Products

What is Life Insurance?

Life Insurance exists to pay out the amount of money that a policyholder has insured themselves for, in the event that they die during their policy term. The main reason for this insurance is to enable immediate family members and other dependents to feel safe in the knowledge that they will be financially secure, should the worst happen. The included Life Cover and Mortgage Protection therefore protects them from any resulting financial hardship caused by the policyholder’s death, such as the possible forced sale of the family home.

Terminal Illness Insurance is also included in most leading life insurance policies, at no extra cost. So if the policyholder is diagnosed with a terminal illness (where life expectancy is less than 12 months), then the insurer pays the amount of money insured on diagnosis, rather than death. However, please note that this benefit is not usually available during the last 18 months of the Life Insurance Policy.

Critical Illness Insurance offers an additional type of cover to life insurance. This relates to a list of pre-defined Critical Illnesses. If the policyholder is diagnosed with any of these illnesses, this policy pays out the amount of money insured to them.

Not all companies specify the same Critical Illnesses in their individual policies, so it is important that the policyholder becomes familiar with the inclusions and exclusions before any documentation is signed. Critical Illness Insurance also tends to be 3-4 times more expensive than Life Insurance.

Critical Illnesses usually covered are:

• Alzheimer's Disease before age 65
• Angioplasty
• Aorta graft surgery
• Benign brain tumour
• Blindness
• Cancer (most malignant types)
• Coma
• Coronary bypass surgery
• Deafness
• Heart attack
• Heart valve replacement or repair
• HIV/AIDs (named groups only)
• Kidney failure
• Loss of limbs
• Loss of speech
• Major organ transplant
• Motor neurone disease before age 65
• Multiple sclerosis
• Paralysis/paraplegia
• Parkinson's disease before age 65
• Permanent Total Disability (PTD) before age 65
• Pre-senile dementia before age 65
• Stroke
• Third degree burns

Please note that Life Insurance is referred to in several different ways. It is also known as:

• Life Assurance or Life Cover
• Term Assurance or Term Insurance
• Term Life Insurance or Term Life Assurance
• Mortgage Protection Insurance
• Mortgage Life Insurance

An income protection policy from Lifeinsuranceexpert will pay a tax-free monthly income until you recover, up to your retirement date if needed. Some of our providers will allow you to pay a little extra each month to include redundancy cover as part of your policy.

If you fit in to one of the categories below then income protection insurance may be right for you.

• Families with only one source of income
• Home owners with monthly mortgage payments
• Families with regular monthly bills such as energy bills, credit cards and loans
• Self employed people whose income is dependant on them being able to work
• A stay at home parent who if became ill would need to pay for child care