The Lion Life Insurance Blog

Paying for insurance is a PITA.

Car insurance, house insurance, gadget insurance, pet insurance, life insurance, health insurance, the list is endless.

It's all a massive waste of money...until you make a claim and then it's the most important few quid you've ever spent.

I took a look at my own life cover recently to see if I could save a few bob so I thought it would be helpful to outline my thought process around changing it up into bite-size pieces.

You think you're healthy when you begin the life insurance application form...then you reach the family history question:

Have any of your parents, brothers or sisters ever had one or more of the following medical conditions at the ages specified:

Hmmm...

Have you had the talk?

No, not the one about the birds and the bees.

The talk....with yer man/wan from the bank.

The talk...where they corner you in a dimly lit room and put the squeeze on until you say no more and sign up for the policy they're hustling.

If you haven't had the talk yet, count yourself lucky you found this page.

If you have survived the talk without signing up, then you, my friend, are a legend. ?

But, don't worry if you did crumble - you have a cooling-off period of 30 days where you can cancel and get your money back. And even after the 30 days, you can cancel at any time and switch to a better policy.

According to the Marie Keating Foundation, around 3,200 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in Ireland each year.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in Ireland, after skin cancer.

1 in 10 women in Ireland develops breast cancer during their lifetime.

So it's no surprise that we advise a lot of women who have had breast cancer or who have a family history of breast cancer.

Meet Bob.

Bob is 25. He likes to drink pale ale and enjoys taking me-time to moisturise his beard with special oils he buys off the internet.

Bob also really likes Nickelback and Coldplay, but he can’t admit that out loud because it’s not cool. Bob’s been doing some reading and has decided to get his personal finances in order: and top of his list is to look into Life Insurance.

When it comes to comparing life insurance insurance policies, it's usually a reasonably open playing field between the providers.

For Serious Illness Cover, we're going to pooh-pooh Aviva (sorry Aviva but your definitions are more difficult to satisfy than your competitors making it harder to make a successful claim)

Let's look at what Serious Illness Cover actually does.

As consumers, we're fascinated by comparisons.

We love knowing the best, the worst, and everything in between.

And having all the information in the world at our fingertips has made us even hungrier to find out all we can before we make a purchase.

So today, to save you from spending hours on the interweb trying to compare insurers, in this article I'll do it for you.

Many people view life insurance as nothing more than a transaction—you give the insurer money, and the insurers pay you money if you die.

But what if we saw it as more than just paperwork?

What if we saw it for what it really is – a protective bubble around your family finances, ensuring the ones you love the most are secure regardless of what happens to you?

Once upon a time, Ireland’s entire housing market descended into a massive ball of fire.

I’m sure you’re familiar with it.

One of the things that fell away, alongside property prices (now rising meteorically again) was the habit of switching mortgages.

But they're back, baby.

Despite how it sounds, Section 72 isn’t actually the name of a military base deep in America where aliens are being investigated. I mean it could be. CIA, don’t come for me.

Let’s try that again. In the context of Life Insurance: Section 72 ISN'T the name of a secret military base where aliens are being investigated.

Instead, Section 72 is a type of Life Insurance you can take out in Ireland to pay off Capital Acquisition Tax. Also known as CAT. Also known as ‘meow’.

Also known, more commonly, as inheritance tax.

Inheritance tax is the bogeyman of tax. It’s also fecking ridiculous. So let’s start by talking about that CAT.