Set out your goals and priorities first . .
If you died tomorrow whats the minimum cover you would like your family to receive . .
If you were unable to work due to an accident you may be entitled to a lump sum if you have critical Illness cover or you may be entitled to up to 75% of your salary if you have an income protection policy.
If your partner died tomorrow, would you want some time off work to grieve (I know its a harsh question but its a fair one). Would you at least be comforted somewhat with some sort of financial payout to ease future financial burdens . . (Its just something to consider).
The only form of redundancy cover I know of is Mortgage Income replacement. If you have any reason to believe that your job is in anyway threatened by current economic events, this policy is not for you . .
A good financial advisor can help you work out how much replacement income you would need (or your family would need) if you were to die, become critically Ill or unable to work.
For Example, As a very Minimum rule of thumb I always suggest having the house paid off so at least your family owns its home (although thats not relevant in your case). Then theres covering your other liabilities (personal loans, credit cards etc). Then theres the consideration of what sort of lifestyle your family has now to what sort of lifestyle they would like to have if something should happen to you.
One example of covering yourself but trying to pay a lower premium initially, is by taking out a Term Assurance conversion policy. Lets just say that you take out a 10 year convertible Term policy. At any stage during the term of the policy you can take out the same amount of cover again for a longer term irrespective of your medical condition. This is important as if you were diagnosed with an Illness during this term you would not necessarily get cover when the contract expires, the conversion option covers this possibility.
Obviously this has to tie in with your financial affordability and thats the reason why its important to discuss this with a financial advisor or broker (so you can cover yourself adequatley and within a budget).
Life Assurance, critical Illness and Income protection policys are not designed or sold to people who necessarily expect the worst. Like Car Insurance or House Insurance they are designed to give us peace of mind. The idea behind them is that you are covering your family in the event of the worst events, but hoping that your family never need to use these policies. Thats why its important that when you are taking out any of these policys you think about the ramifications these events will have on your family and its finances.