Life insurance for single parents
Do single parents need Life Insurance?
As a single parent the financial responsibility of providing for your family typically rests on you alone, meaning that falling ill and not being able to provide for your loved ones is a serious risk. The pressure and the associated stress of this responsibility may be lightened with Life Insurance and Critical Illness cover from Beagle Street.
How can Single Parent Life Insurance help your children?
As a single parent, your children often rely on you as the sole breadwinner. If your children depend on your income to cover the mortgage or other living expenses, Life Insurance gives you the peace of mind that comes with knowing that all of these expenses could be covered for them if anything happens to you.
- It could ensure that you leave your children without any debts to worry about, and a sense of financial stability.
- Depending on your Life Insurance provider you can arrange for your policy to pay out in regular instalments, or like Beagle Street will pay out in a lump sum, to help to cover the costs that will need to be met in future. From going to university to buying a car or putting a deposit down on a house, with the security of Life Insurance you know all of these vital milestones in their lives could be provided for.
- If you and your children rely on the income of an ex-partner, you might also want to think about how you would cope financially if anything happened to them. With a personal policy in place for you and for your ex-partner, your child is doubly protected.
Life Insurance for Single Parents is more affordable than you think
There are a range of policies out there designed to give you a great level of Life Insurance cover with an affordable premium. You can choose between two types of Term Insurance, for example:
Level Term Insurance
Here you and your insurance provider can arrange a fixed policy value that remains the same throughout your term.
Decreasing Term Insurance
This typically offers cheaper monthly payments because the value of the policy decreases over time. It’s often used for financially protecting your loved ones from debts which get lower over time, such as a repayment mortgage, so it’s sometimes also known as Mortgage Life Insurance.
Choosing Life Insurance, which covers you for a fixed number of years, is also a cheaper way to obtain the financial security you need than taking out a Life Assurance policy, which covers you for the whole of your life, and is subsequently more expensive.
What factors are there to consider when buying Life Insurance?
When you’re thinking about Life Insurance, it’s also good time to write a will and name who you would like to be your child’s legal guardian should you die. In the UK, unless there is a good reason for the child not to be living with their natural parent, the courts generally favour the child being with the parent that is still alive, but you can make your own wishes known in your will.
There are some circumstances in which the courts may find another guardian preferable to the natural parent:
- If it can be shown that living with their natural parent the child’s welfare would suffer.
- If the child has already spent a long time living with someone else, grandparents for example, and has an established attachment with them that it would be harmful to disrupt.
- If the child does not want to live with the surviving parent but wants to stay with their current carers and is old enough to understand that decision.
Beagle Street offer a free will writing service worth £150 with every Life Insurance policy sold (Terms and Conditions apply)
How can I arrange Single Parent Life Insurance?
While it can mean facing up to uncomfortable thoughts, thinking about what you would like to happen in the event of your death or if you were affected by an illness that left you unable to work, is essential if you have children who depend on you.
Take a look at the type of insurance policies available to you, and then talk to friends and family.
You can name a beneficiary in a trust for your insurance policy so that they can help support your children if anything were to happen to you before your child comes of age. While this isn’t the same thing as granting custody, it ensures that your insurance policy is paid out to someone you trust thoroughly to look after the financial needs of your child.
