Mortgage Life Insurance – What you should know
Mortgage life insurance is a valuable protection that you should arrange alongside your mortgage so that if the unexpected happens, you are fully prepared.
Prepare for the unexpected with mortgage life insurance
When you buy your property with a mortgage, it will probably be the biggest financial liability you take on in your lifetime. You may be taking this step on your own, or there may be others involved such as a spouse, a partner, or children. Whatever the situation, you need to consider your situation if the unexpected happens and you cannot make the mortgage payments. For example, if you were to die, or, become sick and unable to work.
What do you want to happen?
The first question you should ask yourself is, if you were to die before the mortgage was repaid, what do you want to happen?
Who would own the property on your death, would they continue to pay the mortgage, would they be in a position to do this, what would happen if they could not pay?
All these questions need to be asked, answered, and resolved, before your mortgage is in place. We see too many of our clients dying or becoming seriously ill during the term of their mortgage to take anything but a serious approach to mortgage protection.
Planning with mortgage life insurance
Fortunately, the answers are all to hand and available via your independent mortgage broker. Subject to your health, you can arrange a life insurance policy that pays out cash on your death sufficient to repay the mortgage in full. Monthly premiums are not expensive, particularly when you consider the piece of mind it will give you and your family.
What about critical illness cover?
Further to this, you should consider what would happen if illness prevented you from working and earning the income you need to repay your mortgage and cover other bills.
Once again, we can provide you with protection to ensure that sickness does not create an issue with your mortgage payments. If you arrange critical illness cover, the policy will pay off a lump sum on diagnosis of a number of serious illnesses such as heart attack, cancer or stroke, removing your biggest financial liability at a time when your future lifestyle and working patterns will be coming into question.
Mortgage Life Insurance – The process
In order to arrange mortgage protection, you will need to provide some medical background. The insurer will also ask questions about your occupation. Depending on the level of cover required, they may write to your doctor for a medical report. In some cases, you may be asked for a simple medical check where height, weight, blood pressure, and other simple parameters are checked. These type of medical checks can be arranged at your own home or place of work if more convenient.
How we help
Your independent mortgage broker will guide you through the decisions and arrangements for mortgage life insurance and make it easy for you to get the cover in place and provide you with the stability that you and your family deserve.
Searching the whole of the market
Although premiums from insurers will tend to be within ten to fifteen per cent of each other, it is worth making sure that you are getting quotes from a range of providers. Each provider will see a particular age group as more attractive and then price accordingly. Smokers should expect to pay additional premium due to the additional risks involved to the insurer.
Non standard risks
If the insurer does consider you have an unusually increased risk, perhaps due to family background, or previous medical history, they may offer you special terms. In this case, the insurer will ask you to pay a slightly higher premium in order to contribute towards the extra risk. Again, this is something that your adviser will be used to dealing with and will be able to guide you through.
When to arrange your mortgage life insurance
One other important point to remember, is that your mortgage protection should be in place from the day you exchange contracts, as that is the point at which you are committed to the purchase and therefore the liability.