What insurances apart from Buildings & contents are recommended after paying off a mortgage?

Aurorastar

We have just paid off our mortgage (December 2025 ) but at the moment we still have life insurance, critical illness and income protection. If one of us passed away (husband) we have enough for the funeral. Myself and husband own our own business (Ltd company) What if any insurances are recommended at this time please?

MyRealNameToo

Aurorastar said:

We have just paid off our mortgage (December 2025 ) but at the moment we still have life insurance, critical illness and income protection. If one of us passed away (husband) we have enough for the funeral. Myself and husband own our own business (Ltd company) What if any insurances are recommended at this time please?

Really depends... how would you be financially if one of you dies? How would you be financially if one of you gets a long term illness such that they can never work again?

The funeral is a relatively cheap and minor consideration -v- losing 50% of the household income for the next 10 years. Most costs dont halve just because one person has passed, particularly if there are still kids in school etc. 

Personally have Life and Income Protection as I am the only earner in the house so if I become too ill to work or dead we'd have £0 income. There's some money in my LTD but not enough to last anywhere near to planned retirement age

Critical Illness isnt a product I personally like, I'm not sure I would reconsider my life and want to go part time or change to a lower paid job after cancer or such but I know people who have totally reevaluated their life and priorities after major illness and whilst physically fit enough to go back to their old job their CI payment has given them the freedom to take a massively lower paid job and have much more free time without compromising on lifestyle. 

Some people dont care, an associate refuses to have Life insurance as their view is that its their wife's problem not theirs if he dies soon and thinks she'll probably jump into bed with the next person that offers as she has poor taste in men (he realises the implication of the statement). 

Buildings becomes optional after paying off the mortgage but its a lot of money to be gambling with if something major does happen to the home. Contents has always been optional but if you had it before there is no reason to stop having it now. 

Other classes will depend on your needs (pet, motor, travel etc) and inevitably the LTD probably has its own insurance needs. 

Markdavid1962

Its really a matter of choice, we paid our mortgage off around 6 years ago and kept the life insurance/Critical illness policy going, bought a funeral policy each and paid that off so that the kids would not need to worry. As we have now both retired early no need for income protection. At the time we then used what would have been the mortgage repayment money for a purpose (invested and saved) then bought a holiday house in Spain.

The strangest thing was paying the mortgage off....its a matter of celebration but nothing from the bank at the time saying paid off, Congrats.....

Aurorastar

Markdavid1962 said:

Its really a matter of choice, we paid our mortgage off around 6 years ago and kept the life insurance/Critical illness policy going, bought a funeral policy each and paid that off so that the kids would not need to worry. As we have now both retired early no need for income protection. At the time we then used what would have been the mortgage repayment money for a purpose (invested and saved) then bought a holiday house in Spain.

The strangest thing was paying the mortgage off....its a matter of celebration but nothing from the bank at the time saying paid off, Congrats.....

Thanks for your info. I know I expected at least a bottle of bubbly from the bank but nothing.   We celebrated going into 2026 mortgage free.