Author: Catherine Harvey

Taking out a life insurance policy shows consideration and love to your nearest and dearest. It means you have the peace of mind that comes with knowing that, as much as possible, life for them will go on without added financial burden.

However, many people are making the mistake of not writing these life insurance policies in trust. This means that any life insurance payouts will be added to the inheritance of your family and could take them above the nil rate band for inheritance tax.

If a life insurance policy is written in trust this will enable the sum to be excluded from the overall estate of the policy holder, freeing it from inheritance tax liability. It also has the ability to speed up payouts, whether or not it would be liable for the extortionate tax.

Recent changes in the law mean that assets worth 300,000 pounds for individuals and 600,000 pounds for couples are the limit before any tax liabilities. Any assets over that amount would be subject to inheritance tax at a rate of 40%.

The latest figures to be released show that over the course of one year, 11,000 insurance policies worth a total of 597 pounds million were subject to inheritance tax. Had all these policies been written in trust, you can be quite sure that inheritance tax would not have been applicable on any of them.

Will reading and distribution of assets can be a notoriously lengthy procedure. This can be put a huge financial strain on the family. With life insurance policies that are written in trust would be paid out immediately, making things a whole lot easier.

Not putting life insurance policies in trust is costing customers millions of pounds every year in unnecessary inheritance tax. Apparently, only 10% of people write their life insurance in trust. Even if you already have a life insurance policy in place, it is possible to easily put it in trust.

Whether you purchase your life insurance over the net, over the phone or through a shop, they should all come with the chance of writing in trust. It seems odd that so few people take up this opportunity. Maybe it is a case of not getting the right advice?

Life insurance comparison websites abound but there is concern that they are not serving the customer well. It has been found that many people will take out the cheapest life insurance but this doesn’t necessarily mean that is the one that is most suitable to their circumstances.

The British Insurance Brokers Association have called for the Financial Services Authority to overhaul regulations regarding these insurance comparison sites. They believe that when people check out these sites, they barely take notice of the policy details, just the price. They even take this price comparison as ‘advice’. This is a good case of cheapest not always meaning best.

Whatever happened to people taking responsibility for themselves? Surely, if they take out a policy without concerning themselves with the details, they are throwing their money away. Many people take out a life insurance policy with their mortgage as is necessary but instead of shopping around will go with the mortgage providers own insurance simply because it is easier.

Author: Catherine Harvey

Life cover insurance companies have a set guideline for supposed ideal weights for optimum health. Stay within this range and your life cover premiums will be manageable. Step out of their limits and you are deemed a high risk and will pay premium rates for your life insurance.

Sensible policies it would seem, on the surface. With young people constantly striving to look like a cocktail stick on a diet and at the other end of the scale the growing trend for obesity, food has become an obsession that has far surpassed eating for survival.

Both extremities of this problem bring serious health defects including high blood pressure, heart conditions and organ failure, often resulting in loss of life and bringing cost to the life cover insurance companies.

However, while it is relatively easy to list current and previous health issues and your current weight on a life cover application, how do you explain a mystery illness? With the advances in medical science these days, they still do not claim to know everything and there are always new medical problems surfacing that require new answers.

In the news recently, has been the cases of several young children with unexplained eating disorders that certainly do not come under the parameters of bulimia or anorexia. One young girl finds that eating any food causes unaided rejection by her stomach. All her sustenance comes from a specially formulated tube feed and she copes with the psychological aspects and hunger pangs by eating Tic Tacs - the only thing that her stomach can handle at the moment.

After investigations by many specialists, they cannot find a reason or a cure to help her. Is it fair that she should be penalised for a medical problem that she cannot help but which makes her underweight?

Of course, some eating disorders are based in the psyche. A UK teenager has eaten nothing but chips for the past 10 years. It was recently discovered that she had gastrooesophageal reflux, a condition which causes indigestion and heartburn but this wouldn’t be enough to stop food being digested. It certainly wouldn’t be enough to stop me eating! I just know that indigestion is coming my way after a fat banana sandwich but it doesn’t stop me eating it!

After treatment to reduce stomach acids along with counselling, this young girl has now been able to move on to plain burgers, plain noodles and potato waffles, although given that the noodles are only allowed to be purchased from one particular shop, it seems that this is more of a mental hang up than physical but try explaining this on a life cover application.

The recent case of a girl who can eat absolutely anything and not put on weight may sound like an anorexic’s dream but is, in reality, a severe health problem. At only 12 years of age and four foot tall, she is severely under-weight at two and a half stone.

Despite eating six meals a day consisting of all manner of foods from her favourite fish fingers followed by chocolate to meat balls, pasta and fruit there is no underestimating her healthy eating regime or her appetite.

Despite this, she still cannot put on weight and has undergone a plethora of hospital tests from 150 visits to various specialists. Her parents have their own suspicions about the causes her problem. Her father was a soldier for more than 20 years and was subjected to many injections when he went to serve in the Gulf before her conception. This knock on effects of these jabs have long been discussed and the family have raised funds to take their daughter to see doctors in the US because UK doctors have given up on her.

This little girl cannot lead a completely normal life given that she has to have the assistance of an electric wheelchair due to restrictions imposed by muscle wasting. She is severely under-weight and her family are concerned about her long term health. Would it be fair for life cover insurance companies to penalise her on the grounds of weight when there is no defined illness?