Morgage or Life Insurance?

[HEALY]

Recently purchased a place and not keen on relying soley on the CX insurance bailing my family out of any tight fixes. Can anyone suggest any good deals with either morgage insurance or life insurance (with extra illness coverage) that have good add ons besides the case of death. I am aware of the investment options that exist however I am just interested in the basic coverage only option.

I am led to believe of one company that will cover you for job specific (pilot) scenario but not sure of the name.

[Near Miss]

I have my mortgage with HSBC. They have an insurance plan whereby if I die then my loan is paid out, thus leaving the place to my wife totally debt free. This way she doesn't have to worry about selling the place (perhaps during a downturn) or trying to make repayments while waiting for the money to arrive. The life insurance that I get (she gets) from work is extra.

[Humber10]

HSBC have two options. 1- take out a policy that pays off the mortgage if you kick the bucket, or 2- a similar policy but is more like life insurence, where if you kick out the bucket you get a set payout amount for the term of the mortgage. From memory both are a similar price per month.
It may pay to ask other backs what packages they have.

[Fixed Ground Power]

I think that what you are looking for is a term life policy. Term life is the purest form of life insurance - if you die your estate / beneficiaries receive a payout. In my view it probably is also the best type since it is very simple and transparent; when you combine term life with some kind of regular investment it is far better than buying one of the investment-linked types since you retain full control of your contributions and you don't get hit with all sorts of obscure fees.

You'll find that insurance agents will push you to buy an investment-linked policy as the commissions are higher. With term life the annual premium increases every year to reflect the higher mortality rate, though there are usually options for terms of 5 years or 10 years during which the premium is flat or level. Premiums tend to go up rather rapidly after attaining age of around 45 :eek:. Make sure that the policy is guaranteed renewable and you might want to think about added a rider for premium waiver. I'd obtain at least three quotes for comparison purposes. Be sure that the quotes are for the same terms, insured amounts etc otherwise they won't be comparable.

More info at the ever-helpful wikipedia.
Life insurance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_insurance)

Hope this helps

FGP

[Humber10]

HEALY, can you post your findings on here. thanks

[LongTimeInCX]

I went for pure life insurance. Had same experience as FixdGrdPwr, in that the agent I went through was trying to spruik an investment linked policy, justifying it by saying if I lived, then there is a payout value to the policy. I reiterated I wanted something for when I shuffled off my coil prematurely, not something for if I was fortunate to make it past 50.

Begrudgingly, a simple 'whole of life' policy was produced, good payout whilst young coupled with low premiums. Mine had the option every 4 years to increase the payout in line with CPI at a corresponding hilke in premiums.

However where it started to become less cost effective was once over age 45 where premiums went way high for the benefit received.
For me though, it coincided with the end of my 10 yr mortgage, so I ceased at that time, but was grateful for the peace of mind that were I to have been suffocated in Patpong, that the mortgage would have been paid off with enough spare to pay for an advert for another handyman.

Overall worked well to save the ball and chain suffering further grief, about the mortgage - not the cause of my unfortunate demise!, especially as she viewed it as similar to a lotto ticket.

A final thought though, unless you wear kevlar to bed and can hire a food taster, don't insure for too much:ok:

[HEALY]

Responses are appreciated guys, I guess the largest driving factor I am looking at as well is having an insurance that will not only cover death but also illness / disabilty which prevents me being employable as a pilot, not including the ability to work in another field (maccas!).

This may be a little too specific but any further thoughts greatly appreciated as well.

[Humber10]

For that kind of insurance there are a few brokers, whos' names have been mentioned before. If you do a search you should be able to find the contact details. I used a broker through financial partners international (FPI).
Other than that I am not sure what else is on the market.