Low Cost Term Life Insurance

Ensuring that value for money doesn’t also mean disappointment.

The vast majority of people with life insurance policies are actually under-insured. When searching for low cost term life insurance, make sure the maturity value is what you need to give adequate benefit to your dependents and fully assess any tax issues too.

You’ve probably found that looking for low cost term life insurance is easy- there’s so little between the quotes you receive. But have you thought that you might be underinsured?

A term life policy pays out if you happen to die during the term. That’s the easy bit. But thinking ahead and managing the money is desperately important. Many people looking for low cost tem life insurance underinsure themselves, because they forget that whilst there’s a tax benefit during the time you’re paying premiums, the money you get at the end is taxable, and depending on your circumstances it can be taxed very highly. You need to be sure you’re putting enough money in, and maximising your financial circumstances.

One possible way out of the tax trap is a family income plan (there are other names for this- ask your financial adviser for a full explanation). This is a class of term insurance which instead of paying out a taxable lump sum, instead pays out a monthly amount to your nominated dependents. When you’re evaluating low cost term life insurance you of course need to assess how much that monthly amount would be, but it could present a tax saving. There’s always a catch though: remember, this is a term plan, and just as ordinary term plans expire, so do these. If you die in year 8 of a 10 year plan, the monthly payment will only happen for two years. For this reason, these are often remarkably cheap policies.

The lesson as always is, ask your financial adviser for a breakdown of exactly what you’re likely to get for your money at any stage of the policy.