A good day to cover your family’s future
SUNDAY is Father’s Day and this is a good time to ask how your family would cope financially if dad was no longer there.
More than half of men with financially dependent children are putting them at risk by failing to take out life insurance.
Almost four million fathers go without cover, leaving their families vulnerable if the worst should happen, according to research produced for the Daily Express by Scottish Widows.
Nearly three out of 10 admit their family could only pay their household bills for three months.
Yet term life assurance, which pays out if you die within a set period, has fallen in price as life expectancy rises.
A 50-year-old man would pay from around £16 a month for £100,000 of life cover over a 15-year term to age 65. Just 16 per cent of dads have critical insurance cover, which pays a tax-free lump sum if you fall ill or suffer a serious illness such as cancer, a heart attack or a stroke.
They are more likely to insure their mobile phone than their life.
Adding critical illness to a term life policy would cost from £85 a month at age 50. Premiums rise with age, smokers or those with prior illnesses pay more.
Johnny Timpson, protection specialist at Scottish Widows, said almost one in four families would fall back on state benefits if dad died. “This only provides a basic level of support and we firmly advise people to make their own financial safety net.”
He added that the new Bereavement Support Payment system offers less support than before, making life cover even more important.