Combined Life Insurance

Combined policies potentially simplify buying insurance cover, but might cost more in the long run.

Combined life insurance usually means a policy containing both a life insurance and critical illness component. Buying both together can be good value because a good deal is on offer, but won’t account for changing life and critical illness rates in the future. Combined policies put eggs in the same basket!

A combined life insurance policy simply means a policy which includes two or more life products; in most cases a term or whole of life insurance policy with a critical illness policy bolted on. Critical illness cover is often sold hand in hand with life products, rather like a sunroof or air conditioning option on a new car.

Often, a combined life insurance policy is good value, because the life office (or broker) is prepared to give you a good deal in exchange for buying both products. Indeed, at the point of purchase, we can give you few good reasons not to get both forms of cover from the same place if the price is right.

Where the principle of combined life insurance gets interesting is a few years down the line, when you are re-evaluating your financial situation. For example, right now, term life insurance is selling at rock-bottom prices, so you might be looking to get a cheaper term life deal. However, critical illness premiums are on the rise (and many offices are now choosing to sell policies with reviewable rather than guaranteed premiums). So if you bought a combined life insurance deal five years ago, you’d probably hang on to it even if you could save a little on the term life component, because you couldn’t get a better deal on the critical illness component.

Quite simply, a combined life insurance policy is all about putting your eggs in one basket; for which you might receive a generous financial incentive. But nobody can predict the future; and you may win on the swings and lose on the roundabouts!