review of life assurance

whelan1

have been ringing agent in bamk for ages to get a review, i caught him in the bank this morning and got him to review my payments for the same level of cover as i previously had for me and my husband we will be paying €40 a month less, works out at 1.5 months free iykwim. This is due to the price of policies falling and the fact i lost 3 stone... Could be worth a review for a few people to save a few quid

Grecco

Any chance you`d give a bit of detail on the type of cover you have ??

whelan1

originally took it out 3 years ago to cover my loans, both insured for 200k will go through the finer points and post it up later

reilig

Is it life assurance or life insurance that you have?

Myself and the O/H have life insurance to the value of €200K - we took it out at the same time as we took out the mortgage. It costs us €34 per month.

whelan1

reilig wrote: »

Is it life assurance or life insurance that you have?

Myself and the O/H have life insurance to the value of €200K - we took it out at the same time as we took out the mortgage. It costs us €34 per month.

that seems extremely cheap tbh, i thought there was only life assurance - as you are assured of dying, insurance is just in case

Tipp Man

whelan1 wrote: »

that seems extremely cheap tbh, i thought there was only life assurance - as you are assured of dying, insurance is just in case

That's why its a lot cheaper than yours - Relig's is just in case scenario whereas yours is a guaranteed payout for the insurance company. Basically yours is a glorified savings scheme - Religs is insurance

reilig

whelan1 wrote: »

that seems extremely cheap tbh, i thought there was only life assurance - as you are assured of dying, insurance is just in case

Life Insurance insures you for a specific period of time. Then if you die whilst the policy is in force, the insurance company pays the claim. However, if you survive to the end of the term, the policy is finished and has no residual value whatsoever. Even whilst the Life Insurance policy is in force it only has any value if you have a claim – in that context it’s just like your home insurance!

Life Assurance is different. With Life Assurance you have an important investment element. A Life Assurance policy joins a guaranteed insured sum with a none guaranteed investment, the value of the investment being directly related to the size of the guaranteed sum on your policy, the number of years the policy has been in force and Insurance Company’s investment performance.

If you were to die during a Life Assurance policy’s term, the policy pays out the guaranteed sum (just as with Life Insurance) or the value of the annual investment bonuses that had been added to the policy by the Insurance Company to date, whichever is the larger. Therefore, as the years go by the Life Assurance policy increases in value as the bonuses attached to it, build up.

Needless to say, assurance is more expensive than insurance.

I don't have specifics on our policy. I just know that if either of us die, the insurance company will pay out €200k to our bank. This will be used to pay off our mortgage and the balance will be given to either of us.

whelan1

have another question , do they pay out in the case of suicide? - not that i am thinking of it or anything:eek:

5live

I imagine suicide is precluded as the temptation might be too much for some. So the insurance company WONT pay out when someone takes their own life

st1979

Why bother with bank. 5 years ago i got life cover for 20yrs for 160k and critical illness for 120k it cost me 80/month from BOI. Last year i rang them and told them it was extremely expensive but they wouldn't change the price so i shopped around and every one was giving a way better deal. But I found that through the internet brokers you got just as good a deal from the exact same companies ie zurich, irish life etc but they give you back upto 80% of your first year premiums. I ended up getting 600k life cover + critical illness for 150k for 30 years and i am 5 years older for 1300/year first year cost less than 300. Now the year is up i will look around again and try another company and will do so until i have an illness and it gets too expensive to change. Was in with another bank cause the manager insisted they would like to try for my business so met up with there life cover specialist and when i told her my quote she said if she was me she would do the same and they couldn't beat even the 1300/year for the same cover. Ended up i got my cover from zurich but irish life was very close.
1 word of warning is i would pay in yearly amounts as you don't have to wait for the rebate then as when you pay monthly you don't get the rebate for 13mts and if the brokers gone bang you will still be covered but won't get the rebate back.

Tora Bora

For any of you who have critical illness cover, I suggest you consider permanent health insurance instead. PHI for short.
This type of policy will pay you a weekly wage in the evet you get sick, and cannot work.
The good thing is the premiums are 100% allowable against tax. I pay €72 a month for €850 weekly income cover. After tax that's a premium of €10 a week. Friends first.

whelan1

Tora Bora wrote: »

For any of you who have critical illness cover, I suggest you consider permanent health insurance instead. PHI for short.
This type of policy will pay you a weekly wage in the evet you get sick, and cannot work.
The good thing is the premiums are 100% allowable against tax. I pay €72 a month for €850 weekly income cover. After tax that's a premium of €10 a week. Friends first.

dont fbd cover that?

Username John

Tora Bora wrote: »

For any of you who have critical illness cover, I suggest you consider permanent health insurance instead. PHI for short.
This type of policy will pay you a weekly wage in the evet you get sick, and cannot work.
The good thing is the premiums are 100% allowable against tax. I pay €72 a month for €850 weekly income cover. After tax that's a premium of €10 a week. Friends first.

Interesting...

We have the same as Reilg above - altho we pay a euro more at 35/month :mad:

Re critical illness (or this Permanent Health Insurance) is this something many people have here?
Its something we looked at before, but we discounted, as I think you can pay too much insurance too... But interested to see if people think its worth the money...

moy83

whelan1 wrote: »

have another question , do they pay out in the case of suicide? - not that i am thinking of it or anything:eek:

I was told that they dont pay out in the case of a suicide until you have paid a years worth of premiums paid

Fries-With-That

I've been reading the posts here on different insurance policies and my advice to everyone on here is be very careful with your insurance.

When you buy insurance you are supposed to get a white book explaining the terms and conditions of the policy you are buying.

PLEASE read the book.

Mortgage insurance is not personal insurance, generally speaking if you take out a 200k policy when you buy a house you are buying decreasing term insurance.

Year 1, policy is worth 200k if you or your spouse dies the bank gets paid the 200k.

Year 2, you have 20k paid off the mortgage( just an example) if you or your spouse dies the bank gets 180k survivor gets nothing.

This continues until you have your mortgage paid and the the policy finishes. You can take the option of guaranteed cover again (without a medical) when you buy the policy, but AFAIK you can't add it on afterwards.

Most mortgages are covered by this type of policy this is protecting the bank and your spouse but does not offer a cash sum it JUST PAYS THE MORTGAGE.

On the suicide question, most policies should pay out on in the event of a suicide but again there are questions asked when you are taking out the policy that you should always give an honest answer to, because if you are less than truthful it wioll come back and bite you or your family.

E.G. if you have suffered from depression, post natal or otherwise and had treatment for same ) and haven't stated this when answering the medical questions it could be seen as a factor in a suicide related claim.

Specific illness/Critical illness policies attached to life cover policies can be independent or accelerated.

100k Life cover 100k illness cover (independent) means that if you get one of the various listed illness you will get a payment of 100k(helps with medical expenses etc) and when you die your family will get another 100k.(two payments)

100k life cover and 100k illness cover (accelerated) means that if you get one of the various illness listed you get 100k but the life cover portion of the policy is finished at the same time (one payment only)

Another thing to remember when taking out a policy is the time scale you take the policy for, focus on what you need insurance for.

Young family = long policy until they are all finished college etc
Older children ask yourself do you really need a policy for 200k for 20 years
If your children are self supporting do you need an expensive life policy.
If you have children with special needs your need for insurance is important and should be looked at.

Everyone should have illness cover in my opinion.


Last point, If you have insurance find out exactly what you're covered for.

Sorry for long post but insurance is a minefield.

Fries.

LostCovey

Tipp Man wrote: »

That's why its a lot cheaper than yours - Relig's is just in case scenario whereas yours is a guaranteed payout for the insurance company. Basically yours is a glorified savings scheme - Religs is insurance

Yes, and the other common feature of those savings type policies is that whoever sold it to you probably got a lot of the first year's premium as commission.

LostCovey

whelan1

LostCovey wrote: »

Yes, and the other common feature of those savings type policies is that whoever sold it to you probably got a lot of the first year's premium as commission.

LostCovey

dont worry your cotton socks about me:D i got stung before and know what to expect with these guys, actually reported a guy who tried to sell me a policy when iwas pregnant that had no hospital cover to replace an exsisting one

LostCovey

whelan1 wrote: »

dont worry your cotton socks about me:D i got stung before and know what to expect with these guys, actually reported a guy who tried to sell me a policy when iwas pregnant that had no hospital cover to replace an exsisting one

How did you get stung?

LC

whelan1

had a polict that had a savings element and sickness etc, a guy came out and said i was paying way too much :rolleyes: offered me a package for peanuts... got my neighbour who is an insurance agent to look over it , he said under the rules and regulations for the life assurance crowd that this fella should have been struck off for the advice he gave me - made him reinstate the old policy- was a few strange goings on with my old policy , just glad my neighbour sussed it all out before i signed anything

LostCovey

whelan1 wrote: »

had a polict that had a savings element and sickness etc, a guy came out and said i was paying way too much :rolleyes: offered me a package for peanuts... got my neighbour who is an insurance agent to look over it , he said under the rules and regulations for the life assurance crowd that this fella should have been struck off for the advice he gave me - made him reinstate the old policy- was a few strange goings on with my old policy , just glad my neighbour sussed it all out before i signed anything

It's a minefield

whelan1

yup and thankfully that guy didnt get his bonus, was very lucky to keep his job

LostCovey

whelan1 wrote: »

yup and thankfully that guy didnt get his bonus, was very lucky to keep his job

You went easy on him

reilig

Ours definitely offers a cash payment - its 200k and the difference is paid out to me or the Mrs (whichever one of us turn up at the solicitor with a death certificate):D:D. It was one of the advantages of choosing a good mortgage broker when we were taking out the mortgage (That and his advice to take a tracker mortgage and not the variable mortgage that BOI wanted me to take when I approached them first)

Fries-With-That wrote: »

I've been reading the posts here on different insurance policies and my advice to everyone on here is be very careful with your insurance.

When you buy insurance you are supposed to get a white book explaining the terms and conditions of the policy you are buying.

PLEASE read the book.

Mortgage insurance is not personal insurance, generally speaking if you take out a 200k policy when you buy a house you are buying decreasing term insurance.

Year 1, policy is worth 200k if you or your spouse dies the bank gets paid the 200k.

Year 2, you have 20k paid off the mortgage( just an example) if you or your spouse dies the bank gets 180k survivor gets nothing.

This continues until you have your mortgage paid and the the policy finishes. You can take the option of guaranteed cover again (without a medical) when you buy the policy, but AFAIK you can't add it on afterwards.

Most mortgages are covered by this type of policy this is protecting the bank and your spouse but does not offer a cash sum it JUST PAYS THE MORTGAGE.

On the suicide question, most policies should pay out on in the event of a suicide but again there are questions asked when you are taking out the policy that you should always give an honest answer to, because if you are less than truthful it wioll come back and bite you or your family.

E.G. if you have suffered from depression, post natal or otherwise and had treatment for same ) and haven't stated this when answering the medical questions it could be seen as a factor in a suicide related claim.

Specific illness/Critical illness policies attached to life cover policies can be independent or accelerated.

100k Life cover 100k illness cover (independent) means that if you get one of the various listed illness you will get a payment of 100k(helps with medical expenses etc) and when you die your family will get another 100k.(two payments)

100k life cover and 100k illness cover (accelerated) means that if you get one of the various illness listed you get 100k but the life cover portion of the policy is finished at the same time (one payment only)

Another thing to remember when taking out a policy is the time scale you take the policy for, focus on what you need insurance for.

Young family = long policy until they are all finished college etc
Older children ask yourself do you really need a policy for 200k for 20 years
If your children are self supporting do you need an expensive life policy.
If you have children with special needs your need for insurance is important and should be looked at.

Everyone should have illness cover in my opinion.


Last point, If you have insurance find out exactly what you're covered for.

Sorry for long post but insurance is a minefield.

Fries.