How to choose life insurance
When you first start to think about life insurance, it can be difficult to make sense of all the options available to you.
Many people first think about life insurance when they go through a big change in their lives, like buying their first home or having a child. It’s a great, positive step towards making sure your family will be looked after financially if something were to happen to you.
But it can be tricky to navigate all the options out there and understand what type of life insurance you should get.
So we’ve put together a quick guide to help you figure out how to choose the right life insurance for you and your family.
What life insurance should I get?
When thinking about what life insurance to get, you should keep in mind your personal circumstances, as there are a few main types of life insurance that will suit different needs.
Level term life insurance
The most common and most straightforward type of life insurance, level term life insurance, will cover you for a certain amount of time (the term of your policy). If you die within the policy term, your beneficiary will receive a payout (your sum assured).
Throughout your policy term, neither your premiums nor your payout will change unless you make changes to your policy.
Who is it good for?
As the payout and premiums don’t change, level term life insurance is the type of life insurance that will fit most personal circumstances.
The main reason to choose level term life insurance is to make sure your family is financially covered if something were to happen to you.
Decreasing term life insurance
Like level term life insurance, decreasing term life insurance will cover you for a set amount of time, so your beneficiary will receive a payout if you die within that term. However, your payout will go down the longer your policy goes on for.
Your premiums won’t change throughout the length of your policy (unless you make changes). But since your payout goes down over time, premiums for this type of policy tend to be cheaper than other types of life insurance.
Who is it good for?
Decreasing term life insurance can be a good choice if you’re taking out life insurance to cover a mortgage repayment. As you continue to pay off your mortgage, you'll need a smaller payout to pay off the remaining amount.
Because premiums for this type of insurance tend to be cheaper, it might be a better fit for a tight budget if you just want to make sure your loved ones will be able to keep paying off the mortgage if you pass away.
Whole-of-life insurance
Whole-of-life insurance is different from term life insurance as it covers you for the rest of your life, as long as you keep paying your premiums.
Because your sum assured is guaranteed to pay out, premiums tend to be a bit higher for whole-of-life insurance than for term life insurance. Some whole-of-life insurance policies come with added benefits, such as funeral funding (where some of your payout can go directly towards paying for your funeral).
Who is it good for?
As your policy lasts for the rest of your life, whole-of-life insurance can be good for someone who’s getting life insurance at an older age, or whose life insurance policy is coming to the end of its term.
Critical illness cover
While not a type of life insurance on its own, you can add critical illness cover to some life insurance policies. This will provide you and your family with a payout if you are diagnosed with a serious condition*. There are two different types of critical illness cover.
Life insurance with additional critical illness cover provides you with a separate payout from the payout on your life insurance policy. This means the policy can pay out twice: if you make a critical illness claim and if you die within the policy term.
Life insurance with critical illness cover only pays out once. This means that you’ll receive the payout either if you're diagnosed with a critical illness or if you die during the policy term.
Who is it good for?
Critical illness cover can be a great add-on to anyone’s life insurance policy, but it’s an especially good option for freelancers and other self-employed people who might not have workplace protection in place.
Children’s critical illness cover
You can also add children’s critical illness cover onto your own critical illness cover. Children’s critical illness cover pays out if any of your children become seriously ill, and you can take out this kind of cover even if you don’t have any children yet.
Who is it good for?
Children’s critical illness cover is a great option to add onto your life insurance policy if you’re currently a parent or planning to become one in the future. Although you're not financially dependent on your children, the payout can support you if you need time away from work or need to pay medical bills.
Should you get life insurance with Beagle Street?
At Beagle Street, we want to make sure anyone can get the right type of life insurance for them.
We offer both level term and decreasing term life insurance, as well as the option to add critical illness cover and children’s critical illness cover to our policies. With Beagle Street you could get a payout of up to £500,000 on a life insurance with critical illness policy.
We’re also committed to making life insurance accessible to everyone. If you’re looking for a lower premium, you could get life insurance with Beagle Street for £6 a month.**
All of our policies include terminal illness cover as standard, meaning that you can choose to get your payout if you're diagnosed with a terminal illness.
You can use our quick quote tool to find out how much cover you could get with a Beagle Street life insurance policy, with no obligation to go ahead with the quote.
*Must be one of the conditions listed in our policy terms & conditions.
** Based on a 30 year old non-smoker, £200K decreasing term cover for 20 years.
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