Whether you are a young person just starting out in your career, or you’re older and consider yourself financially comfortable, a serious illness or fatal accident in your family could change everything. In the even of your death, how would your partner, parents or children cope financially? The cost of a simple funeral can make a nasty dent in finances at the worst possible time for your family. If you became terminally ill or partially paralysed, how would your family care for you? Can they afford to pay for ongoing hospital, nursing home or home based care? If not, then you really do need to think about life insurance.

Take just a couple of minutes to consider what position your loved ones would be in if something serious happened to you. Better still, think about the position you would prefer them to be in if you became seriously ill or passed away. If you are a significant income earner in your family, how would your partner cope if your income was no longer contributing to the household? It’s important to ensure your partner and children are not left financially vulnerable in the event of your death or incapacity from a serious illness or injury. Wouldn’t you prefer to ensure the home mortgage and any other debts were paid off and they were financially comfortable in your absence?

A good life insurance policy will provide a lump sum payout in the event of your death, and often prior to your death if you are diagnosed with a terminal illness. This can assist your family members to care for you if need be and ensure they are not destroyed financially by it. Some policies have benefits to cover you in the event of paraplegia or quadriplegia too. Most life insurance policies have a bereavement support benefit which will assist to pay for funeral costs.

Life insurance is equally important for a single person. If you were to have the misfortune of a serious vehicle accident and were left a paraplegic, or you were diagnosed with a terminal cancer, who would care for you? It’s likely that a parent or sibling would want to – but caring for you is likely to have a devastating impact on their life and on their financial well being.

If you’ve ever cared to a terminally ill person, or experienced a sudden death in the family you’ll understand the ongoing financial consequences that can flow from it. If the thought of leaving your loved ones behind doesn’t bear thinking about, the thought of leaving them behind and in financial turmoil should be even less palatable.

Finding a suitable life insurance policy is relatively easy – and certainly not as expensive as you might expect such coverage to be. You can even shop for one online. Once you’ve selected your policy you might want to set up direct debit payments so you don’t have to think about the subject of life insurance again!