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Four life insurance myths busted

Joanna Faith
Written By:
Joanna Faith
Posted:
Updated:
05/04/2016

Don’t buy life insurance until you read this. Gocompare.com tackles common life insurance misconceptions and reveals a trick to avoid tax on pay-outs.

Myth 1: Your life insurance premiums will increase if you develop a serious illness

Your life insurance premiums are based on your health (among other factors) at the time you take out your policy. This means if you are unfortunate enough to develop a medical condition during your policy, providing you were honest and accurate at the time you applied for your life insurance, your premiums won’t be affected on your existing insurance policy.

Myth 2: Life insurance does not pay out for suicide

Whether a policy pays out in the case of suicide differs between insurers. However, generally speaking suicide is covered after the policy has been in force for at least one year, but individual policies may vary.

Myth 3: I should tell my insurer if I start smoking or put on weight

Typically, you do not need to tell your insurer if you start smoking. As your premiums are based on your lifestyle at the time you have taken out the policy, generally you will not need to inform your insurer of unforeseen changes, such as starting to smoke or putting on weight.

That said if you have made positive lifestyle changes to your health, such as quitting smoking some insurers may actually lower your premium. If they will not, and you have given up smoking for 12 months or more, you could consider shopping around for a new policy so that your premium can be calculated as a non-smoker. Always make sure you have appropriate cover in place before cancelling your old policy though.

While it’s unlikely an insurer will drop your premiums if you lose weight or get generally fitter, it could be worth shopping around for a new policy with a cover level and monthly premium that reflects the new fitter you.

Myth 4: The tax man gets most of a life insurance pay-out

Not necessarily. Though a life insurance pay-out is typically subject to IHT, customers can get around this legally by having the policies written ‘in trust’.  This means that the proceeds from your policy are paid into a trust and as such do not form part of your estate when you pass away, which means your family will not have to pay inheritance tax on the money you leave behind from the policy.

Having your policy written in trust is relatively simple to do and can even speed up the process of your family getting the pay-out. Once you set up a trust, it is then managed by a trustee like a family member or a solicitor; however you can still set out how the money is distributed in your will.  Usually there aren’t additional costs involved for insurers to write your policy in trust, though some may charge a small administration fee.