Having a baby is great (not literally having it of course, us menfolk have to deal with the horrors of manflu, how unfair would the lord above have been to lumber us with pregnancy too).

But those days after baby arrives, they suck...

Laya life insurance markets itself as no-frills life insurance, but is it a viable alternative to what's already on the life insurance market?

Medical science can spot a health issue so quickly that there seems to be hardly a healthy human left.

So don't be surprised if your insurer requests a medical report from your GP.

Here's why they need a PMAR...and how you can avoid them.

The two things that piss everybody off about life insurance are:

Having to pay for it
Not getting anything from it

I have the solution.

The life insurance company isn't trying to catch you out.

Yeah, yeah, I know you're a teeny bit sceptical but hear me out!

Currently, the insurers only refuse around 5% of all the life insurance and serious illness claims that they receive.

Or putting a more positive spin on it, they pay 95 in 100 claims. Not bad, eh?

Irish banks have offered split mortgages for borrowers who are having difficulty keeping up with the mortgage repayments.

If you can’t afford the full mortgage repayment each month but have the means to make a partial payment, the bank will split your mortgage in two (hence the name).

You continue to make payments on one part of the loan (called the active part) while the bank sets aside or “warehouses” the mortgage balance until you're in a better financial position.

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:

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...