Thinking of leaving us?

If you took out life insurance to cover a mortgage that’s now been paid off, it’s an ideal time to review your need for life cover. Your mortgage may have gone, but that doesn’t mean your need for life insurance has.

Are there people who still rely on you financially? Maybe you still have children in education or living at home, or you want to make sure your partner can still pay the bills when you’re gone. Life insurance can help provide that kind of security.

If you originally took out decreasing cover, this might not be right for your needs now. So consider the type of life insurance you need. In some cases, you may be able to change your existing cover type.

Or, if you don’t need as much life insurance anymore, you could shrink how much you pay by reducing the amount of cover you have.

Having life insurance in your back pocket means a lump sum will be paid to your loved ones if you die during the policy term, and this could be used towards whatever they need, including their normal day-to-day expenses, not just paying off a mortgage. And if you’ve got critical illness or income protection cover, this will still protect you if you become critically ill or you’re unable to work during the policy term.

Our life insurance calculator can help you get a better understanding of what your life insurance needs are now.

Sometimes insurance can seem like it’s just an extra expense, especially if things are a little squeezed right now. But it’s important to think of it as more than just an extra cost and remember why you took out life insurance in the first place. If you’re struggling, we may be able to help make sure you don’t have to cancel all your life cover.

Most of our policies offer flexibility, so you can lower your cover amount or how long your cover lasts to reduce the cost of your insurance.

If you’d like to have a chat with us about different ways to reduce the cost of your cover, just give us a call. We can’t give you financial advice, but we’d be happy to explain your options and talk about how we can help you keep some cover in place. It’s also a good idea to speak to your financial adviser about any changes you make to your cover, so you can make sure you’re making the right decision.

If you're cancelling because you are experiencing short term financial difficulty, for example:

• You’re in-between jobs with a known future start-date, or
• You’re on temporary unpaid leave to provide short-term care for a family member

We also offer a cost of living support scheme. This plan allows you to lower your payments for now, with the freedom to increase them again in 12-24 months when you’re back on track.

Depending on what life policy you have, you may be able to split it, and each take out a new policy without having to answer any new medical questions. There may be restrictions on when you can do this, so contact us as soon as possible after the separation.

No, not necessarily. You should consider what your changing needs mean for your life insurance. Maybe you need less after settling your debts or need more if you’ve recently had children and want to make sure they’re protected.

Life changes that could affect how much life insurance you need include:

• Moving house and taking out a bigger (or much smaller) mortgage
• Getting married or forming a civil partnership
• Becoming a first-time parent or adding to your family
• Getting a big pay rise
• Changing employer or experiencing a big change in the benefits you get through work (For example, sick pay)

You may be able to tweak your existing policy with us to reduce the amount of cover you have, change how long your cover lasts, or remove someone from the policy.

It may also be possible to increase the amount of cover you have. But if you can’t change your existing policy, topping it up with a new smaller policy might be more cost effective than cancelling everything and taking out an entirely new one.

If you’d like to make changes to an existing policy, it’s a good idea to speak to your financial adviser. If you don’t have one, it’s easy to find one online at unbiased.co.uk.

If you have already had a chat with your financial adviser and you’d like to change your cover without financial advice please complete one of our online change of cover requests forms and we will get back to you with a quote for the changes you have requested.

It’s great to have cover through work, like enhanced sick pay and death in service benefits – but it’s good to bear in mind that you’ll only get these during the time you’re working for your employer and they could change your benefits in the future if they want to. Having your own cover means you’re protected regardless of what happens with your job.