Posted on Friday, August 15th, 2008 at 4:45pm
A study carried out the Post Office has found that 75% of UK adults do not currently have any form of life insurance cover, meaning that millions are risking the financial security of their families in the event of accident or illness.
Although many reasons were cited for people not taking out either level term or decreasing term life insurance, 28% of the study’s participants said that they did not have cover because of its prohibitive cost; this is despite the fact that the price of most policies have continued to fall over the past decade.
Worryingly, 18% of respondents said they had no form of cover because they believed they did not deserve it.
Duncan Caesar-Gordon, Post Office’s head of protection, commented, “Thinking about the future and how the family will cope should the unexpected happen is a worry that can be easily avoided by taking out life insurance.
”With a typical cost of £10 per month people would have peace of mind knowing that their loved ones are protected.”
Posted on Friday, August 08th, 2008 at 4:08pm
Barclays has finally ended speculation about its future in the life insurance sector by announcing it will sell all of its life cover operations to Swiss Re.
Swiss Re is believed to have paid £753 to take control of all Barclays’ life insurance business, including critical illness cover and both level and decreasing term life insurance plans. Despite being closed to new business since 2000, Barclays Life still managed around 760,000 policyholders.
Chris Lucas, group finance director at Barclays, commented, “Barclays Life is an attractive, high quality business which is not core to Barclays.
“We are confident that Swiss Re, with its expertise in this area, will offer policyholders continuity of service and support.”
An analyst at investment bank Cazenove described Barclays’ sale of its life insurance business as “a sensible transaction that will benefit the group's regulatory capital without material earnings dilution.”
Posted on Friday, August 01st, 2008 at 3:59pm
A study carried out by Principal Financial Well-Being details how 74% of employed Americans have little to no knowledge of decreasing term life insurance.
A spokeswoman from a major US decreasing term life insurance player commented, “Individuals need to protect themselves against the unexpected, especially during tough economic times. For many of us our homes are our biggest asset and that asset can be at significant risk should we become too sick or hurt to work.”
The news that so many US workers are in the dark about the essentials of decreasing term life insurance indicates that more needs to be done to educate about the potential benefits of such policies.
Although the study does not relate to the UK market, a recent survey by Yorkshire Building Society found that only 25.5 million (50%) of UK people in employment have any form of life insurance protection cover.
