Life insurance or Serious Illness Cover

Darby_321

First Time buyer looking at getting mortgage protection but also looking as some sort of life cover incase anything happens down the line its good to have some cover. I am 26 and girlfriend is 25 so we are at a good age for taking out life insurance/serious illness cover.

Getting the mortgage with AIB so went and talked to their financial advisor who gave us a quote for mortgage protection and then also a quote for life insurance on top of that (they are partnered with Irish Life).

Then i met with a broker who i believe has links with Zurich as he was pushing them for the mortgage protection and also for serious illness cover. His mortgage protection was a couple of euro cheaper than AIB and then including the serious illness cover it works out about the same price per month as the medium plan offered by AIB.

Then i went onto bonkers and put in the details myself and got cheaper quotes for both mortgage protection and life insurance/serious illness cover by other companies. These were mainly from New Ireland Assurance and also Royal London DAC.

But my question is, is it safe enough to go with these other companies who would not be as well know as Zurich or Irish Life and also do people think that i should go for Life Insurance or Serious Illness cover?

Browney7

Darby_321 wrote: »

First Time buyer looking at getting mortgage protection but also looking as some sort of life cover incase anything happens down the line its good to have some cover. I am 26 and girlfriend is 25 so we are at a good age for taking out life insurance/serious illness cover.

Getting the mortgage with AIB so went and talked to their financial advisor who gave us a quote for mortgage protection and then also a quote for life insurance on top of that (they are partnered with Irish Life).

Then i met with a broker who i believe has links with Zurich as he was pushing them for the mortgage protection and also for serious illness cover. His mortgage protection was a couple of euro cheaper than AIB and then including the serious illness cover it works out about the same price per month as the medium plan offered by AIB.

Then i went onto bonkers and put in the details myself and got cheaper quotes for both mortgage protection and life insurance/serious illness cover by other companies. These were mainly from New Ireland Assurance and also Royal London DAC.

But my question is, is it safe enough to go with these other companies who would not be as well know as Zurich or Irish Life and also do people think that i should go for Life Insurance or Serious Illness cover?

I'd question why you feel the need to have life insurance at your age at all especially as you have no dependents. Specified illness to help pay for lifestyle changes in the event you get a serious illness, maybe, but extra life cover on top of the mortgage protection, not sure I see the merit. You may also already have life cover through your employer

Those other companies are all fine and reputable and most (if not all) brokers will have access to them. AIB will only sell Irish life products.

Red Rua

My tuppance.

A bank financial advisor will generally be dearer and biased to one provider.

1.Get cheapest mortgage protection insurance you can find. I have found labrokers good in past (no affiliation). This policy will be assigned to the mortgage provider and in the event of a death mortgage will be paid off. Mortage protection is relatively cheap.

2. Separately consider life assurance. This will depend on personal circumstances, for example do you have dependants? Do your employers provide any life assurance "benefits". A rough guide might be 3 or 4 times your annual salary but it is very much a personal thing. New Ireland and Royal London are reputable companies.

3. Serious illness cover is more expensive. You are much more likely to get a serious illness than die. Again very much depends on personal circumstances and whether you can afford it. It would be more important if you had dependants. A brokers advice may be required as diiferent providers provide varying levels of cover, so they shouldn't be compared on price alone.

antix80

Darby_321 wrote: »

Then i met with a broker who i believe has links with Zurich as he was pushing them for the mortgage protection and also for serious illness cover. His mortgage protection was a couple of euro cheaper than AIB and then including the serious illness cover it works out about the same price per month as the medium plan offered by AIB.

You'll always find cheaper policies but is the cover the same?

The basic policy your bank requires for the mortgage could cost as little as €15 a month depending on how much cover you need.

Darby_321

Browney7 wrote: »

I'd question why you feel the need to have life insurance at your age at all especially as you have no dependents. Specified illness to help pay for lifestyle changes in the event you get a serious illness, maybe, but extra life cover on top of the mortgage protection, not sure I see the merit. You may also already have life cover through your employer

Those other companies are all fine and reputable and most (if not all) brokers will have access to them. AIB will only sell Irish life products.

Would getting life insurance now when we have no dependents and have no illnesses be better than waiting for around 10 years and then looking for it when the premiums will have tripled if not more whereas if we took out the life cover now for around 20 years and then amend it as life progresses (kids etc) the premium might stay lower since the original plan was taken out at the lower price?

Yes through employment we would have fairly decent benefits where we get i think 4 times our salaries if one of us passes and we have good health insurance through work also.

Henry Ford III

Like everything - it depends on the circumstances.

For example if OP & partner have no dependents and decent jobs with a pension scheme with DIS and PHI, and/or health ins. perhaps giving the lender a simple mortgage protection policy with any extra going into savings or AVC's might be optimal?

If OP is married with kids the situation is entirely different.

A Broker is obliged to do a factfind with a view to establishing the optimal solution bearing in mind the circumstances. Did the Broker you spoke to do that? They should also have given you a quote and disclosed any commission (their cost). If they failed to do that you're better off talking to someone who does things properly.

Recommending a discount broker will get you a cheaper premium (c. 6.5%) but you may easily end up with the wrong type of cover so it could just as easily be an expensive mistake. They execute only and don't offer advice.

p.s. All the Life Assurance Co's operating here are capable of handling claims.

Henry Ford III

antix80 wrote: »

You'll always find cheaper policies but is the cover the same?

The basic policy your bank requires for the mortgage could cost as little as €15 a month depending on how much cover you need.

Minimum premium is actually lower than that.

antix80

Henry Ford III wrote: »

Minimum premium is actually lower than that.

I'm aware, but figured unless the op's buying a treehouse €15 would be a fairer low estimate.

Darby_321

antix80 wrote: »

I'm aware, but figured unless the op's buying a treehouse €15 would be a fairer low estimate.

Haha although a treehouse would be cool I'm unfortunately not buying one. The lowest mortgage protection I'm getting is €16.50. The lowest serious illness cover I'm getting for the two of us is about €25.

antix80

Darby_321 wrote: »

Haha although a treehouse would be cool I'm unfortunately not buying one. The lowest mortgage protection I'm getting is €16.50. The lowest serious illness cover I'm getting for the two of us is about €25.

Does the €25 include life cover or is separate?

The problem with having more than one policy is you end up paying a policy fee of over a fiver a month on each policy instead of only one.
It's not a huge amount of money and i can understand why people would want a separate policy to assign to the bank.. But something to think about.

Darby_321

antix80 wrote: »

Does the €25 include life cover or is separate?

The problem with having more than one policy is you end up paying a policy fee of over a fiver a month on each policy instead of only one.
It's not a huge amount of money and i can understand why people would want a separate policy to assign to the bank.. But something to think about.

No the 25 is just the serious illness cover, the 16 euro would be on top of that then also.

What is this policy fee that you are on about? This was never mentioned to us. When we were in the bank i believe the financial advisor told us that even if we took the life insurance with them which included the mortgage protection in the price that they would still be two separate policies on paper.

CarrickMcJoe

I was advised by my broker to get a serious illness cover as I'm self employed. Glad I did, had heart attack, couple of stents, but got a tidy lump sum. Zurich were the company and a pleasure to deal with, even called to see how I was . Paid up promptly too.

antix80

The policy fee is built into the prices.

I haven't kept up to date with life assurance policies on the market, but you used to be able to get mortgage cover that included "accelerated" serious illness cover.

The serious illness cover, like the life cover, reduces in line with the mortgage. If one of you got sick or died, it paid off the mortgage and the policy ceased. It's basically the budget option.

skippy2

Personally would recommend Income Protection over Serious Illness Cover.

A lump sum is fine but if you cannot work for the next 30 years Income Protection may be a better option.
I needed it and was so glad of it. Only mistake i made was not to increase the amount covered as my Salary increased
But overall it has been a lifesaver

Henry Ford III

skippy2 wrote: »

Personally would recommend Income Protection over Serious Illness Cover.

A lump sum is fine but if you cannot work for the next 30 years Income Protection may be a better option.
I needed it and was so glad of it. Only mistake i made was not to increase the amount covered as my Salary increased
But overall it has been a lifesaver

I.P. has valuable tax relief on the premium too. Payments are taxed but seeing as they are replacing income that would have been taxable anyway it's not important.

S.I. cover is a very different product. It'll pay out only once (potentially twice if it's accelerated life cover) but is aimed at paying for lifestyle changes following a designated illness. It's not for long term income replacement.