These days, the cost of childcare alone could be a heavy blow to your family’s household budget if you were to pass away. Despite this, fewer women have life insurance when compared to men.  Are you wondering whether life insurance for women is something you should get? Let’s consider the facts.

Why do Women Need Life Insurance?

The gap between men and women is narrowing in multiple areas. When we consider life insurance, women’s families are as likely to need an extra cash injection if they were to die unexpectedly as they would if it were the “man of the house”. It’s not just the pater familias that makes a valuable contribution to a family’s lifestyle. Mum’s salary, and her work as the children’s carer, are vitally important to the wellbeing of her family. And she’s almost as likely to be the person in whose name a mortgage on the family home is registered.

If she were to pass away while her children are still young, the family home may be at risk of foreclosure, and paid services would be required to fill her role as primary carer for the children of the family. As a result, life insurance for women is as important as life insurance for men. As with all forms of life insurance, the best life insurance for women means that her family’s most pressing needs are taken care of in the event of her untimely death.

What Life Insurance Products are Available to Women?

Insurance companies are especially eager to sell women life insurance. As a woman, you’re statistically more likely to live longer. Whole life insurance, which pays out no matter when you die, is likely to have female policyholders who pay their premiums for longer than most men do. Term insurance providers have a lower risk of the insured person passing away during the term for which they are insured. Women tend to take fewer risks and are more likely to survive the insured term. As a result, insurers are eager to offer the best life insurance for women that their companies can provide because women usually have lower risk profiles.

When Should Women Invest in Life Insurance?

Any woman who hopes to leave a little extra cash to loved ones can benefit from life insurance. However, providing for a family is the top reason for any person to get life insurance. And although assisting a life partner may be one of the reasons for getting insurance, it’s the arrival of children that often prompts women to get life insurance.

While no amount of money can ever make up for the passing of a loving mother, extra funds can help by improving a household’s financial security and could cover the cost of a university education for the children. The best time for you to get life cover will depend on your circumstances, but motherhood is often the factor that makes women concerned about their family’s financial future.

Does Life Insurance Change Once You Have Children?

An existing life insurance policy remains unchanged unless the policyholder approaches the insurer to ask for alterations to the policy. Your approach to life insurance, and the amount of cover your family will need if you were to die unexpectedly, changes as your family grows. You will want to work with your insurer to accommodate that.

Once children become adults, the level of cover you need changes too, and that’s one of the reasons why many women choose term life insurance. Because children grow up and become financially independent, death benefits become less necessary to the wellbeing of the family, and the need for insurance becomes less pressing as your children become able to take care of themselves. Meanwhile, if you were to die, you get better death benefits for lower premiums. That’s why so many women prefer term life insurance policies.

Life Insurance for Pregnant Women

Many insurance companies charge higher premiums when providing life insurance for pregnant women. They often recommend that women take out life insurance before becoming pregnant so that they can take advantage of lower premiums, and require medical reports before deciding on insurance costs when dealing with women who are pregnant.

Since only ten in 100,000 women in the UK die from complications experienced during pregnancy and childbirth, this is an overly cautious approach. When comparing policies, be sure to look at offers from insurance companies that don’t regard pregnancy as a significant risk. You may even find that you can get cheaper insurance without having to disclose pregnancy and without having to provide doctors’ reports.

If you become pregnant and have term life insurance that you calculated based on the needs of your family before you discovered that a new baby was on the way, you may want to increase your death benefits.  Most insurers are open to negotiating your existing policy, or you could look at an additional policy to cover any shortfall in the amount you think your family will need if you were to die.

Life Insurance for Single Women

As a single woman, your need for life insurance will still depend on whether or not you have children. If you do, you’ll need even better cover than you would if you were married. After all, the father of your child may be unwilling to shoulder more responsibility than is required of him by law.

You might also want to think about your parents’ future. Most elders do require at least some support from their adult children. If you have a house that you bought with the help of a mortgage, you may want that asset to pass to your next-of-kin. Achieving that may require life insurance that will cover the balance still owed on your mortgage if you were to die before paying it off.

Consider your personal circumstances, and how your death may affect any relatives who might still be alive if you were to pass away. If you have reasons to be concerned about how they would cope without you, you probably need life insurance.

Women, Diabetes, and Life Insurance

If you have diabetes, you may have trouble finding insurers who will offer you a policy without medical examinations and a lot of rigmarole. Even with all this information provided, they may not offer you reasonable premiums.

As a woman with diabetes, you’re probably taking extra care of your health, and you’re doing the best you can to keep your condition under control and manage risk. Choose an insurer who rewards your efforts and sees you as an individual rather than just another statistic. If you’re looking for insurance that’s personalised for you, visit our life insurance for chronic conditions page and feel free to contact us with any questions you may have. We’re here for you!

Get the ball rolling right away. It’s as easy as filling out an online application - all you need is 5 minutes to tell us about yourself.

‍

This is a blog and should not be taken as financial advice.