Increase
in number of women buying life insurance
According to LifesSearch,
the number of UK women buying life insurance has doubled
in the in the last six years.
The firm has revealed that in 1999 only one in five of its
customers were women, however, the figures for 2004 and 2005
show that number has doubled.
LifeSearch policy adviser, Linda Tyson said: “ We attribute
this increase to the growing awareness of the importance of
protecting the financial stability of the family. More and
more women are either the main or only breadwinner and are
realising the importance of protecting their incomes.”
Women also tend to receive a nice little bonus when applying
for cover in the form of lower premiums compared to their
male counterparts. This is attributed to women’s higher
average life expectancy and results in a discount on the cost
of cover.
For example, the average life expectancy of a baby girl born
in 2002 is 81years whereas a boy born in the same year has
a life expectancy of 76 years.
This particular difference in life expectancy translates
into a possible saving of £425 a year on premiums costs
for a woman, compared with a man of a similar age would pay.
But unfortunately, it’s not all good news Britain’s
females, as some women can pay more for other insurance
products such as income protection and critical illness
cover, according to LifeSearch.
The problem here is that these products can be a rather effective
way of ensuring that loved ones are catered for in times of
trouble, especially for large living expenses such as mortgage
repayments.
Income based products such as family income benefit and income
protection can often be the best way to protect a family’s
financial future. Despite the benefits, this type of protection
is often ignored when searching for policies or difficult
to find.
Many may think that consumers are spoilt for choice when
it comes to shopping around for protection products, but in
truth, not many banks, building societies supermarkets or
online insurers offer these particular products or write them
under trust, preferring instead to deliberately limit the
customers options and appear to make the choice overly simple.
When shopping around for these types of insurance
products, it is always prudent to ask insurers if
they sell these policies and if not who does. Alternatively
find a good broker; after all, the fee may be a small price
to pay for effective family financial protection.
7/6/05
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