The Lion Life Insurance Blog

Many people don't even think about shopping for life insurance until they actually have children, but it's a good idea to plan for the future by buying life insurance coverage when you're pregnant or even before you become pregnant.

Sooner rather than later.

Forget about all the other stuff, the buggy, the car seats, the multitude of What to Expect When You're Expecting books. Whether you buy them today or in three months time, the price won't change.

However, with life insurance, the cost of your policy can go from the normal price to multiple times that amount if you develop any complications.

So, you've lived in your parents' box room for 18 months, scrimped and saved, and finally have the deposit in your bank.

You've found a gaff you want to buy, been mortgage approved, and just went sale agreed.

Exciting times ahead!

But before you start planning trips to IKEA, there's an important reality check we need to discuss:

What happens if you get sick and can't work?

Yeah, I know; sorry to put a downer on things, but the next few sentences are the most important ones you will read today.

When you're buying a house, there's an awful lot of high-falutin bullshit to wade through.

Plenty of terms that the average Joe just don't know.

So to help you survive the onslaught, we've created a Mortgage Bullshit Buster, or MBB if you will.

Without further ado.

It depends on the relationship between the dead person and the person getting the moolah.

If you're married, there is no tax liability.

Let's look at the case of JR and Sue-Ellen.

Sue Ellen had a life insurance policy in her name for a cool €10 million.

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.