How to match your life cover to your mortgage

Anyone who’s watched Strictly Come Dancing will have had the opportunity to appreciate the importance of keeping all aspects of the performance in synch with each other.  If it matters in a 90-second dance routine then it matters even more when looking at protecting your financial future.  Whether you’re looking at savings, investing, insurance or any other financial product, your overall aim should be to improve your personal wealth and every decision you take should lead towards that goal.  Of course, the Strictly celebrities don’t work on their own, they get help from experienced pros, so when looking at managing the family finance, it can help to get some financial advice from a financial adviser.

Make sure all financial products work effectively together

An example of two financial products which very much need to be kept in step with each other is that of mortgages and life insurance.  The fundamental purpose of life insurance is to provide a financial cash cushion for those who are left behind after a death.  In short it allows beneficiaries to focus on dealing with the emotional aspects of bereavement without facing the additional distress of financial difficulties.  The prospect of a grieving partner having to sell the family home due to an inability to meet mortgage repayments is one that can feasibly be averted with forward planning.

Every time your circumstances change, make sure that your finances stay in synch with them

The key point is to ensure that your life insurance reflects the reality of your outstanding mortgage.  Assuming you take out (or update) your life cover when you buy your first home then the level of cover will reflect the amount needed to take care of the mortgage in the event of a death at that point.  If, however, you increase the size of your mortgage for any reason, then you need to ensure that your life insurance cover will still do its intended job.  The most obvious reason for taking on a larger mortgage is, of course, moving house, but you could choose to increase the size of your mortgage for other reasons.  For example you may want to extend your current property as an alternative to having to move.

Be prepared for life’s slings and arrows

As well as looking at the potential consequences of you or your partner dying, it’s also important to think about what would happen in the event of one or both of you being out of work for any length of time.  This could be due to the employment market or alternatively due to serious illness or accident.  Should any of them happen to either of you, then having the right insurance cover in place could make all the difference to your financial and emotional comfort.  In short it could mean the difference between worrying about paying the bills and being able to concentrate on making a full recovery.

In short, insurance is about making sure that you and your loved ones are protected if the worst happens.  It’s probably one of the few products people buy actively hoping that they’ll never need to use it.  For many people, however, it is an essential part of their overall financial planning and needs to be kept up-to-date in line with their changing needs.

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