Hi everyone, the “good news” is that life cover is still reasonable with no cancer increase in premiums for all even if you have T4 metastatic pca like me.
firstly, the caveat, I am not a qualified life insurance salesman and I have no interest in any life company. I write below only as someone who has worked 35 years in finance, has pca and done my own research ( not exhaustive I am sure).
the plans that you can take out in the above terms are “over 50” policies.
they are what are called “ whole life policies” ie they do not have a fixed end date apart from ones demise however they must be over 50 policies. Lyn mentions them above and for a “ healthy” person are probably not best value. There is a tab on the link that Lyn posted but below is my take.
i was diagnosed at 49, at age 50 I took 3 separate ones out.
the deal is this, your age at taking out the policy will reflect in the sum assured (or pay out on death). The closer to 50 the more the sum assured will be.
The catch, you have to live for 1 or 2 years after taking out the policy ( depending on companies, the 2 year ones I have found have a higher sum assured), if you don’t make the 1 or 2 years then you get between 100% and 150% ( depending on company, usually 150% for two years) ie as a minimum all your money back.
after the 1 or 2 years you get the sum assured back on passing. Usually the most the companies will allow is £50 a month, I guess it lets them spread their risk. You carry on paying premiums usually until 90 (chance would be a fine thing for me!) and then the policy continues but you don’t have to pay any more premiums. The premiums and sum assured stay the same for the whole time.
there are no medicals nor medical questions apart from if you smoke, I guess the companies work on law of averages and the 1 or 2 years covers the immediate risk, smoking will reduce the sum assured.
if ever you want to stop paying then you can but the sum assured stops too and you get nothing back. Others can pay the premiums for you as long as they have an insureable interest, eg a son/daughter may pay to cover the funeral costs . Make sure you can afford to pay the premiums and see it as a life long commitment or you are potentially wasting your money.
the companies that i have seen are names like Shepherds friendly and sun life, there are about 4 or 5 who specialise. Go to a comparison site on line and look up over 50s policies, you can then compare. As I said, the higher sum assured usually have the 2 year wait but essentially apart from that they all do the same.
note that your birthday makes you a whole year older for insurance so 60 and 11 months is the same as 60 and one day but better value than 61 and a day.
I took out 3 different policies at 50 , one with a one year exclusion two with two years to hedge my bets, I have outlived the two years I am pleased to say.
at my relatively young age the sum assured is good , I would have to live over 30 years to pay in more than it pays out but as one gets older on taking out the policy you would get a lower sum assured as the principals work on the average expected life of a man ( or woman of course who would get a bigger sum assured). It’s logical that a man aged 80 would on average have less years to pay in than a man aged 55 so the older man will have a much lower sum assured.
I do believe that all men should be made aware of these policies on diagnosis , I have suggested to the powers that be before but like I said , I am not qualified and perhaps I am missing something , let me know if I have.
I would suggest that you do discuss with a family member before taking one out. They can also be written “ in trust” which means they do not form part of your estate for tax purposes if you are lucky enough to have a largish estate (over £345,000 possibly even more)so for example if you wanted to leave the sum to grandchildren then this can be done at the outset and they will get the full amount on your demise Eg if say £10,000 was part of a taxable estate then it would cost the estate over £4K in tax to give that gift but if in trust then 100% is tax free. Note if you put a policy in trust you lose control of what happens to it so you can’t usually change the place it goes easily.
hope that helps, I will answer any generic questions if you have any but remember I am not qualified to give advice.
kev
Edited by member 23 Jul 2018 at 12:56
| Reason: Not specified
Dream like you have forever, live like you only have today Avatar is me doing the 600 mile Camino de Santiago May 2019 |
User
Not sure you could get life insurance without paying very high premiums - it would probably be more efficient to put that money in an account yourself, in the name of the person that would end up paying for the funeral perhaps? Or take out one of those ‘guaranteed payment’ policies that famous people like Parky used to advertise (but note that experts say it is a bit of a con for most people)
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance/over-50s-life-insurance/
"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard
|
User
Hi Frank,
I have been considering covering my funeral costs and taking out a funeral plan. I was told that "Health does not come into it". This is quite separate from life insurance. Hope this may be of help.
Barry |
User
"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard
|
User
That's weird - mine went straight through.
And now it has disappeared ... good work, moderators :-)
"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard
|
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User
Not sure you could get life insurance without paying very high premiums - it would probably be more efficient to put that money in an account yourself, in the name of the person that would end up paying for the funeral perhaps? Or take out one of those ‘guaranteed payment’ policies that famous people like Parky used to advertise (but note that experts say it is a bit of a con for most people)
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance/over-50s-life-insurance/
"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard
|
User
Hi Frank,
I have been considering covering my funeral costs and taking out a funeral plan. I was told that "Health does not come into it". This is quite separate from life insurance. Hope this may be of help.
Barry |
User
Hi everyone, the “good news” is that life cover is still reasonable with no cancer increase in premiums for all even if you have T4 metastatic pca like me.
firstly, the caveat, I am not a qualified life insurance salesman and I have no interest in any life company. I write below only as someone who has worked 35 years in finance, has pca and done my own research ( not exhaustive I am sure).
the plans that you can take out in the above terms are “over 50” policies.
they are what are called “ whole life policies” ie they do not have a fixed end date apart from ones demise however they must be over 50 policies. Lyn mentions them above and for a “ healthy” person are probably not best value. There is a tab on the link that Lyn posted but below is my take.
i was diagnosed at 49, at age 50 I took 3 separate ones out.
the deal is this, your age at taking out the policy will reflect in the sum assured (or pay out on death). The closer to 50 the more the sum assured will be.
The catch, you have to live for 1 or 2 years after taking out the policy ( depending on companies, the 2 year ones I have found have a higher sum assured), if you don’t make the 1 or 2 years then you get between 100% and 150% ( depending on company, usually 150% for two years) ie as a minimum all your money back.
after the 1 or 2 years you get the sum assured back on passing. Usually the most the companies will allow is £50 a month, I guess it lets them spread their risk. You carry on paying premiums usually until 90 (chance would be a fine thing for me!) and then the policy continues but you don’t have to pay any more premiums. The premiums and sum assured stay the same for the whole time.
there are no medicals nor medical questions apart from if you smoke, I guess the companies work on law of averages and the 1 or 2 years covers the immediate risk, smoking will reduce the sum assured.
if ever you want to stop paying then you can but the sum assured stops too and you get nothing back. Others can pay the premiums for you as long as they have an insureable interest, eg a son/daughter may pay to cover the funeral costs . Make sure you can afford to pay the premiums and see it as a life long commitment or you are potentially wasting your money.
the companies that i have seen are names like Shepherds friendly and sun life, there are about 4 or 5 who specialise. Go to a comparison site on line and look up over 50s policies, you can then compare. As I said, the higher sum assured usually have the 2 year wait but essentially apart from that they all do the same.
note that your birthday makes you a whole year older for insurance so 60 and 11 months is the same as 60 and one day but better value than 61 and a day.
I took out 3 different policies at 50 , one with a one year exclusion two with two years to hedge my bets, I have outlived the two years I am pleased to say.
at my relatively young age the sum assured is good , I would have to live over 30 years to pay in more than it pays out but as one gets older on taking out the policy you would get a lower sum assured as the principals work on the average expected life of a man ( or woman of course who would get a bigger sum assured). It’s logical that a man aged 80 would on average have less years to pay in than a man aged 55 so the older man will have a much lower sum assured.
I do believe that all men should be made aware of these policies on diagnosis , I have suggested to the powers that be before but like I said , I am not qualified and perhaps I am missing something , let me know if I have.
I would suggest that you do discuss with a family member before taking one out. They can also be written “ in trust” which means they do not form part of your estate for tax purposes if you are lucky enough to have a largish estate (over £345,000 possibly even more)so for example if you wanted to leave the sum to grandchildren then this can be done at the outset and they will get the full amount on your demise Eg if say £10,000 was part of a taxable estate then it would cost the estate over £4K in tax to give that gift but if in trust then 100% is tax free. Note if you put a policy in trust you lose control of what happens to it so you can’t usually change the place it goes easily.
hope that helps, I will answer any generic questions if you have any but remember I am not qualified to give advice.
kev
Edited by member 23 Jul 2018 at 12:56
| Reason: Not specified
Dream like you have forever, live like you only have today Avatar is me doing the 600 mile Camino de Santiago May 2019 |
User
"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard
|
User
Thanks very helpful now need to look into this further
User
You just use the report button at the side of the post Alan, the moderators can then delete it.
I have now reported it.
"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard
|
User
Thanks. I did that and twice got a page not found message, hence the message on the forum.
Alan
User
That's weird - mine went straight through.
And now it has disappeared ... good work, moderators :-)
"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard
|