Understanding Life Insurance Cover
Mortgage protection, level-term will give you the same amount of cover throughout the life of the policy and pay out that amount if you make a claim.
Mortgage protection, decreasing-term will decrease over the term, usually to match your decreasing mortgage amount, and pay out the current amount when a claim is made.
Both of which are designed to pay out a lump sum if you die during the policy term. The amount of life cover selected will either remain level throughout your selected plan term or decrease in line with the mortgage. If you wish to, you can request that benefits increase in line with inflation.
Whole of Life
Whole of Life Assurance is used to cover a liability that will arise on your eventual death, morbid we know, but good to have. Typically, this could be for one of the following reasons:
- To meet an inheritance tax liability
- To cover your funeral expenses
- To protect your financial dependents on death
There is no fixed term with Whole of Life cover, as long as your premiums are met, the cover will remain in force until the life assured dies. Whole of life cover can be arranged on a single life or joint life basis and the premiums can either be guaranteed or reviewable.
Critical Illness
Critical illness covers you and your family against the financial impact of a specified critical illness and loss of income through sickness. It pays out a lump sum should you be diagnosed with a serious illness. The type of illnesses covered varies depending on the provider and type of policy selected with typically up to 40 major illnesses listed.
This cover can be purchased as a standalone policy or in conjunction with another policy type. Any other life cover you have in place without this protection would only pay out if you were to die.