What happens?

daveyjp

A friend's son died unexpectedly late last year, he was 41.  He worked full time, his wife had an occasional part time job more as a hobby than to earn money.

There was some discussion about how she would be able to survive financially and there was concern.  I mentioned that as he worked at the university if he was part of the pension scheme he should receive a decent pay out.  

He was a member and his wife did receive a  lump sum.  The mortgage was covered by life insurance.

It didn't bring him back, but the simple act of knowing what insurance, pensions you have and letting people know would have prevented a lot of stress over and above dealing with a sudden death.

This is even more important now most financial dealings are done online as there can be no paper records of any accounts.  Have a list and keep it somewhere safe.

LHW99

Have you no life insurance to cover the mortgage? Most lenders demand it

Giovanni88

LHW99 said:

Have you no life insurance to cover the mortgage? Most lenders demand it

No, was never needed. We only got onto the property ladder in 2019 too which is fairly recent. We're with santander.

dunstonh

LHW99 said:

Have you no life insurance to cover the mortgage? Most lenders demand it

Most lenders stopped requiring it between 1995-2004.  Now it is consumer choice in most cases.

Brie

Is your wife maxing the contributions into her pension as well?  Working p/t as many women with children do means she'll have a significantly smaller pension normally which (with you having toddled off this mortal coil) will  likely be insufficient to give her a quality life in her dotage even assuming she inherits something from you.  

I would certainly agree that some sort of life and mortgage protection insurance is needed.  For BOTH of you.  How will you cope looking after your son if something happens to your wife?  Will you need to quit your job?  Or merely cut your hours??  

squirrelpie

As an aside it might be interesting to read https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/tag/familial-hypercholesterolaemia/

Giovanni88

squirrelpie said:

As an aside it might be interesting to read https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/tag/familial-hypercholesterolaemia/

Thanks for that, interesting read. It is indeed familial hyperchololesterolemia I have. I went for a blood test for something else at around the age of 28 and soon after i got a call from the doctors saying I must come see them as my cholesterol was measured at 9.2!

I cant/won't take statins, ive tried nearly every one of them and I feel so bad when taking them, bad side effects.

So it is what it is, im very healthy otherwise, eat fairly well, walk alot, very slim etc.

Thanks for ur help all

RipleyG

@Brie makes an important point. It's good to think about what happens if either of you dies. I'd add: what if one of you becomes seriously ill or disabled? In many cases the worst outcome financially isn't the same as the worst outcome emotionally. 

9 years ago, we saw a financial planner - he gave us a range of financial forecasts - ranging from giving up work to travel the world for a few years, to death, to one of us becoming disabled and unable to work. The latter was quite scary: if the main earner (me) became disabled and lost their earnings, we'd run out of money by about the age of 65. That was despite having enough between us to retire early, with my husband working full time, and didn't include any costs of paying for carers or house adaptations. It was a bit of a shock. 

4 years ago I caught Covid, I'm now disabled as result. My income stopped completely after a few months, and as we'd only moved house the week before my husband wasn't working either. On one hand that was good, as I couldn't be left alone for long. On the other hand, we had zero income and we didn't know how long I'd be ill for.

I'm now able to work about 4 hours a week, and safe enough to be left alone so my husband can work full time and pay our bills. Our money won't run out by 65, but we won't have the retirement we'd planned for, and  if he gets made redundant or also becomes ill then things look shakier.

It's good to plan for the best future you'd like, but also to at least put some thought into what you'd do if a bombshell gets thrown your way.