The price of your Life insurance policy is based on your age, smoker status, and your health. The answers you give and the options you choose will have a direct impact on the premium quoted. Below are some of the variables that affect the price of your policy;

The more life cover you want, the more expensive it is

• The longer the term of the policy, the more expensive it is
• The older you are, the more expensive it is as the probability of you claiming is higher as you get older
• If you add serious illness to your policy, it will significantly increase the price
• Standalone Serious illness is more expensive than Accelerated
• A Dual life policy is more expensive than a joint life or single life
• If you choose to index your policy, it will be more expensive
• Choosing a convertible option will slightly increase the premium
• If you have any ongoing health issues, the premium may be increased
• If smoke, your premium will increase by 33% on average
• Additional benefits to the policy will increase the premium (broken bones, Hospital cash benefit etc)

There are a few ways you can save money on your insurance:

1. Pay less for your insurance by switching to a cheaper provider.

2. For life insurance, you could look at reducing your level of cover, if appropriate.

3. If you’re a smoker who’s looking for life insurance, then look at quitting. Smokers pay higher life insurance premiums than non-smokers, so as well as being good for your health, it’ll be good for your pocket!

4. Another option is to reduce the term of your cover and apply the conversion option to the policy (insert hyperlink). This will decrease your monthly premiums and give you the option to convert the policy at any stage within this term. You will be able to convert the policy up to your 90th birthday with some insurance companies.

The whole point of insurance is that it’s there to protect you financially in your hour of need. But if you’ve been paying for inadequate cover, or been mis-sold a policy, then it’s actually costing you financially instead.

Before buying insurance, you should always take the time to shop around for the best value and never feel pressured into signing up for something you don’t fully understand. If you’re taking out mortgage protection, remember that you don’t have to take it out with the bank that you gave you your mortgage.

Always read the policy terms and conditions carefully so that you know what you’re covered for. It might not be the most exciting thing you’ll ever read but it’ll save you a lot of hassle (and potential heartbreak) if you ever need to make a claim.

Finally, when looking at health insurance, be aware of what the excess on your policy is. A higher excess will reduce your premium but means you’ll have to pay more yourself in the event of any claim.

The term is the number of years that you require your policy for eg 20 years. The longer the term, the more expensive the premiums will be.

This is the amount of Life insurance that is required. The higher the sum insured, the more expensive the premiums will be.

Single Cover – covers one person under the policy.

Joint Cover – allows you to have 2 people on the one policy, but it only pays out on the first person to claim.

Dual Cover – allows for 2 people on the same policy, but provides pay-outs on both people, under separate claims. This means that once a life cover claim occurs the remaining benefits continue on the second person but at a reduced cost.

The more people insured on the policy, the more expensive the premiums will be.

A lump sum will be paid in the event of death caused by an accident, when the insurer is still processing your application.

If you are diagnosed with a terminal illness and have less than 12 months to live, your full life cover sum will be paid out immediately.

If one of your children becomes deceased while the policy is in place, a sum of money is paid out on most policies. The sum of money differs but is usually 25% of the sum insured by the policy.

This benefit allows you the ability to increase the sum of money that you have insured with your you don’t need to apply for a new policy). You only qualify for this benefit on 3 occasions ;

– if you get married

– if you get a mortgage

– if you have a child

You can increase you Life Insurance and/or Serious Illness Protection by 50% (approx) without having to be medically examined again. This is very beneficial if either policy holder has had deterioration in health since the policy was originally put in force.

With this additional free benefit from Aviva, you, your spouse, your parents, your spouses parents, and your children (under the age of 18) all have access to a designated Psychologist/Councellor 24/7, 365 days of the year.

All parties mentioned above will have access to complementary counseling sessions held either over telephone or face-to-face. These are confidential sessions that can cover any issues any person above may be having, for example;

• Dealing with Bereavement
• Changing Careers or any career challenges
• Bullying issues either at work or in school
• Financial Issues or stress
• Any other psychological issues

With this additional bonus benefit from Aviva, you, your spouse or partner, your parents, your spouse’s/partners parents and your children (up until their 23rd birthday) have access to an independent and confidential medical second option service.

If you develop a serious or worrying medical condition for which you have been seen by a medical specialist and you have questions about your diagnosis or treatment, at no additional cost to you, Best Doctors can perform an in depth assessment of your diagnosis and treatment options and answer any questions you may have about your condition.

It’s not just for serious conditions such as cancer, heart attack etc the service is available for any medical condition considered to be of critical, chronic or degenerative nature such as sports injuries, severe migraines or back pain.

The second medical option is obtained by one of the most specialised doctors in your specific condition in the world. There is a panel of 25,000 doctors on this panel across the world and you can get this doctor to review your file, x-ray, medication prescriptions etc. This specialist doctor will then write a report of his recommendations and send it back to you to implement.

Statistics from Aviva over the previous 5 years have shown that, of the policy holders who used this service, 20% had had a change in diagnosis form what their own doctor had prescribed them, and 75% had been recommend to change the medication and treatment that they have been advised to take or implement by their own doctor.

With this free benefit offered to all Royal London policy holders, you, your spouse/partner, your parents, your spouses/partners parents and your children (up until their 23rd birthday) have access to a one to one personal support from your own Nurse Adviser from Red Arc who can help you and your family cope with the devastating effects that illness or bereavement can have. It is important to note that the benefits below apply to all of your family members, (you, your spouse and your children). Helping Hand provides access to:

• Bereavement Counsellors
• Speech and Language Therapists
• Physiotherapists
• Face to Face second medical opinions
• Complementary Therapies
• Massage

Please note that you do not have to be on claim to use these benefits, you only have to be a policy holder.

If you choose a conversion option with your mortgage protection policy, this allows you to extend the term ( the number of years of policy) of the policy without having to go through any healthy screening or examinations – no matter what your health conditions may be. This option protects you against a decline in your health. Most insurance policies allow you to convert their policies up until your 85th birthday with some companies allowing a conversion until your 90th birthday. We always recommend policy holders to avail of this option. The good news with this option is that the increase in the monthly premium with this benefit is minimal (€1- €3 per month extra on average). If, for example, you have an insurance policy that is covering you up until your 65th birthday and you get diagnosed with a serious illness which is life-threatening at age 63, you can then decide that you are going to extend your cover until your 90th birthday knowing that there is a significantly higher chance of the policy paying out than normal and the insurance company is obliged to offer you this cover, regardless of your health declining health conditions.

This option, when chosen ensures that the amount of cover increases each year in line with inflation. So in effect your life cover amount increases by 3% (approx) each year. However, the premium increases by 3% (approx) also each year.

This only applies if you add Serious Illness Protection to your policy.

This benefit, if chosen, ensures that your premiums will not have to be paid when your are on claim from the policy. So for example, if you are on claim for a serious illness and are off work for a 2 year period, your premiums don’t have to be paid until you make a full recovery and return to work.