Cost of life cover comes down to sex

There are many factors that will affect the amount you pay for life assurance, including your sex, men will generally pay 20% more than women as they are likely to die 5 years earlier. Your personal habits will also influence the cost of life cover, for example smokers will pay twice as much as their non smoking counterparts and men drinking more that 14 pints of beer a week will also pay more.

Most people take out life assurance to provide for their families or to pay off their mortgage in the event of their death. Therefore the length of the policy is normally up until children no longer need financial assistance (if ever) or when the mortgage is repaid.

The most common and cheapest form of life cover is called term assurance, which purely provides life over a fixed period, so if you survive to the end of the period without dying the policy will stop, without any payment back to the policyholder.

Most companies provide life assurance for their staff and it is always worth remembering to keep your nomination form updated to ensure any money goes to the right person, rather than ending up in your estate which could cause a tax liability.

Companies also use life cover to protect themselves, so they receive a cash lump sum in the event of a key member of staff dying which can either keep the company ticking over until a replacement is found or perhaps pay off some of the overdraft.