Life Insurance Policies?

Question

My partner and I need to re-look at our life policies and have a will drawn up (we are not married).

We have a house together with a joint mortgage and we each have two children from our previous relationships.

What we want to do is leave money to each other to clear down the mortgage and also to leave monies to our own individual children in the event of our death.

What I want to know, can one policy be split? ie, if there was one £300k insurance policy on my life, in my Will can I leave £100k to each of my kids and the other £100k to my partner?

I want to sort the policies out before going to the solicitor to get the wills drawn up so any advice appreciated!

Answer 1

When you draw up a will you can leave whatever you want to whoever you want.My wife and i have wills whereby everything goes to the survivor and eventually is divided among the children and grandchildren as we have expressed.It`s not difficult and a good solictor will advise for a reasonable fee.If you already have the policies in place thats fine,but if you are taking out a new life policy then why not make it a joint policy.This will cover both of you and pay out on the first death.

Answer 2

Simple....a life insurance policy is not a very good tax saving and investment idea. A life insurance policy should only be used to guarantee a source of income for anybody whom you care about. If you have a spouse/kids to support you should buy the maximum amount of term insurance you can afford take whatever savings you got from avoiding buying the very high commission universal life and other whole life policies and putting that into higher risk, higher yielding investments.

Answer 3

I would strongly suggest you seek advice from an independent financial adviser.

(Not wanting to pimp myself - but I deal with mortgages and associated protection).

You would be better having a joint policy for you and your partner and then have separate policy for the children. The children's policy could then be placed in trust and trustees set up to manage the funds until a specified age. The benefit could be split between several beneficiaries! This would also fall outside of any potential inheritance tax and also avoid probate.

There should not be any cost to you for this advice so if you do seek professional advice - DO NOT PAY ANY FEES!

I can look at this for you if you wish, send me a message through my profile and I'll provide my company details.

Hope this helps:)

Answer 4

it depends who took out the life insurance. Just because it is against you dying doesnt mean that you (or your estate as you are dead) is the benificiary.

assuming you are then its easy because it will form part of your estate and you can chop that up in your will to your hearts content. you can give £1 to everyone in the street if you like.

however, chances are your mortgage already has some sort of insurance on it that pays it off in the event of one or other of your deaths, so check out the wording because you may not have to worry about covering that at all.

however, do worry about the cost of your funeral - could easily be 2,000 today. and also check the fine print on the mortgage policy because they have been known not to pay out in the event of the death of the 2nd income person because they are not the "main" wage earner.

my granny did something a bit handy with her will, she put her entire estate in trust and my grand-dad got the interest every year. when he died the trust fund was then hived up amongst the kids, so he wasnt left high and dry, but couldnt re-marry and leave all her money to his new wife with the kids getting nothing.
maybe some sort of reciprocal arrangement with each others wills so that the surviving partner is looked after but long term the kids still see the money??

Answer 5

I don't know how is works over there, but in the states there is a plan called a joint life policy that will cover two lives in one policy. You should check with an insurance agent to find out.

Answer 6

As long as you are the owner of the life insurance policy, and not just the insured , you can change the beneficiaries of the policy and the percentages that they receive any time you like. You should contact the agent who purchased tihe policy through or the insurance carrier ro make any changes.

Answer 7

Do not get Whole life, Universal life. Permenent life or any other policy that has a "cash value". These are a high price rip off.
Just get low cost term insurance for the period of time you think you will need insurance. At some point you will become self insuranced (when house is paid off).

Answer 8

This can be done easily. See a good independent financial adviser, who will recommend a life assurance policy, and put it into a flexible trust, with the proceeds to be spilt accordingly.

Answer 9

You should contact a good independent financial adviser. Depending where you live try www.thepremiergroup.co.uk they have IFA's all over the uk

Answer 10

Yes, you can have a primary beneficiary, and a secondary beneficiary. You also have CONTINGENT beneficiary, in case the primary or secondary is deceased.