Life assurance is more of a flexible friend than you may think. It all depends on your needs. There are so many different varieties of insurances linked to the life of the policyholder and so many life insurance companies with similar offerings that expert advice can be valuable. Type of lifecover can be sorted into the following, Term, Decreasing, Convertible, Pension and Whole of Life.

Term assurance
At its simplest, in exchange for paying a premium the life office will agree to pay out a certain sum if the insured dies before a certain date. If the policyholder does not die within the term, the policy merely lapses. There is no payout of any sort. These policies are usually cheap to buy and they perform a useful function of providing protection for those who benefit from the policy, such as family members, if the policyholder dies.

The same principle of protection applies to a number of other types of insurance whether the benefit is, for example, to provide specific help to the deceased's family or to repay a mortgage.

Decreasing Cover
These plans are commonly used to protect a 'repayment' style mortgage i.e. where your debt to the lender reduces over the mortgage term. If you die during the mortgage term, the 'mortgage protection' policy produces a lump sum which is used to pay off the outstanding balance of your mortgage.

Over the plan term, the amount of life cover reduces to match your outstanding mortgage loan - this helps keep the cost down as you are only paying for cover you need. This is usually the cheapest way of insuring your repayment mortgage.

Convertible Terms
Much like Level Term Cover, except that this cover has a built-in option to convert before expiry to a ‘Whole of Life’ contract, which once done would provide you with cover beyond the stated term.

Pension Terms
Again, much like Level Term Assurance, except because this cover is linked to your pension there are tax advantages applied, which impacts the amount of premium you pay for the cover.

There are certain restrictions with this type of cover, please contact us if you require further information..

Whole of Life
As the title suggests, this type of cover insures you for all of your life until you die.

Unlike a term assurance which has an end date which you could live beyond, Whole of Life cover is designed to pay out when you die – whatever your age!

There are various levels of cover and your monthly payments are invested for longevity.

This type of cover can be set up for single cover, joint life first death or joint life second death, which if used in conjunction with a suitable trust is good for Inheritance Tax planning .

Critical Illness Cover Critical Illness insurance will pay you a tax free lump sum on diagnosis of any one of a wide range of critical illnesses including cancer, heart attack, stroke, brain tumour and many more. Criticall illness cover is offered as a basic or comprehensive policy. The basic plan will cover the main conditions and generally a comprehensive plan will cover many more which may include loss of sight, permanent disability, loss of hearing etc. Your quotation will include details of the cover. For more information, please contact us on 0191 488 8445 or use this email link. office@hrcgroup.net