In contrast to some other insurance products like home insurance, holding multiple life insurance policies may be the best option to suit your circumstances.
Key points
- Try to arrange a single life insurance policy that’ll serve your needs in the long term, a guaranteed term is available up to your 91st birthday.
- If you have opted for a traditional reducing cover mortgage protection policy, take out a separate level cover policy to protect your partner or family.
- Review your life protection cover periodically, to check it’s still appropriate for your circumstances
- If your needs change, speak to your current adviser, but also shop around to work out your best cover options
- Seeking free independent advice can help you decide whether to adjust an existing policy and/or take out a new one, and whether to cancel or keep the old policy.
Depending on your circumstances, it’s possible that holding multiple life insurance products can be the right way for you to meet your cover needs.
- A reducing cover policy to protect your mortgage is payable to your lender.
- A term policy to protect your partner, or dependents at least up until retirement age.
- A policy to cover funeral costs in old age.
- A whole-of-life policy to cover your children against an inheritance tax.
Reviewing your life insurance arrangements
You may also have a wide range of life protection products in place to provide you and your family with support and reassurance, perhaps including term life insurance, critical illness cover, income protection insurance, plus any benefits associated with your employment.
Over time, though, your requirements are likely to change. You may, for example:
- Marry
- Divorce
- Remarry
- Have more children and grandchildren
- Extend your mortgage term
- Take on a larger mortgage
- Change occupation
- See your health improve or decline
In these circumstances – and many more – it may be right to review the life protection products you have in place to check they’re still suitable for your needs.
What to consider on review?
As a first step in a review of your arrangements, it’s likely to be worth speaking to your existing provider and in contrast to general insurance products such as home or car insurance, you need to remember that switching providers regularly isn’t necessarily a good idea.
That’s largely because increasing age and deteriorating health can have major impacts on the cost of life insurance premiums, meaning that as you age you may not have access to deals that are as attractive as a policy you took out earlier in life.
Also, sometimes your existing life insurance policy allows you to extend your coverage up to certain limits without having to provide fresh medical evidence. This feature is known as guaranteed insurability and forms part of many term life insurance policies.
That said, if you remain in good health and want to extend or increase your life insurance coverage, it’s also well worth coming to any new quotes that may be provided by your existing provider, against the market at the time.
When you took, your original policy did you compare the market for the best like-for-like cover price? Remember also online options provide additional premium discounts that may not have existed before.
See also:
Take advice!
Given all the possible complications and the factors you need to consider, it’s worth taking expert advice when assessing your changing needs.
At OneQuote.ie our expert life insurance advisors compare the products of the 6 leading life insurance companies in Ireland. They then offer the most suitable for at the lowest market price and provide added discount to give the best value guarantee.
For free and impartial advice on holding multiple life insurance policies, call us on: 01 845 0049, or request or enquire now.
See also:
Ken O’Gorman – QFA
OneQuote.ie – Smart Financial Protection
