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Lower Cost Life Insurance

The basic cost of your life insurance will very much depend on two factors over which you have little or no control, namely your state of health and your age.

Agreed that it is possible to maintain a healthy life style, with good food and an exercise regime, but even this precaution cannot guarantee avoidance of debilitating illness. The only way you can do anything about the other factor is to lie about your age - this may make you feel better but will cut no ice with your insurer! Remember - any incorrect information in the policy carries the significant risk of payment being refused. There are however a number of ways of cutting the cost of your life insurance without resorting to a policy which will fall well short of covering the needs of your dependents. Care is needed to ensure a satisfactory outcome.

One of the biggest factors in arriving at a final premium level can be the smoking question. If you smoke you are judged to be gambling with your health and likely to have a shorter than otherwise expected life span. This will show in your premium payments with costs typically a third higher than would otherwise be the case, to cover the likely earlier claim. To reduce this cost you should stop smoking at least a year (and preferably much more) before you take out your policy.

Joint life insurance can cut costs as the policy will normally pay out on the first death of a policy holder. This will provide a saving on the premiums but leaves the remaining holder without cover and at a greater age than at the inception of the original policy. This leads into the next saver - 'the sooner the better'. The cost of a policy will increase with age as your projected life span is shorter, so if you are considering life insurance it will pay to deal with it as quickly as possible to avoid the age related increases.

Your leisure pursuits will have an adverse effect on cost if you partake in 'risky' activities such as climbing, motor racing etc. One saving which you can do nothing about is gender - if you are a woman you will find that your costs are lower than for a man, simply because your life expectancy is greater so statistically you will pay more premiums in your lifetime. For your dependents, a policy 'written in trust' can save them money (but not you) because payment goes direct to the person named, potentially reducing inheritance tax.

Talk to the team at Lifebrokers to get details of all possible variations which will cut life insurance premium costs and to ensure that the information you have to hand is based on up to date knowledge of the relevant legislation.