‘joint names insurance’ case study


joint names life insurance
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Life Assurance Policy Background:

Joint Names Life Insurance | Case Study:

Joint names insurance typical case study: Dave is age 47, a self employed Builder on £40,000pa salary. His partner Donna is age 43 and she owns a hairdressers on £28,000pa. The unmarried couple have lived together over 4 years, alongside their 3 children from previous relationships. 

Dave owns the property they all live in. He owes £152,000 on a repayment mortgage in Dave’s sole name & insured with mortgage lifecover taken out when he remortgaged over 4 years ago. They have 2 x seperate family lifecover policies with different Insurers & both taken out back in their past relationships.

Neither Dave & Donna have current personal or family health issues and are both ex-smokers, having quit smoking a year or so ago.

Donna’s best friend’s husband recently died in a car accident leaving her & their kids sadly it seems in financial difficulties. This made her more aware therefore of the importance of having a suitable life assurance policy should their own circumstances change, which they have chatted about previously. 

joint names insurance
Joint Names Insurance | Case Study

Joint Names Life InsuranceEnquiry:

Donna firstly looks at what does MSE Martin Lewis say about life insurance types and their various pro’s & cons.

Then later on looking for professional advice & hopefully getting a good life assurance deal. She makes an enquiry through our website looking into a new joint names life assurance policy.

We call back and explain who we are, then have a good chat to them both about their current situation, requirements & needs. 

They listen to our generic advice & thought process and confirm both have an insurable interest living together, although not married. We explain if they have quit smoking for longer than 1 year, we maybe able to get a far better life insurance deal now but on cheaper non smoker rates. Donna thinks they are currently spending around £70pm on their 3 current life assurance plans and was looking to pay similar costs. 

Advice – Mortgage Protection:

Via a fair & personal analysis, we discuss generally what would happen to their 3 children should either or both partners die prematurely. Neither have current wills, since they split from previous partners & are aware of these problems, especially as the mortgage & property is still in Dave’s sole name currently.

Dave says in due course he will consider making his property ownership joint or make a will to reflect these wishes if not. We explain that not being married also means any state widow benefits may not apply.

If agreed between them, they should now consider jointly insuring his £152,000 repayment mortgage with life cover over its mortgage term, as they both have an insurable interest living together.

This joint policy would replace Dave’s sole existing mortgage protection life insurance plan originally set on smoker rates. We think we can get for similar money Donna now covered on a new joint policy but on non-smoker rates.

Being non smokers we explain means no nicotine, tobacco or vaping products for over 1 year & the Insurers do have the right to check their current smoker status via a cotinine test. 

Joint Names Life Insurance Quotes

Advice – Family:

We also discuss the 2 x seperate family lifecover policies with different Insurers they had mentioned & also set on smoker rates. It appears Donna’s life insurance plan was possibly in trust to an ex-partner. We queried if she understood that 100% policy death benefits could still go to them if she died, as they have 2 children together. She wasn’t aware & will check up but feels this situation is not appropriate anymore, as she now lives with Dave. He is not sure re his own family lifecover plan but will now check his own policy paperwork.

Either way, we point out that being non smokers now we could get them both better deal on these 2 plans. We discuss the ideal levels of lifecover they should have & agree this should both be until they may possibly retire in 20 years time. The other option was when all the children maybe independent in say 10 years time. In terms of amount of lifecover needed, they both think they would both carry on working. So the ideal was to jointly repay the mortgage & then provide £1,500pm ongoing income to help cover their overall bills.

Then we discuss the benefits of joint names life insurance v seperate family lifecover plans as now ie; 2 new plans v 3 existing plans. They preferred to have all new plans held jointly for ease as they are not married. We explain if they did split up in the future, some Insurers have flexibility to allow their plans to then split into seperate benefits. We also discuss fact that neither has any sickness based insurance backup plans being self employed.

Dave & Donna were going to have a discussion about all this & ask that we call again the following day. 

Life Insurance Examples – Research:

We drop an e-mail just highlighting some of the issues raised at this stage plus our legal disclosures. They think they are prepared to just pay similar costs to now for the correct joint lifecover plans, rather than sit down and work out any specific budget.

Afterwards, we check the Insurers in the marketplace offering joint names life insurance examples cover off our panel given all the above considerations. The key factors we think are 1] Non smoker rates applying, meaning potentially more lifecover for their money 2] Obtaining lifecover via the same Insurers now for both plans to ensure consistency in event of a claim 3] Get broker discounts applied via multi plan approach 

After our research, we find there is a price difference between 2 plans if all looked at individually. However, after applying a multi plan approach with broker discounts applied we draw up a short list of Insurers. We also consider that the premiums should be protected if either was off sick after 1 month, which limits the number of Insurers again.

Joint names insurance

Recommendations:

We short list down to 2 Insurers who may match this criteria. We then come up with a few life insurance examples and options for Dave & Donna to consider, all on non-smoker rates.

  • Policy 1: joint £152,000 decreasing term lifecover to cover Dave’s £152,000 repayment mortgage over the term 
  • Policy 2: joint £1,500 per month [ £18,000 per year ] level term family income benefit FIB lifecover to help protect the family over 20 years.
  • Or Policy 3: joint £360,000 level term lifecover over 20 years to help protect the family ie; £18,000 pa x 20 yrs.
  • Premiums are jointly protected if either was off sick after 1 month.
  • These will replace existing sole mortgage & 2 x separate existing family life cover (all setup originally on smoker rates)

These various options came to £73pm. By having all the plans held jointly avoids their legal issues of not being married, as on 1’st death the other partner would get the money. We email these options, a copy of the Insurers Key Product Features plus specific quotes & our own legal disclosures.

Decision:

We call Dave & Donna back to discuss these life insurance examples, options and findings, which they have now had chance to fully discuss. Both decided having checked their own insurance paperwork, they now wish to cancel their own existing 3 x single lifecover plans on smoker rates & replace accordingly, noting we have not seen their policies. It seems their existing sole plans could not be amended re smoker status anyway without new underwriting.

They decide to just go ahead with Policy 1 & Policy 3 joint names insurance cover as they wanted lump sum lifecover, but not an income based option. Both are pleased with the amounts of lifecover for equivalent money. Dave & Donna say they will look at other protection insurances but not until these plans have been sorted.

Then we explain they must not cancel their old plans until anything new is fully underwritten and in place. After that they could then cancel their old direct debits & also advise their Insurers. We then help over the phone to complete & apply for that Insurers policies via our life insurance brokers system, now completing the questions re their health eg; ever diagnosed high cholesterol, lifestyle issues or a family history of heart disease etc;

Chances of making a claim
*Stats changing re Covid19

Shortfall Options:

In this process, we had also discussed these life insurance examples pros & cons for Dave & Donna to consider. 

  • Option of including critical illness to cover mortgage protection. 
  • This critical illness cover package could help cover both adults & children 
  • 2 x seperate family lifecover again, rather than joint names insurance
  • If 1 person died the other may still want to have lifecover 
  • Index linked lifecover to help offset rising living costs 
  • Lump Sums or Family Income Benefits options
  • Income Protection PHI policies for both as their accident & sickness back up plans
  • They currently discounted these various options but may revisit them in the future, budgets permitting
  • Both make upto date wills having 3 dependant children

Joint Names Life Insurance Conclusion:

Dave & Donna are pleased to now have their protection life insurance in joint names, given they are not married & at similar costs. In this Life Insurance Case Study they both however fully understand some of the protection shortfalls above we identified though eg; lifecover and critical illness.

We help arrange their policies via a Broker underwritten insurance deal with the Insurers & then send a fully documented report afterwards. This explains their various demands & needs and also impact of cancellation of their 3 x existing plans. Dave says in due course they will visit solicitors to sort out all their legal matters.

In this process, we also recommended plans are setup into joint 2’nd death trust using the Insurers standard trust forms. This means if both died together, their plan benefits in trusts should help to avoid probate, or potential Inheritance Tax IHT & go to nominated beneficiaries. We request they provide us with details of their requested trustees and beneficiaries. This will enable us once terms are agreed to place the joint policies into Insurers trust from outset.

Both agree it’s OK for us to make a note to recontact them in the future re this matters once they have rechecked their regular budgets again.  

‘Joint Names Insurance’ Example Case Study | Article by Martyn Spencer Financial Adviser (2024)

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