The basics of life insurance are relatively simple; you take out cover in case you should die and this will ensure your loved ones are financially secure and can carry on paying the monthly commitments and you leave enough to take care of your family. However there is so much more to life insurance than just this, so it is imperative that you fully understand all the different life insurance policies on offer. The main types are term life and whole life insurance.
The cheapest and simplest of all life insurance is the term life policy. If you take out term life insurance then you take it just to cover the fact that if you die your dependents get paid out, as opposed to taking insurance that will pay if you should die or pay out after a set period of time. This type of policy will only pay out an agreed lump sum of money if you die which means that those you leave behind wouldn’t be left struggling and having financial difficulties to deal with.
One big factor that you have to take into account when taking out life insurance is how much to insure yourself for. As a general rule of thumb you should aim to cover your life for around 4 to 6 times the amount of your annual salary, or enough to pay off your mortgage. So the easiest way to decide this is to take the amount you have coming in each year and multiply it by 6, or see how much you have left on your mortgage. This will give your family enough to deal with financial commitments for some time. Of course you need to take into consideration the rate of inflation and if you have children make sure they would be covered if they are thinking about going into higher education.
A broker will be able to get you the cheapest life insurance quotes while giving you excellent advice on the different types of cover available and what might be the best for your circumstances.