What’s the Best Age to Buy Life Insurance

Life insurance, mortgages, nasal hair clippers, Spanx.

I remember when these things were for older people.

Now I own three of the four (imagine life without Spanx!).

Now I am “old”.

But what’s the best age to buy life insurance?

Best age to buy life insurance

You buy life insurance so you don’t have to worry about what will happen to your loved ones financially when you pass through the gates of Valhalla.

Death is a tricky subject. You don’t want to think about what will happen to your children when you’re no longer here. But that day will come. You just don’t know when.

Life is always far shorter than you think.

As I said, no one likes talking about death. It’s our nature to only consider the present and ignore the future rushing towards us like Will Smith at an awards ceremony.

You may feel fit as a fiddle now but fast forward 14 years.

Are you still strong like bull?

Or do you worry about an unexpected diagnosis plunging your family head first into financial hardship?

Irish Life Insurance Claims Paid

Irish Life recently published their Big Book of Claims,, and it’s given us a really good view into who is claiming on their insurance, their age, and even how much Irish life has paid out.

Obviously, this is all based on averages. We’re not about to break GDPR. No names, no faces, just some pretty interesting albeit terrifying numbers.

Over 50% of all death claims were for people under the age of 70

Your 60s might feel a long way off, but I can promise you it’ll rattle around faster than you think.

Many of us have visions of ourselves kicking back at 80+, after a lifetime of grilled fish and olive oil, surrounded by children, grandchildren, and maybe even great-grandchildren.

But life is a fickle beast.

It ends when it wants with no concern for who we are and what we want.

So we might as well prepare ourselves as best we can, even though we have no idea when it will be our time.

So, what was the most common cause of payout for life insurance?

No surprises here.

Cancer accounted for 35% of life insurance claims in 2021.

Closely followed by 20% for respiratory issues and 11% for heart conditions.

But, life insurance isn’t all about the death payout. It isn’t the only benefit you get.

Living Insurance Benefits

Protections such as Specified Illness Cover and Income Protection (if included in your policy) can help while your old ticker is still ticking.

That’s why these little gems are the ‘Living Benefits’.

Even if you’re young, single, and fancy-free,  thisyou need this.

But before I get onto those, if you’re wondering what’s the best age to buy life insurance, you need to know this:

When you sign on the dotted line, the older you are, the higher the premium/cost.

If you buy cover at 30, you’ll lock in the price for 30-year-old, healthy you. When you’re 65, you’ll still pay the same premium!

However, if you wait until you are 45 to join the life insurance game, your premium will be much higher.

Early bird. Worm. Etcetera.

Back to The Living Benefits (sounds like a 007 movie starring Timothy Dalton).

Serious Illness Cover

First up, we have Specified/Serious Illness Cover.

This insurance policy will help you by paying that old guy a wedge of tax-free cash if they get cancer, a heart attack, suffer a stroke, or one of 50 other common illnesses.

Due to the illness, future you may be unable to work,, but future you will still have bills to pay.

Again, you might be thinking serious illness cover is for older people.

However:

The average age of a specified illness claimant was only 52 years young.

Let that sink in.

Fifty. Two.

Average age.

If you were on the doss the day you did averages in school, this means many claimants were much younger than 52.

And, yet again, the number one cause for specified illness claims was cancer (up 6% year on year).

Those numbers stack up.

We help many clients in their 30s and 40s who have already beaten cancer. Unfortunately, most of them thought themselves “too young” to take out illness cover so they were left exposed when that bastard cancer hit.

Okay, shake off the sadness, doom, and gloom.

People who have beaten cancer are the most upbeat, positive folks you’ll meet. They don’t take life for granted anymore.

Moving on to THE MOST IMPORTANT INSURANCE YOU CAN BUY.

Income protection

Income protection does what it says on the tin. It’s there to support you financially if you cannot work due to ANY illness.

I’ll hit you with the average age of income protection claimants, but I’ll give you two seconds to lay your bets with your guess.

Ready.

Here goes.

50.

Yep, fifty years young was the average age of an income protection claimant in 2021.

With everything that has happened in our world recently, it’s unsurprising that the number one cause of income protection claims was mental health-related.

Anxiety, stress, and depression have become prevalent lately.

Is it because society (social media doomscrolling) is causing more of us to experience mental health issues?

Or is it because we readily accept and understand mental health like never before?

I’m not sure. I’m an insurance advisor, not a psychiatrist but what I can tell you is having income protection is a no-brainer.

Name me one thing more important than your income?

Family, of course, but how do you provide for your family?

With your income!

Imagine if it stopped suddenly.

Like I said before. No one likes to talk about these things. They’re not fun or exciting, but sometimes we have to prepare for the bad shit just around the corner.

Over to you

What do you think?

Are you ready to take that insurance leap and protect future you as best as you can?

If you are, super, if you’d like my help, even better.

Complete this questionnaire, and I’ll be right back.

Thanks for reading

Nick