Saw an advert today stating that 28 Million Brits have no life assurance!

When my father-in-law died just over three years ago. He died owing sums of money to a range of people. However, all of these loans were unsecured, manily taken out with the 'knock on the door' people!!

When he died he had no monies whatsoever, only debts to his name and his debts died with him. Naturally his funeral costs were met by his surviving family.

He was unable to effectively manage his money in the real world and beyond paying his bills each month, which he always sought the support of his family to assist him with, he could never have coped with setting aside even more money for a life assurance policy.

I just believe that people are somewhat disillusioned by insurance and feel ripped off. Having another one to pay out each month reduces the quality of life for people in the here and now.

Too many people are made to feel inadequate by advertsing that gets people to think about the life of others after their personal demise and effectively drain away any finance that might give them some happiness or fullfilment whilst alive!!

I don't have a life assurance policy but then I don't have debts, I own my own home outright (well with my partner) I don't have children, and will have funds available after my death to cover the costs of my funeral and also leave a little legacy to my nieces and nephews. I am uncertain as to what a life assurance policy would do for me?

Maybe I'm old fashioned but I have always had Insurance for the worst eventuality and thank God I did as my first husband died in his early forties leaving me with two young people to bring up and support and although I worked solidly with long hours at times to give them a good start in life I was very grateful to have the funeral expenses and a little for a rainy day. I have always paid for house contents/building, caravan, car and any animals we have had and obviously holiday Insurance (especially when a close friend's husband died abroad and it cost a bomb to get him back home). We also had a policy to cover the mortgage and any outstanding visa bills to be paid for. I know it costs a lot but at the end of the day if you haven't any it just adds to the misery of whatever life throws at you and makes it a far worse place to live in. We now have life insurance and I hope we shall never need it as it only lasts 10 year's but I feel secure in the knowledge that if the worse happens we have protected each other completely.
On a lighter note I have threatened to haunt my husband if he gets a younger, prettier model in than me when I'm gone!!!!!! (just a bit of sense of humour)!

Not everyone needs life insurance, Snoops. I personally don't, so it would be a total waste of money for me, but I do agree with you that those who would need it should have it if at all possible.

I certainly always had life insurance when I had a husband and dependents, as I felt it was a priority then. I suspect a fair proportion of those who don't have it simply don't need it, but of the rest there are bound to be some who just can't afford it in these hard economic times.

Life assurance isn't a necessity.

If you have no dependents, then there's no need to have life assurance. So if you have no children, and no sickly parents or unemployed partner to support there's really no need.

And a big debt doesn't necessitate life assurance either unless the bill falls on those reliant on your estate to maintain themselves. I can't think of anything better than dying and leaving a big black hole in a bank's balance sheet thanks to debts I won't be paying off :)

So there you go. Singletons don't need any and couples with independent income streams won't consider it a necessity.

That said, income replacement and critical illness policies are much more important as having the main breadwinner out of work or worse out of work and in need of care themselves is far more economically damaging to a family. Death without life assuarance simply means an end to an income stream. Disability without insurance means an end to an income stream and the start of a huge outflow in payments for care and modifications to the residence.

Actually I was not advocating one way or the other here and I have to agree with the consensus that in many cases it isn't that necessary. But of course there are many situations when a financial safeguard in the event of death is desirable although affordable is another matter. Certainly I have had to arrange funerals for both my mother and my wife in the last five years and those cost a total of £7000 and I was solely responsible. Had they not been adequately insured, I would have probably ended up using a credit card. And believe me, funeral directors may seem places of calm and flexibility but on the second funeral I was asked for a minimum deposit of 50% at the time of booking. And I did have to use a credit card for that. Even the need for money can invade the tenderness of the moment!

Life insurance I feel is only for people with dependents. Life insurance companies have become less popular nowadays because they often promised more than they actually delivered and have had bad press (often not unfounded)for dubious dealings.However if one has'nt built up a sound asset base for dependents one's dependents would be a lot worse off than if one had life insurance in the event of a claim.
If one has a mortgage it would be short sighted not to have life cover to cover the mortgage.
Short term insurance I think is a sensible thing to have and worth tightening ones budget to afford.

When I was young free and single I had no insurance, now I'm a mother I have enough cover to ensure the mortgage is paid off and the children comfortable, plus I have critical illness cover as I dont want to be worrying about bills if I get ill