According to recent figures released by Sainsbury's Finance, 60 per cent of people with life insurance don't contact their insurer when they have a significant change in their life.
Sleaford, Lincolnshire, UK, July 28, 2011 -- According to recent figures released by Sainsbury's Finance, 60 per cent of people with life insurance don't contact their insurer when they have a significant change in their life.
However, life and protection comparison website Money-minder.com says it’s far more important that they simply review their needs than necessarily go back to their existing insurer. In fact, by shopping around customers could save themselves some money.
For example, a 30 year old male non-smoker taking out £150,000 of level term life insurance cover for 25 years could find a ‘no-fee’ premium as low as £7.32 per month with Zurich through Money-minder.com. However, Skandia would look to charge around £20.85 per month if a consumer bought the same cover directly with them over the phone. That’s a saving of £13.53 per month, or to put it another way a saving of £4059.00 over the 25 year term of the cover.
Although it’s wise to review your life and protection cover regularly there may be some significant changes in your life when it’s essential to take a look at the cover you have and what you might need in the future.
1. Moving home - Whether buying your first home or increasing your mortgage for something bigger it's essential you have enough cover in place to at least pay off your mortgage if something happened to you, and your partner too if you're buying together. Make reviewing your life insurance part of your moving home 'to-do' list. And have your new cover ready to put in place as soon as you move in.
2. Having a baby - Once you start a family you have to start thinking about what would happen if you or your partner died while your child or children were still dependent on you. Just covering your mortgage won't be enough to pay for the upheaval the family would face if one of you wasn’t around to earn an income or look after the family so you have to look at the cover you’d need to replace an income or meet extra costs for childcare. You may need to allow enough money for them to live on until your children are grown up which could be many years. It’s not a nice thing to have to think about, but it’s better than leaving your loved ones in a financial fix.
3. Changing jobs - Some employers offer 'death in service' benefit to their workers. This means the company scheme will pay out a lump sum to your estate if you die whilst in their employment. It’s usually a multiple of your salary and despite what the name suggests you don’t have to die whilst actually carrying out your job, just while you’re employed by them. If you switch jobs or go self-employed you may have to replace this useful cover yourself.
Ray Black, MD and founder of Money-minder.com commented: "Life insurance isn’t the sort of product you renew every year like your car or home insurance so it’s easy to forget to include it when you review your finances. There are some key life events however when you absolutely must look at your life cover and perhaps consider other forms of cover too such as income protection or critical illness cover.
“You should also think twice about going straight back to your existing insurance provider before you've shopped around. Our research shows that customers can make significant savings by arranging their cover through a discount broker who sacrifices all or some of their usual commission to give you lower premiums. This is especially true of customers who know exactly what they need and don’t want to pay for extra for advice. Over the term of the policy the savings could run into thousands of pounds.”
5 Top tips for getting the best life insurance deals
2.Don’t necessarily buy life insurance from your mortgage provider. - Previous research by Money-minder has shown that you may pay more for life insurance from your lender than by arranging it yourself.
3.Consider paying a one-off admin fee to get your insurance set up. The monthly premiums will be cheaper and you may save money in the long run.
4.Watch out for 'reviewable' premiums - Insurers can increase reviewable premiums throughout the life of the policy so what may start off as cheap insurance can become expensive. Choose ‘guaranteed’ premiums which are fixed for the life of the policy.
5.Get the right amount of cover. Some websites now have handy tools like Money-minder’s finance navigators to help you decide the type and amount of cover you need. Do your homework to ensure you know what you want before you start looking for quotes.
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For further information please contact:
Jason Wyer-Smith at 42 PR on Tel: 07824 818242, E-Mail: jason@42pr.com
Notes to Editors:
Money-Minder.com was founded and created by Ray Black, Dip PFS, an Independent Financial Adviser. Money-Minder.com is online personal finance website that incorporates an exclusive and unique interactive comparison service providing free genuinely online quotes and is full of useful information to help customers choose the right cover and product to suit their needs.
Money Minder Financial Services (UK) limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).
