22 Feb 2008 03:49:06 | Rachel Lane
According to a study by LifeSearch, the number of women in the
UK buying life insurance in the UK has doubled over the last six
years. As women are increasingly closing the gender related pay
gap and even becoming the main breadwinners in a household, they
are also becoming more vigilant about their finances and less
financially dependent on their partners.
Linda Tyson, a policy advisor for LifeSearch stated that the
increase was attributed to the “growing awareness of the
importance of protecting the financial stability of the family.
More and more women are either the main or only breadwinner and
are realising the importance of protecting their incomes.”
An additional advantage for women is upon applying for cover,
they pay less in premiums than men, which is additional money to
save, invest or spend on holiday with the girls. This reduction
in premiums is based on the fact that women live an additional
seven years longer than men. Insurance companies deem men a
greater insurance risk when it comes to life insurance. In
general, a woman pays 25% to 35% less than a man.
The most cost effective way to buy life insurance is term cover,
which allows for a lump sum to be paid out over a given period
upon the death of the policy holder. The lump sum will protect
the partner or family and the extent of the cover will vary on
how much the policy holder wishes to invest and length of time
over which they wish to invest it.
Alternatively, there is the option of whole-of-life insurance,
in which case a lump sum will be paid out upon the death of the
policy holder – whenever that happens. Given that the payout is
guaranteed, the premiums for this type of life insurance are
much higher, although women still pay less than men.
Websites such as moneynet provide an easy method for women to
review different life insurance policies, the risks and
associated costs and given that the ratio of male to female web
users is almost 50:50, it’s not surprising that women have the
web (and their finances) under their thumb.
Resources Channel 4 Money Life Insurance Life
insurance and women
About Author :
Rachel writes for the personal finance blog Cashzilla: a wee bit
of banter on finance related issues.
