It is estimated the UK is facing a massive life insurance protection gap of ?2.3 trillion. That is a lot of money, so just what is the protection gap and how is it calculated. Basically it is the difference between the resources needed and the resources that would be available to maintain a family's current living standard after the death of its primary earner.

So how has this huge protection gap come about, well there may be a number of factors fuelling the growth of this gap, such as the demise of the endowment and the fact that many people are taking on more debt, mortgage and personal, without adjusting their life insurance policies, meaning many people are not accurately calculating their 'true worth'.

To put in bluntly many families are either uninsured or very inadequately insured against the death of their primary earners.

Whilst on one hand over the last few years the protection gap has increased it has generally on the other hand become much easier to obtain a life insurance quotes, advances in technology has meant it is quite a simple now to obtain life insurance quotations via the internet. It is possible now to obtain a life insurance quote in minutes with a facility to compare both the cost and cover on line.

Also the ability to obtain life insurance quotes via he internet has meant much more transparency and this has resulted in stiffer competition in the industry meaning that the cost of life insurance has come down significantly over the last few years.

Seems therefore that the protection gap is maybe down to a lack of public awareness of the importance of adequate life insurance protection in a family's financial planning, people just don't realise the severe financial consequences of being underinsured, the attitude of ? it will never happen to me? maybe prevails in some instances and perhaps the old adage life insurance is sold rather than bought has some truth in it