Life - Articles - SunLife comments on MAS & ABI LiveLifeProtectit campaign

 “At SunLife we are fully behind the Money Advice Service and Association of British Insurers campaign to encourage people to put financial provisions in place to safeguard themselves and their loved ones against financial trauma.

  

 “While more than three quarters of people rate car insurance and home contents insurance as important, just six in ten feel the same about life insurance and only a third about income protection; this is concerning when you consider the MAS has found that one in five of us know someone whose standard of life was severely impacted due to not having protection insurance in place.

  

 “Our research has shown that the main reason why people do not have life insurance in place is affordability. However, we found this was more due to perceived cost than actual; of those who said they were ‘unable to afford life cover’, almost two thirds saidthey did not know the cost or had overestimated the price by 400%1.

  

 “The most common trigger for taking out life cover is buying a house which means most people are treating it like a type of mortgage protection. However, the average life insurance pay-out in the UK doesn’t cover the average outstanding mortgage –it is £30k short1.

  

 This means even those with life cover in place have a worrying large ‘protection gap’ leaving them financially vulnerable. Particularly worrying when you consider than 1 in 10 say their families would lose most or all of their income in they were to become critically ill or die.

  

 We hope #LiveLifeProtectItwill raise awareness of this important issue. As an industry we need to make protection more accessible so that more people realise they can afford it. We also need to make sure people understand how much cover they need – our research has found that only 39% of those who have life cover are certain they have enough, 15% say they don’t know while a staggering one in 10 say they know they are underinsured.

  

 To help support #LiveLifeProtectIt, SunLife has a free, interactive life insurance calculator to help families work out how much money they would need to maintain the lifestyle they have now if the main breadwinner were no longer around to provide for them. (http://www.sunlifedirect.co.uk/life-cover/life-insurance-calculator/).

  

 SunLifeFamily Life Insurance is open to all UK residents aged 18 – 59. Premiums from just £5 a month, choice of term, from 10 – 40 years.There’s no need for a medical. A personal quote will be based on answers to some health and lifestyle questions. It only takes a few minutes to apply online and get an instant decision.