Protecting the People Who Depend on You
Life Cover Advice for Your Mortgage and Family
Life cover can provide financial support to the people you choose if you die during the policy term. The right arrangement depends on what you want the payment to protect, how much may be needed and for how long.
Anderson Mortgages provides personal life cover advice from Uddingston to customers across Scotland, whether or not we are arranging your mortgage.
Begin with the Financial Need
What Could Life Cover Help Protect?
A mortgage is often an important part of the discussion, but it is not the only consideration. Your adviser will look at the financial effect your death could have on the people who depend on you and the commitments they may need to manage.
That can include repaying or reducing a mortgage, replacing part of an income, supporting children, meeting household costs or providing a regular payment for a set period. The recommendation should reflect your own priorities rather than assume that one standard amount or policy type suits every household.
Existing savings, investments, personal policies and death-in-service benefits should also be reviewed. Workplace cover can be valuable, but it may be linked to your current employment and may not address every need.
Advice Shaped Around You
What Your Life Cover Review Should Consider
Understanding the Main Choices
Level, Decreasing and Income-Based Cover
Level term cover is designed to keep the insured amount broadly the same throughout the agreed term. It may suit a fixed financial need that does not reduce over time.
Decreasing term cover reduces during the policy term and is commonly considered alongside a repayment mortgage, where the outstanding balance is also expected to fall. The rate at which policy cover decreases may not exactly match the mortgage balance, so the details still need to be checked.
Family Income Benefit is structured differently. Rather than a single lump sum, it can provide a regular income for the remaining policy term after a valid claim. This may be useful when the aim is to support ongoing household costs.
Your adviser will explain the relevant options and recommend a structure based on the financial need being protected.
Important to Understand
Life Cover Is Not the Same as Illness or Income Cover
Life insurance is intended to pay following death, subject to the policy terms. It does not normally replace income because you are unable to work through illness or injury, and it does not provide a payment simply because a serious illness has been diagnosed.
Critical illness cover and income protection address different risks. They can be discussed alongside life cover where relevant, but each policy should have a clear purpose and fit within an affordable overall protection plan.
Policies, Beneficiaries and Trusts
Making Sure the Arrangement Reflects Your Wishes
Who owns the policy and how any payment is intended to reach the people you choose can be as important as the amount of cover. A suitable trust arrangement may help keep a life policy outside the policyholder's estate and direct the benefit to the intended people, depending on the circumstances.
Your adviser can discuss appropriate policy and trust options provided by the insurer. Trusts can have legal and tax consequences, so Anderson Mortgages does not replace advice from a solicitor or tax professional where that is needed.
Life Cover Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Customer Reviews
What Our Customers Say
Discuss Your Priorities
Ask Us About Life Cover
Tell us briefly what you would like the cover to protect. An adviser will contact you personally to arrange a fuller conversation. Please do not include medical information or other sensitive details in the public form.
As with all insurance policies, conditions and exclusions will apply.