Life Insurance

Haggisman · 2 Oct 2020 at 09:47

NVP said:
Fixed for accuracy.

Not sure if "minute" is quite accurate, but yes, the risk is small - but then so is the cost to minimise that risk!

The risk that my house is going to burn down is also very small (and arguably would have less of an impact on my family) , but I still have insurance for that (and it's significantly more expensive!)

NVP · 2 Oct 2020 at 09:58

Home & contents insurance is a lot more involved than simply covering for fire.

Haggisman · 2 Oct 2020 at 10:12

NVP said:
Home & contents insurance is a lot more involved than simply covering for fire.

Of course, but my point is I'm paying 4x as much for something which would be less disruptive to my family and as unlikely to actually be needed.

Theophany · 2 Oct 2020 at 11:50

BYTEr said:
Hi all,

Me & my wife are looking to purchase a joint life insurance policy (or should we get separate policies?), but not 100% sure on a few things so looking for peoples opinions.

I'm 29, wife is 30, we have 1 small child, medically pretty clear other than the wife taking low dosage medication for depression, we also currently have a mortgage of around 180k.

The main query I have is for how long should we take it out and for how much? Reading some guides etc they're suggesting as long as 30 years and 10x your current income, however, who knows how much we'd want to be leaving then or indeed how much would it even be worth in 30 years.

I know the older you are, the more expensive it would be generally but would it be stupid to get a much shorter policy, say 5 years, then we can reassess again even if it might be a bit more expensive?

Any opinions or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Begin at the beginning. What is it that you want to insure against? Without knowing what it is you want to be protected against, you can't be advised, only sold to.

NVP · 2 Oct 2020 at 11:59

Haggisman said:
Of course, but my point is I'm paying 4x as much for something which would be less disruptive to my family and as unlikely to actually be needed.

Well my point is your point sucks

4x as much covers a hell of a lot of common issues from burst pipes to subsidence.

Haggisman · 2 Oct 2020 at 12:34

NVP said:
Well my point is your point sucks 4x as much covers a hell of a lot of common issues from burst pipes to subsidence.

Fair enough. I guess it's a different appetite to risk.

My partner and kids would be ****ed if I died in the next few years and left them with nothing. They'd lose the house - sure they'd get some equity from that, but there's no way she'd be able to get a mortgage on her own, and I've no idea how she would be able to afford childcare to be able to work anyway, so chances are they'd end up in a rundown council house/flat on a dodgy estate living on benefits with a pretty crap quality of life.

Don't know about you, but that's not the life I'd want for my kids if something were to happen to me, and £8/month is a bargain to know that wouldn't be the case. If I put that same £8/month into a savings account, even if I didn't die until the last month of the 25 years, the £2.4k would barely cover my funeral costs

Out of interest, do you have kids? If I didn't then I probably wouldn't bother with life insurance either - my partner could look after herself perfectly well on her own.

NVP · 2 Oct 2020 at 12:42

I have 2. I also have life insurance

pp111 · 3 Oct 2020 at 14:11

Jimbeam3678 said:
This thread is a prime example of why independent financial advisors exist

The only problem is that many such people make their money from commission from the products they get you to sign up for, so they are not really independent. They are more inclined to offer solutions that show them the greatest return. I think it is fine to use them but you shouldn't just accept the solution they offer. It is often better to talk directly to one of the major companies once you have an idea what you want.

booyaka · 3 Oct 2020 at 14:39

pp111 said:
The only problem is that many such people make their money from commission from the products they get you to sign up for, so they are not really independent. They are more inclined to offer solutions that show them the greatest return. I think it is fine to use them but you shouldn't just accept the solution they offer. It is often better to talk directly to one of the major companies once you have an idea what you want.

yawn.....

At least if your slagging someone off get your information/facts correct.

Advisers (IFA) cannot receive commission – including trail commission – on new investment products purchased after 31 December 2012. No such thing as commission for 8 years now.

"Solutions that show them the greatest return" - what does that even mean??

Major companies - who are you referring too? An IFA is independent whether they work for themselves or whether they work for a large multinational company. I bet my fee (as a solo IFA) are way less for the same business than large multination company or alike

pp111 · 3 Oct 2020 at 14:52

booyaka said:
yawn.....

At least if your slagging someone off get your information/facts correct.

Advisers (IFA) cannot receive commission – including trail commission – on new investment products purchased after 31 December 2012. No such thing as commission for 8 years now.

"Solutions that show them the greatest return" - what does that even mean??

Major companies - who are you referring too? An IFA is independent whether they work for themselves or whether they work for a large multinational company. I bet my fee (as a solo IFA) are way less for the same business than large multination company or alike

Well, perhaps I stand corrected, and perhaps I am out of date, but somehow I don't believe you, lol, this is interesting but something I would have to check for myself. ( You can tell I have no trust in anyone offering financial advice, lol ).

NVP · 3 Oct 2020 at 14:58

booyaka said:
Advisers (IFA) cannot receive commission – including trail commission – on new investment products purchased after 31 December 2012. No such thing as commission for 8 years now.

What's the thread title again? Care to add clarity on the actual subject matter?

booyaka · 3 Oct 2020 at 15:16

NVP said:
What's the thread title again? Care to add clarity on the actual subject matter?

The thread title was about life assurance/insurance - which I have already commented on with regards the OP's initial post.

However - Just trying to educate people who are making utterly false and nonsensical posts. It's GD, threads always ended up miles off topic!

NVP · 3 Oct 2020 at 16:12

And can IFA'S accept commission on life insurance policies?

NVP · 3 Oct 2020 at 20:20

I'll answer myself, then. Yes, the answer is yes. Commission averages between £1-10k for one contract.

If you think you need Life Insurance source it yourself, it's a very, very simple product which you do not need an "experts" advice.

booyaka · 4 Oct 2020 at 00:23

NVP said:
I'll answer myself, then. Yes, the answer is yes. Commission averages between £1-10k for one contract.

If you think you need Life Insurance source it yourself, it's a very, very simple product which you do not need an "experts" advice.

which is exactly what I said before - the access to online life assurance is massive - I would always suggest a straight forward life case is done online. More complex family planning cases including medical issues/high risk jobs etc may require some advice but in most cases, online is the simplest and easiest option for most people.

NVP · 4 Oct 2020 at 01:19

Nice one.

I was pulling you up on this:

booyaka said:
yawn.....

At least if your slagging someone off get your information/facts correct.

Advisers (IFA) cannot receive commission – including trail commission – on new investment products purchased after 31 December 2012. No such thing as commission for 8 years now.

and then this:

booyaka said:
Just trying to educate people

Considering this thread is about Life Insurance I felt your post lacked a little... honesty.

Theophany · 4 Oct 2020 at 16:04

NVP said:
I'll answer myself, then. Yes, the answer is yes. Commission averages between £1-10k for one contract.

If you think you need Life Insurance source it yourself, it's a very, very simple product which you do not need an "experts" advice.

**** me, if the commission is £10k that's some serious premium and you probably should get advice, or better yet, get a bodyguard!

NVP · 4 Oct 2020 at 20:06

neocon · 5 Oct 2020 at 10:30

I'm not saying not to have a policy, but I think a more likely scenario is that a person will get ill and then be unable to work. You're more likely to get a cancer say and then be too sick to work. There are policies that cover this eventuality too, but more expensive.

Say the bread winner gets cancer and can't work, who's going to pay the bills in the interim period?

Psycho Sonny · 5 Oct 2020 at 14:19

FoxEye said:
It goes without saying that, since everybody dies, life insurance policies must either pay out less than you pay in, or have a shed load of clauses / reasons not to pay out.

Some of those reasons include missing a payment after you're dead. Not even kidding

If you miss a payment (due to being dead) and nobody notifies the insurance company before your next payment is due, that has been known (in real life cases) to void the policy.

Seems you'd be better off just paying into a saving account.

That's not at all how insurance works. I work with the industry and they make next to no profit from policies.

What they do is take all the money coming in and invest it wisely. The money from those investments is what makes it a lucrative business.

Half of the buildings in city centres like offices and shopping centres are owned by insurance companies.

They are essentially property management companies.

For example legal and general own cala homes. That's just an example of which there are many.

Then there is re-insurance and loads of other things they do so even if the worst does happen they are covered.