5 Top Tips for Securing Affordable Life Insurance for Mums in 2021

{This is a collaborative post}

It’s natural for us mums to worry about our family’s future and COVID-19 has not helped matters. The pandemic has highlighted the need to have the right financial protection in place to ensure your family are taken care of. As a mum, you’ll want to know that your children will be protected in the event of a worst-case scenario.

Life insurance is essential in securing the financial future of your family and ensuring they don’t struggle financially should you pass away. Life insurance works by providing a payout to your loved ones should you pass away during the term of your policy.

Your loved ones can then use this payout to help cover any financial commitments. These are often things such as:

• Mortgage payments
• Bills and utilities
• Outstanding debts
• Childcare costs
• Funeral costs
• Leaving an inheritance

There are a number of policy types available to suit every family’s need. From term based covered (cover for a specified period of time) to whole of life cover (cover for the rest of your life), to family income benefit (monthly income payments).

Whether you’re a young mum, single mum, stay at home mum or working mum, life insurance is essential for protecting your family should the worst happen.

Below are 5 top tips for securing affordable life insurance cover for mums from Hampshire-based award-winning life insurance broker, Reassured -

1. Lead a healthy lifestyle

It can be hard juggling motherhood while taking the time for yourself to lead a healthy and active lifestyle, but doing so could help you to secure a more affordable life insurance premium. 

The price you pay for your life insurance premium will be calculated according to the level of risk you pose to the insurer – the riskier they deem you to be, the more you’ll pay. 

At the point of application, you’ll need to provide information on your health and wellbeing, such as:

• Your lifestyle
• Your medical history
• Your weight
• Your BMI
• Your smoking status

This information will help to paint the picture of your current health (and, therefore, the risk you pose to the insurer). Ill health, being overweight, having a high BMI and being a smoker are all factors that can lead to premiums being inflated.

This doesn’t mean you’ll need to swap quality time with your children to hit up the gym every day but simple steps such as quitting smoking, eating a balanced diet and keeping active could all work in your favour to lead a healthier lifestyle and secure a more favourable premium. 

You Can’t Put a Price on Peace of Mind

The most important people in my life

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It is funny how your outlook on life changes as you grow older and as your family dynamic alters. I am now the mother of three primary school-aged children and I have a very limited income as I no longer work out of the home.  I do earn a little through my writing and this blog but the most important thing for me right now is being there for my family and nurturing my relationship with God.

Whilst it is fabulous to have more time for my closest relationships and to be able to volunteer my services to charities that can utilise me, it does sometimes worry me that I do not have an income and thus the security net I used to have. Thankfully our family are in a bit of a unique situation as my husband gets a house as part of his salary package and we now live in the one of the most beautiful places in England, but of course, that means the actual monetary part of the salary is far more limited than ever before in our adult lives and monthly saving is but a dream currently.

What would happen if one of us were to fall critically ill, or even worse pass away? Would we be able to maintain our wonderful life? Probably not, if it was me that was ill my husband would have to take care of the children or arrange for them to be looked after and give them lifts to their school five miles away. We might be able to make it all work because of the amazing community we live within but boy would it be a struggle and I can’t imagine how stressed my husband would end up trying to maintain a senior level job and care for three children and a sick wife.

He called me his hero!

Aviva are running a campaign at the moment called 'Every child has a (super) hero' and they pose the question 'are you theirs?'. As soon as I saw it I was able to shout 'yes' and I remembered a half-written post I had in drafts from last September.

I'll copy here what I had started to write all those months ago-

On the way home from school today I was chatting to the kids about their day and JJ was telling me that lunchtime was a bit rubbish as some other kids kicked him and his friends off the football pitch.  In the hope of getting onto better ground I asked how his lessons were today and he told me they were a bit rubbish too.  Apparently they were doing RE (Religious Education) and they had to write about who their hero was, he thought this was pretty naff as he is a bit of a stickler for things being correct and he could not fathom how heroes fitted into RE.

He said that everyone had to name their hero and who would I say? So I talked a little about Jesus being my hero and that was probably why this had come up in RE, as there were lots of people like me who felt their God was the most awesome hero.  I got a bit of a huff at this (he is 9 after all) and I asked who he had said was his hero then. This was when my heart swelled as he told me quite matter-of-factly that I was his hero. I was a special Mum as I liked to help other people, he thought it was cool that I made shoe boxes for less fortunate kids at Christmas and that I was travelling abroad to try and help people too. You can't ask for much more than that, can you?

I'm not sure why that post never made it live, I must have got busy but it is certainly something I'll never forget. It is the little things that stay with you as a parent. But why was Aviva asking this question you must be wondering? Well, they spoke to loads of parents and most agreed that the most heroic thing you can do as a parent is to protect the future of your family. No one likes to think about what will happen if the worst scenario comes about but I certainly think it is necessary.

Since dh and I got our first mortgage in 1997 we have had life insurance to ensure that the other has adequate protection if something bad happened to one of us. Once we had our first child in 2003 we then added critical illness cover as it felt much more necessary to ensure that we would all be secure if one of us got really ill. Can you imagine the stress of trying to look after three small children, whilst working full-time to ensure you can pay the mortgage? Oh no, we want to ensure that if one of us gets critically ill, or God forbid dies then at least the children can continue to live the lifestyle they have become used to. Not one full of extravagance but just one they know and can take comfort in.

Of course, the situation is different for every family and it is important to seek independent financial advice if you are looking to make important changes in your life. Dh and I are in the process of moving at the moment and that throws up all sorts of decisions we need to make as we will no longer have a mortgage nor generous salaries, so it will be back to the drawing board and we need to work out exactly what cover we need now. Thankfully for us we have a deep faith in the Lord and that carries us a long way.

I spotted that Aviva offers a free life insurance policy for new parents, you can have £10,000 of cover free of charge until your child turns one. If you are on maternity leave this gives you space to get back to work and be earning again and buys you time to make arrangements for full cover (if that is what you decide to do). Aviva offer a whole host of different covers that you might be interested in and their website is full of helpful information - take a look!