You and I have a lot in common.

Like me, you’re self-employed, or your partner is.

Like me, you’ve taken a risk by forfeiting a cushy role as an employee where you had the comfort of a regular income.

You’ve left behind benefits like income protection and death in service.

And you waved goodbye to illness benefit from the state should you get sick.

Are you CRAZY?

Don't worry, it's possible to get life insurance with a pre-existing condition but for your own sake, please use a broker who deals with ALL of the life insurance providers

I cannot stress how important this is.

If you approach a broker after you've been declined, postponed or had your premium increased then you have a problem as you'll face this question on all subsequent applications:

Birthdays are important because age is the one thing that will always increase the cost of your cover

You might say:

But what about smoking

I say:

Good point but you can always quit and make yourself a non-smoker.

You can’t make yourself younger.

Or can you?

So how do you go about getting a mortgage?

Well, if you’re in Dublin, you’ll probably look at house prices, cry a bit and give in to the inevitability of having to live out of your parent’s gaff for the next decade.

Be grand.

For everyone else? Follow along.

Imagine finding out you have cancer, or a brain tumour or multiple sclerosis.

Your world is falling apart, but who do you turn to?

Friends and family will be supportive, but they won’t have a clue about how you’re feeling or how to help you cope.

You can pay a visit to Dr Google and scare yourself with the half-assed advice you’ll find on a forum.

Or you can access the value-added benefits available for free on your life insurance.

When you're getting a mortgage, you have to get a mortgage protection policy and assign (pass ownership) it to the bank.

If you die, the policy pays out a big lump of money to the bank to clear your mortgage. That all seems fair enough.

However, and here's the sneaky part - if you add serious illness cover to your policy and make a claim on the serious illness (say you get cancer or suffer a heart attack), who do you think gets the money?

You can apply for multiple life insurance policies but it will entail a lot of form filling.

But is the extra hassle worth it?

Can you get a better cover?

Let's find out...

High there

So I guess you’re here because you (or a friend) smoke weed or have done so in the past.

And you’re wondering whether you should disclose this on your application form.

Am I right?

You'll be in the bank when they hit you with the big one: if you don't go with Life Insurance indexation, you'll leave your family with less money than you intended to.

They'll face a life of poverty.

Ending up sweeping chimneys and begging for scraps on the streets.

Okay, so I'm exaggerating – but the guilt trip is a mean trick for the bank to play on you.

Life Insurance indexation might seem like a good – even necessary – thing to add to your policy, but is it really in your best interest?

There are two ways to skin this particular cat.

I could go through the reasons why a single person without kids would need cover:

- mortgage
- bills
- funeral costs
- student loan debt/private student loans
- credit card debt

But instead, I'll go through the types of life insurance options available to everyone and drill down on why they could be useful if you are single.

I am starting with my favourite and the cover that EVERYONE should have regardless of whether they are single or have children.