Life Insurance Term
What is the life insurance term, and how does it affect premiums?
The life insurance term is the time the policy will run for- from a matter of years to your whole life. The longer you’re covered the more you’re likely to pay, but the key cost driver is the age at which the policy expires (if at all).
The life insurance term is the duration of the policy, across which it carries some sort of value. Whole of life policies operate, not surprisingly, across your entire life, however long that may be. But term policies are so called because they only operate across a specific life insurance term. If you (or the insured) should die during the term, then the policy will pay out. Otherwise the policy expires and has no further value. If you want to reinsure, you’ll have to buy a new policy, and that ma be more expensive (as you’ve got older and therefore more likely to die).
There are some tweaks you can make to increase the life insurance term. There are renewable policies, for example, which cost a tiny bit more but will allow you to renew the policy with no medical examination. But oddly enough, these are long out of favour, as you’d be renewing with the same company. Rates have halved in the past five years, so the chance to renew with the same company is hardly worth paying for.
On average, the life assurance term for standard term policies is between five and twenty years. Bespoke term policies might cover a mortgage (twenty five years) or inheritance tax liability (seven years)- and rates of course go up the longer you’re covered for.
|
|
|
|
|