went on that home insurers website, I entered for the EXACT same level of cover and the quote retrieved was almost half that of what he quoted me (from that same company)???

I am paying for the brokers service which was quick enough to take the funds from my bank account, the broker is a large company based across the UK.

I have just looked for very similar cover for life and critical illness, and the quote is over half of what I was quoted by the broker, the new quote is from a large company, which also do car, travel, home insurance etc

ACG

Im surprised your broker has not discussed what you want on the protection front to get an idea. He will have his own ideas but he should be taking into account your thoughts.

For B&C cover, im sole tied to just one company. The reason being is that most people tend to buy on price and even if i was not sole tied i could not compete with the online companies on price. So i deal with just one company i know and trust.

With regards to life insurance/PHI/CI there is more than just price. The products can be far more in depth/complicated and i would never suggest going down an unadvised route unless you know what your doing.

- We should cope pretty well for a few months if only one of us was off work
- We should cope pretty well for a month or 2 if both of us was off (savings)
- We have a good family around us which would help us out if it came to it
- I know its not much but I have a months full pay if I was off sick, which could possibly be increased to over a month but not full pay, depending on circumstances.

What happens if one of you were off work for 7 years? The average claim is around the 7 year mark.

Lets just say it is 1 year - do you think its fair on your family to support you?

You are more likely to claim on income protection than you are the other 2. To be honest i would rather have PHI than CI cover every day of the week - but thats my personal preference.