Life insurance is the best type of protection you can get for your family should something unfortunate happen to you. The consequences of not having any life insurance or not quite enough cover are massive, as it means your family could be left in a real predicament should you die. Many people out there don't have any cover, insufficient cover or the wrong type to cover their needs.

When should i buy life insurance ? Many people ask me this question, the answer is right now. The younger you are the cheaper the insurance will be, this is based on a risk factor as the younger you are the less likely you are to die. In addition to this if you get your life insurance with guaranteed rates you will keep the same low premium through the term of the contract giving you total peace of mind at a relatively low price.

What will affect my life insurance ? When looking to buy life insurance you need to consider a number of other factors that will affect the insurance. If you smoke for example of have poor health or if you family has poor health this will all affect your final premium. The best thing you can do if you are unfortunate to suffer from any of these problems you should discuss these with your life insurance broker from the outset and they can advise you best.

I don't know how much life insurance I need how do I work this out ? The main thing you need to consider is to cover outstanding debts, this is the bare minimum you should look at is covering them. On top of this then you should look at how much household income is missing should you not be contributing into this anymore and try and cover this too. At this stage you may be starting to consider a large sum assured, you then need to consider how much you can afford as a monthly payment, as the larger the sum assured the larger the premium. This is a balancing act so once again best discussing this your insurance broker for best advice.

The most common form of life insurance is term or level life insurance, this is cheap and relatively straight forward. You pay a set premium each month throughout the term of the policy and from the outset you work out the sum assured as discussed previously. Then in the event of your death a lump sum payment would be made, if you were to still be alive at the end of the policy or even if you stopped paying the monthly premiums then the policy would not payout and you would receive nothing back from the policy.

Overall you need to do your homework, work out your sum assured and buy life insurance sooner rather than later as it will save you in the long run.