Whole of Life Assurance

Whole of Life Assurance cover is for the whole of your life. Unlike term assurance, which only pays out if you die during the policy term.

Whole of Life assurance always pays out, it is guaranteed that the policy will pay out upon your death as long as the premium continue to be paid and the policy is effectively 'in force'.

	Whole of Life assurance always pays out in the end, so you'll always get some money.
	It could be worth thinking about if you want to leave your family with a lump sum
	You can combine it with term assurance if you want to cover any specific debts.
	Whole of life assurance is more expensive than term assurance.

As the name suggests, 'Whole of Life assurance' provides life insurance cover for the whole of your life. The sum assured is paid to your dependents following your death.

Whole of Life assurance is more expensive because it is certain that the life company will eventually have to pay the sum insured, plus there may be underlying investment funds.

Two types of cover exist:

Maximum cover

• The initial premiums and the sum insured are guaranteed not to increase for the first 10 years. After this initial period the plan is reviewed noramlly every 5 years thereafter and in most cases the premiums will be substantially increased.

Balanced cover

• This cover aims to balance the level of life insurance with adequate investment to support the cover in later years and maintain the original premium throughout life. This relies on the value of units invested in the underlying investment fund growing at a certain level each year. Increased charges or poor performance of the fund could result in the premiums being inadequate and may have to be increased to maintain the same level of cover.
  
  Premiums will depend on the sum to be insured, your age, your sex and whether you smoke or not. A non smoker is usually defined as someone who has not smoked for at least twelve months. Premiums for women are generally lower as on average they tend to live longer.