Life Good Advice Needed Urgently on Best Life Assurance Policy to Purchase

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Bigbird

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Hi there,

I'm about to take out a joint life assurance policy with a well known life assurance company who are linked to one of our main banks here in Ireland.

I'm looking at a 25 year term policy with life assurance at 300,00 and critical illness at 75,000. I'm 33 and my hubby is 29. We're both non smokers. It works out at E82.05 per month. I'm tempted to change the term to 30 years as we're only starting our family now. Baby one is here but by the time baby two and three arrive i'll be around 37. The price however, is quite expensive. It's E120.00 with the conversion option.

I also noticed that another poster in another life assurance forum had problems when he tried to renew his life assurance policy at the age of 60. He was talking about compound interest at 70% and the likes! My kids will need protection until there over 25 at least.

Can anyone advise me please? I have a guy hounding me for the life assurance company saying that if I don't go with is quote today then the premium will increase? Is this normal or is it what I think - pushy sales man?:)
 
He's being pushy, ignore him.

Is this policy being assigned to the bank for a mortgage?
 
No, as we have separate mortgage protection with Zurich which amounts to E12.50 per month.
 
Hi Bigbird I just ran a quote for you there and assuming you're both non smokers €300,000 of life cover with €75,000 accelerated critical illness cover is coming out at €100.47 for joint life or €102.04 for dual life this is over 30 years. This is with the conversion option.

Over 25 years its €73.44 for joint life and €81.32 for dual. Don't be pushed into anything the premium definitely won't increase for one day.
 
Good, was just worried the crit illness would also be assigned to the lender.

I would go for the 30 year term with a guaranteed premium rather than the convertibility option.

You could get dual (pays out twice whereas joint just pays out once) life cover of 300k/75k SIC for 30 years elsewhere for €88 - with convertibility it would be €96.

Make sure you know why you are taking out 300k life cover and 75k illness cover, some sales guys just pull these figures out of the air when in fact they should be based on your future earnings capabilities.

Shop around and get independent advice.
 
Thanks for advice NorfBank. What difference/benefits would a guaranteed premium offer compared to the convertibility option? Also currently we are told with the joint that if i died then 300k would be in my estate and if my husband died then a further 300k would be paid out into our estate? is this the same as dual (double payment) Sorry i'm a bit confused.
I understand what you mean in relation to the figures 300k and 75k. We only just really fully qualified in our chosen professions a few years and have great earning potential between the two of us. The trouble is, however, this guy keeps telling us that "most people review their life policy" after 7 years and sometimes they either cancel it or else take out a supplementary one to add to the existing policy. What do you make of that?

I think I will have to seek independent advice as i'm very suspicious of life assurance in general. Wasn't the movie Double Indemnity connected to life assurance and fraud?
 
A guaranteed policy, means the premium wont change during the life of the policy, ie there will be no reviews of the premium during the term.

A conversion option allows you to take out another policy for up to the same sum assured at anytime during the life of the policy. The premium is not guaranteed on conversion, you will pay the normal rates of a person of that age. Where it is good is if in the last few years of the policy you get a medical ailment that would mean that you would be loaded or declined in the future for cover, the conversion option means that when used a company cannot load/decline you regardless of your state of health.

Dual policies allow 2 payouts. Joint policies only have one pay out on first death.

A lot of people do review their cover as their circumstances can change. Initially a young couple may require life cover just for their mortgage. Then they may have children down the road and decide they need additional cover to cover creche/college fees etc if anything were to happen to one of them. When the kids are grown up they may decide to reduce their life cover. There is all sorts of logical reasons why life assurance gets reviewed.

Getting independent advice is a good idea, dealing with insurers directly means you may get recommended products just because they are the only ones that company sells and not necessarily because they are the cheapest or best.




www.CheaperLifeAssurance.ie
 
Good advice there.

StevieC said:
A conversion option allows you to take out another policy for up to the same sum assured at anytime during the life of the policy.
Click to expand...

Just be careful on this, some insurers only allow you to convert at the end of the original term not at any time.
 
Hi Norfbank,
I discussed the idea of independent advice with my hubby last night. He's an accountant and firmly believes that in this day and age 'independent advice' does not exist? He says nobody makes a living anymore just as a financial advisor getting once off payments for giving out information/advice. They're usually tied up to a company - in otherwords they have other interests at heart.

What do you make of that?
 
No fee required for advice given here. :)

Anyway, hope it helped. I dont think all independent advisors are tied to anyone to be honest. A good independent advisor will realise that word of mouth for giving good advice will lead to referrals that far outweigh any short term benefit of not making independent recommendations. I know a few brokers who actually care about their clients interests but recognise some dont. Its like any industry, there are good apples and bad apples.
 
thoughts on whole of life cover anyone? is it better option than term assurance? it sounds good.
 
Bigbird said:
thoughts on whole of life cover anyone? is it better option than term assurance? it sounds good.
Click to expand...

Unless there is a guaranteed premium, whole of life policies are like writing a blank cheque to insurance companies come premium review.

Term policies are cheaper. Guaranteed whole of life policies are good but more expensive. Reviewable whole of life are not good value in my opinion long term as you dont know what you will pay.



www.CheaperLifeAssurance.ie
 
Well we've made our decision. we're going with 300k life assurance 75k stand alone serious illness. the term is 30 years so i'm not going to bother with the conversion as i'll be 63 and hopefully my kids will be old enough to fend for themselves! cost E103.14 including government levy charge.

i think the conversion is a waste of time as they can only extend the term but the premium will be charged according to your age.

can i name the company?maybe not. well it begins with irish.
 
Based on details you gave thats the cheapest available. Also Irish Life offer partial payment cover which is new to market and in some ways is better cover than competitors products.

You've made a good choice there.



www.CheaperLifeAssurance.ie
 
Bigbird said:
i think the conversion is a waste of time as they can only extend the term but the premium will be charged according to your age.
Click to expand...

Some companies allow you to increase the amount of cover without further medical evidence on the occurrence of a "major life event".

I like this option, it means you could take out say 200k cover now while paying a lower premium, on the birth of your next child you could then increase the cover to €300k thereby saving yourself paying the higher 300k premiums in the interim. Your premium will be adjusted according to your age.

Apart from as StevieC said, that the premium you are paying is the cheapest on the market.
 
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