Summary
There are various categories of  life insurance quotes  plan available in the market. Many clients are now seeing the benefits of cheaper monthly premiums by moving to pension term assurance (PTA) because of the tax benefits on the cost of this type of insurnace plan. However it is not suitable for everyone.

Recently it was revealed that the cost of life insurance plans has fallen dramatically in recent years. So what type of insurance plan is best for people like you?

Term cover is the simplest typeof life insurance plan – you pay a monthly premium for an agreed amount of life insurance for set number of years that the policy will be in force for. If you die whilst the policy is in force, it then pays out a lump sum.  If the insurance plan reaches the end of its term and you are still alive, no money is paid out.

There are several sorts of term insurance: “level” term is where the payout is a fixed amount; “decreasing” term, which is usually a lot cheaper because the benefit to be paid out decreases every year. Normally this type of policy is taken out to insure a mortgage.

“Increasing” term insurance is an option where the amount payable increases slightly during the course of the term ; this can be an interesting way of protecting your coveragainst inflation.

Joint life insurance plans are very useful for couples who want both of their incomes to help meet the mortgage because a payout is made if either policyholder dies.

Family Income Benefit offers the plan holder’s beneficiaries a regular income from the date of death until the policy terminates rather than paying out one single capital paymemt.

The amount of insurance you need will be dependent upon your own individual circumstances. Most medium and large sized businesses offer a death in service benefit which can sometimes pay as much as 4 times your annual salary to your partner if you died whilst still in employment. Hence if you are reasonably confident about staying in employment, you may decide that paying for extra life insuranc with another plan is superfluous.

The cost of life cover depends on numerous factors, for example, the sort of plan, the number of years it should be in force, and certain medical issues – whether you are over-weight or whether you smoke. Insurance underwriters are also especially clamping down on obesity.

There are significant advantages to moving to pension term assurance. If you already have a term insurance cover which pays out a cash sum, you can save a lot  your premiums by shifting to a pension term plan. The reason is because under new pension arrangements, most customers qualify for tax relief on the money they pay for their life insurance plan if they opt for a pension term assurance (PTA) policy. PTA is basically the same as the usual term insurance cover in so far as it is still protection-only. So it pays out if you passed away within the insured period but if you live to the end of the insured period, the policy has no value.

However, not everyone stands to benefit from switching to PTA. For instance, if you bought your life insurance policy a long time ago, the more expensive premiums that you may now have to pay because you will then be oldercould well outweigh the benefit of tax relief. Similarly, if you have been seriously ill since you bought your policy, you will probably be better off remaining with your current insurance plan.