Group or or Individual Life Cover?
Life insurance is relatively easy to obtain in the UK, and some life insurance companies do not even require you to take a medical. Nevertheless, there are still numerous people who do not have life insurance. This could be because they do not like to think about the consequences or because they think that it may be expensive. Apart from these groups of people there are also those that think they have sufficient life cover because they are insured under a group scheme provided by their place of work.
Being insured through your place of work is seen as a perk of the job and there are no doubt some benefits attached. Under group life insurance your family or dependants will receive a lump sum in the event of your death and often you do not have to take a medical in order to qualify for this insurance. However, it is best to be aware of a number of disadvantages involved in this type of cover. We have set these out below:
1) You will usually only be insured during your employment with a particular company and if you change jobs your new employer may not offer life insurance.
2) There will be a limit regarding the amount of benefit under the life insurance policy, which may be for only two or three times your salary. This may sound like a lot of money, but if you have dependants who have to meet the costs of regular bills, pay outstanding debts and pay funeral costs, this amount of money might not go very far.
3) There might be certain restrictions under the policy, for example, if you have been off work sick or die whilst on holiday, you may not be covered.
4) You will not have any option as to the type of policy. There are many types of life insurance policies to choose from, many of which have optional extras, but under a group policy you will have to take the cover that is provided through the scheme.
5) In the event of a claim it might not be as straightforward as dealing with an individual policy as your employer may be listed as the policy holder.
6) Some companies don’t pay for the whole of the life insurance and you may have to meet a portion of the payments yourself. By shopping around you may be able to find individual life insurance cheaper than what you are paying through your group scheme.
7) The decision whether to offer you life insurance will rest with your employer, so if your insurance becomes more expensive because you have become older or you have developed a long-term illness, your employer may decide to withdraw your insurance.
If you receive life insurance through your work it is advisable to check exactly what cover is provided and whether there are any restrictions in place. If you find that the life cover is not sufficient for your needs, you may decide to take out an individual life insurance policy. The advantage of this is that you can shop around to find life insurance cover to suit your requirements, your circumstances and your budget. When you apply for life insurance with us we search the market amongst our many reputable life insurance providers to find the most competitive quote that fits your needs.
It is also possible to take out joint life cover which will cover you and your partner. In many instances you may find that this will be cheaper than buying two separate policies, and many people use this type of life insurance to cover their mortgages. There are some drawbacks however, for example, if one of you dies the insurance plan will terminate. If you want to provide for other dependants it may be best to have two separate policies so that there will still be a policy in force after one of you dies.
To receive a life insurance quote online, please fill in our online form and we will get back to you. We have also published a number of articles on this website which explain more about the various aspects of life insurance as well as giving details of some of the leading insurance companies that we deal with. This will enable you to make an informed decision before taking out a policy.
