Cheapest Life Insurance

How to reduce the cost of the policy you buy without losing cover.

There are several ways of getting the cheapest life insurance available without sacrificing cover- selecting the right way to buy your policy is jus one of them; but making an execution-only transaction can have implications on your consumer rights.

Reducing your cover to the bare minimum is probably the most effective but the least useful way of getting the cheapest life insurance. Over two thirds of policyholders are already under-insured, and therefore efforts to trim the premium are almost certainly foolish.

But you can reduce the amount you give to a broker. Firstly, you can look for discount brokers, who pass on some of their commission back to you. Or you can purchase your policy on an execution-only basis. This means that rather than offering you formal advice, your broker simply executes the contract. This often gets you the cheapest life insurance policy, because his time and contribution has been minimised.

However be aware that you will forfeit many consumer rights in doing this. The main legislation for life products is the Financial Services and Markets Act (2000), and the act spends a lot of time saying that you’re entitled to adequate advice before buying a product, and also that you have an obligation to protect yourself by asking the right questions, because the cheapest life insurance policy won’t automatically be the best one for you.

Therefore, if you end up with the wrong policy after an execution-only deal, you’ll find it very hard to take up a case with the Financial Services Authority, which regulates (in most cases) such transactions. Quite frankly, that sort of hassle takes ages anyway. Execution-only can be the way to the cheapest life insurance, but make sure you know what you’re talking about first.