Do Single Parents Need Life Insurance?

When it comes to their children, most parents want the same thing: to make sure that they’re happy, healthy and cared for. As a single parent, this responsibility falls on you alone, which may at times feel like a lot of pressure. It’s not always easy to make the best decisions for your family but when it comes to their future, you want to get it right. So how do you know if life insurance is right for you as a single parent? Let’s have a look…

How can life insurance help you protect your family?

Have you thought about what would happen to your children if you were to suddenly pass away? Do you have dedicated guardians to step in if needs be? Do you have money available to help them carry on with life as you would want them to?

As a single parent, your children often rely on you as the sole breadwinner. If you were to pass away and your income was no longer there, your family could struggle to meet larger expenses, like a mortgage, or even household bills and day-to-day expenses.

With the right protection in place, you could have peace of mind that you would be helping to leave your children without any debt to inherit. You could also help to make sure that your children can still meet major milestones, like learning to drive or going to Uni with a cash lump sum if you pass away unexpectedly.

With Smart Insurance, you’ll also get a free Will Kit included with your policy. It’s possible to name legal guardians for your children in your will so you can make your wishes clear and ensure that there’s a plan in place if the worst should happen.

How does life insurance for single parents work?

In a nutshell, life insurance helps you to ensure that there’s a financial cushion in place for your loved ones should you unexpectedly pass away. You might think; ‘I’m young and healthy, why would I need to take out life insurance?’ but as we all know life is unpredictable, and disaster can strike at any time. With the financial responsibility of being a single parent and the sole provider for your family resting on your shoulders, life insurance could be a simple way of protecting your loved ones if the worst were to happen.

There are a few different types of life insurance available, with policies tailored to different needs. Let’s have a look at what Smart Insurance policies are available and what kind of protection they offer.

Family Life Insurance

Smart Family Life Insurance provides your loved ones with a lump sum benefit when you pass away. The benefit amount can be used to help manage major household debts like the mortgage or car repayments, help with daily living expenses, or cover funeral costs.

It’s available to UK residents aged 18 to 64. You simply choose your benefit amount from £60,000 to £750,000 (depending on your age) with a monthly premium that you can afford. If you are diagnosed with a terminal illness with 12 months or less to live, or you die, your benefit will be paid out to your family.

This kind of policy could be right for you if you want to ensure there’s money there to help cover larger financial responsibilities like a mortgage or loss of the sole income of a family. You don’t need to have a medical to take out cover, we’ll just ask you a few simple lifestyle questions.

Guaranteed Life Insurance

Smart Guaranteed Life Insurance is a policy that guarantees acceptance. That means if you’re a UK resident aged between 30 and 80 you can get this life insurance with no need for a medical or health questions. It’s a straightforward way of helping to ensure your children don’t struggle financially as a result of your death.

You can choose a benefit from £2,000 to £20,000 depending on your age and your premiums will stay the same for the duration of your policy. As well as that, your cover is free from the policy anniversary after your 95^th birthday.

This type of protection could be for you if you suffer from poor health and are concerned about being able to get cover. It also may suit you if you want to help pay for your funeral, debts, and day-to-day expenses when you’re gone. You could also leave it as a gift to help your children later in life.

Where to start

When it comes to securing life insurance as a single parent, you should think carefully about what you want your protection to do, how long you want it to last and how much you can afford to pay. If you’re not sure how much cover you might need, our guide on calculating your life insurance policy can help.

You should also consider if there is any additional cover you want to put in place. You might want to take out critical illness cover or optional children’s cover, which helps cover extra costs that may be incurred for items like medical expenses and school tuition if your child suffers a defined serious injury or illness.