Life & Serious Illness Cover

Celt07

Registered User
Messages
50
I've recently gone sale agreed on a house and my broker has arranged for insurance quotes for me. The quotes they've given me are a combination of Life only and Life and Serious Illness. I know that I have to get the Life cover for the mortgage as a minimum but I'm wondering whether to include an element of serious illness cover also. Does anyone have any opinions on this type of policy?
 
You are not required to take out serious illness cover, IMO anyone who can afford serious illness should take it out, but that is just my opinion. You could look at taking out a basic mortgage protection policy to repay your mortgage if you died, which is all that is required for mortgage purposes, and taking out a policy with serious illness cover later when you may be in a better position financially.
 
You should consider mortgage life insurance and serious illness insurance as two separate items and decide independently if you need either or both.

To take out a mortgage, all you require mortgage life insurance i.e. the type of insurance that will pay off your mortgage in full if you die.

Only you can decide if you also require and/or can afford serious illness cover. And if you do decide that you need serious illness cover, you need to consider whether the policy offered by your mortgage bank is good value when compared with policies offered elsewhere. Factors you'll need to consider is whether or not you are insured elsewhere e.g. through work scheme or pension conditions. And also whether your existing health insurance covers you for critical illnesses.

My personal opinion - when I was taking out my mortgage, I got the heavy sales pitch about serious illness cover. In the end I decided that I went to the bank to get a mortgage, not serious illness cover, so why should I buy serious illness cover. If I were to decide to buy serious illness cover, I'd check out all the policies on the market, think about it for a while and buy the best one. Given their price, they are not the type of financial commitment I would want to commit to without having thought it through carefully and certainly not something I'd buy under time pressure from a bank sales representative.

In my particular case, when I checked out the options, I found that I was already well covered through a sickness scheme attached to my work pension (guaranteed % of income in the event of retirement or long term absence through illness) and my health insurance (for the cost of treating whatever illness).
 
My broker advised us to go for the "best" policy, that it is transferable and has the best benefits, covers 30 serious illnesses etc etc but its €60 a month between the two of us. He also advised us to go for income protection as my partner is in the construction industry and can bve out of work sometmes, altho it hasnt happened in years.

Can anyone advise me what to do. I havent a clue when it comes to insurance. That thread on mortgage protection confused me even more. Thanks in advance.

also - can you change your policy to a different insurer after the mortgage has been drawn down or are you stuck with them for life?
 
In my opinion and based on general rules of thumb rather than knowledge of any individual's specific needs ... shop around for the cheapest/most basic mortgage protection life assurance policy to cover the mortgage (i.e. a cheap decreasing term policy) and then consider your general life assurance, permanent health insurance, income protection etc. needs separately ideally with assistance from an independent, professional advisor (e.g. good multi-agency intermediary or authorised advisor) and not a tied agent or broker with a vested interest in selling you policies. If you have no dependents then you may not need any life assurance cover (bar mortgage protection life assurance).
 
Back
Top