We understand that every family is different and are keen to help find the best life insurance cover to support your household. Whether you’re a single parent or newlyweds we can find a policy to protect your loved ones when you’re no longer around.
What is Family Life Insurance?
Family life insurance safeguards your family’s future. If you’re wondering why people take out family life insurance, it could be because:
- They got married
- Their family has grown
- They bought a house
- They had children
- They want to leave security or a gift for their grandchildren
Whatever the reason, life insurance family cover can promise you the security of knowing that your loved ones are protected when you are no longer around to support them.
How does family life cover work?
Family life insurance may simply be a single life insurance policy or a family life insurance plan made up of a range of products. The exact products you include in your plan will depend on your wishes and your family’s needs.
Let’s look at the different products you could include in your family life insurance plan:
Life Insurance
The most obvious element of your family life insurance plan is life insurance, itself. So, rest assured your loved ones’ finances are protected after your passing with life insurance cover.
Term Life Insurance
Term life insurance covers you for a set period of time. It’s often more cost-effective than whole of life insurance. Choose from level-term life insurance and decreasing term life insurance.
Critical and Serious Illness Cover
If you’re diagnosed with a serious illness, critical illness cover pays out a lump sum or a regular income. You can use this to maintain your living costs or to aid your recovery.
Over 50s Life Insurance
Over 50 life insurance policies may provide more value than a standard policy if you’re aged between 50 and 80 years old.
Joint Life Insurance
Another option is to take out joint life insurance. This policy will pay out to the surviving individual on the death of the other.
Whole Life Insurance
For complete security, whole life insurance may be the best fit. This cover lasts your entire lifetime and pays out a lump sum to your family when you die.
Family Income Benefit
Family income benefit plans are ideal for stabilising family finances and ensuring that your loved ones can maintain their standard of living after your passing.
Income Protection Insurance
If you can’t work because of illness or injury, income protection insurance can keep you financially afloat until you’ve recovered and are able to return to work.
Mortgage Protection Insurance
Mortgage protection insurance will pay off the remainder of your mortgage if you become terminally ill or die. This means your family can keep their home without the need to cover payments after you pass.
There are many pros and cons to each type of insurance policy. But we don’t expect you to know the answers! When you talk to our team, we’ll explain the details of each type of life plan and help you figure out what is suitable for you and your family.
Critical and serious illness cover.
If you’re diagnosed with a serious or life-threatening illness, this type of cover will pay out a lump sum or a regular income. You can use the money to maintain your living costs, so you don’t need to worry about how to pay the bills. Or you could use it to aid your recuperation and recovery.
The illnesses included in critical and serious illness cover vary depending on the policy and the insurer. Most policies cover conditions such as heart attack, stroke, and cancer.
Family income benefit.
A family income benefit (FIB) is an insurance policy that will provide a regular monthly income rather than a single lump sum once you pass away. These plans are ideal for stabilising the family finances and ensuring that your loved ones can maintain their standard of living. If you rely on two incomes to pay your living expenses, then taking out a FIB plan could be crucial.
Typically, these are term-length policies. Any monthly income will only be available for the remainder of the term. For example, if you took out a 40-year term policy and passed away seven years later, the policy would pay out a monthly sum (tax-free) for the remaining 33 years.
If you do not pass away during the term of your policy, there will be no payout, and your policy will expire.
Income protection insurance.
If you can’t work because of illness or injury, an income protection plan can keep you financially afloat. It can help you and your family to maintain your lifestyle without relying on savings or state benefits. Income protection will pay out a percentage of your income until you are able to work again. If your illness or injury causes you to retire on medical grounds, your income protection plan could pay out until you reach retirement age or the end of your policy term – whichever is first.
Mortgage protection insurance.
Mortgage protection insurance will pay off the remainder of your outstanding mortgage if you become terminally ill or die. This means that your family can keep their home without the need to cover mortgage payments when you’re no longer around. It’s one less worry on their shoulders.
The Cost of Family Life Cover.
The exact cost of your family life insurance plan will depend on your personal circumstances and needs, including:
- Your age
- Your health
- Your job
- Your dependants
- Your debts
- How much cover you require
It will also depend on what type of insurance you’re looking for and whether you want to have a single policy or a combination plan – perhaps featuring life insurance, critical illness, and income protection.
At The Insurance Surgery, we’ll take the time to discuss all these factors and what you need from your plan to make sure we find the best-fit family life insurance policy.
Let’s look at our hypothetical examples of how much a family life insurance plan can cost.
Family life insurance example cost 1.
Maria aged 30 and Steve 33 have three children. Maria works part-time in retail and earns £24,000. Steve is an IT developer and earns £42,000. Both are in good health and non-smokers. They want to take out a joint life insurance policy with a payout of £350,000 to cover the mortgage over a term of 30, a decreasing mortgage plan has been advised as the most appropriate product.
Maria and Steve’s monthly premium is £16.80 | £350k payout.
Family life insurance example cost 2.
Rachel is 36 years old. She works as a police officer, with a salary of £38,000. She smokes but is in good health. She is a single parent with one child. Rachel owns her home outright. She is looking for a family life insurance plan that will pay out £180,000. This would help her parents look after her daughter. She would also like to include income protection in case she can’t work for any reason, the monthly benefit she will receive from her income protection benefit after her deferred period of 6 months is £2000 per month (this benefit can only start once her 6-month sick pay ends).
£46.59 per month | £180k Lump sum payout + 2K per month Income protection Benefit.
Family life insurance example cost 3.
Tom lives with his wife, Helen, his 7-year-old son, Max, and his father, Charlie. Tom is 48 years old. He is a non-smoker but had a heart attack two years ago. He suffers from depression. Tom works as a prison officer and earns £32,000. Helen works as a primary school teacher and earns £30,000. She receives life insurance cover through her job. Tom decides to take out life insurance combined with family income benefit. He wants to make sure that his family will be provided for should he die. He is interested in a life insurance lump sum payout of £100000 and a family income benefit amount of £12000 per annum, both over a 20-year term.
£77.07 per month | £100k Lump sum payout + family income benefit of 12k per annum.
How can The Insurance Surgery help?
The Insurance Surgery is a leading broker for life insurance. We work with various insurance providers to get the best life insurance policy for your needs and budget.
We can help you from the very start of the process when you contact us for a life insurance quote, assist you in deciding what cover you need, find the best-fit policy, and continue to advise you right through to when your family make a claim.
We don’t provide life insurance quotes online. Instead, we offer a personalised service over the phone, taking the time to get to know you and exactly what cover you need. We often have access to policies that aren’t available to the general public.
For over twenty years we’ve been working with clients across the UK, helping to find lasting financial protection for them and their families.
With our support, you can benefit from:
- A dedicated advisor who is there to answer any of your questions
- Free Trust service, allowing you to set up your insurance payment as you wish
- Support for those with pre-existing conditions
- Voted Best life and protection broker 2022
- Rated 5* on Trustpilot and Feefo
- Access to high street and independent insurers
- Price match promise guaranteeing you won’t pay a penny more than you need to
But perhaps most importantly, here at The Insurance Surgery, we have a proven track record of helping people who have been declined for life insurance. A huge 70% of people turned down elsewhere have been accepted by us. That’s because we see ourselves as problem-solvers.
We take the time to get to know you and your condition. By finding out as much as we can, we then have the information to share with the insurance underwriter.
Our reputation is built on trust and we are here to help answer any questions you may have.
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How life insurance helps families.
- Provides financial protection and peace of mind in challenging times.
- Replace lost income, ensuring that surviving family members can continue their standard of living.
- Secure funds for your children’s education.
- Protect the family home by covering outstanding mortgage payments.
- Provide financial support if you’re diagnosed with a life-threatening illness.
- Provide regular monthly payments to surviving family members after your death.
Whether your family life insurance plan is purely life insurance or combined with other elements such as income protection or critical illness cover, you can rest assured that you and your loved ones will be protected.
Frequently Asked Questions.
Yes, family life insurance exists! Your family life insurance plan could include just life insurance or life insurance combined with serious or critical illness insurance, mortgage protection insurance, income protection, or family income benefits.
Individuals who are named as the beneficiaries of a life insurance policy can generally claim the death of the policyholder. However, you should always check the policy documents and speak to your insurance provider to get the exact details of the process.
If you take out a whole life insurance policy, it will pay out a lump sum on your death. If you take out a term life insurance policy, a lump sum will only be paid if you die during the time period covered by the policy. If you die after the term policy ends, your family won’t get anything.
Yes, you can take out life insurance on a family member, but you must be able to prove that their death would cause you financial loss. This is called insurable interest. For instance, if that family member owes you a large sum of money or you would have to pay for their funeral and other expenses, you may be able to take out life insurance on them. However, insurance providers vary in their approach to this, so it’s best to speak to an advisor.
Useful Links.
If you have any further questions about anything to do with Life Insurance and protection for your family, please feel free to contact our team of expert Life Insurance advisors.
Click the links below to find out more: