Life stages

It's very important to ensure that your life insurance cover is kept up to date and that any changes in your lifestyle or circumstances are communicated to your insurance company.

Some of the lifestyle factors that you should consider are:

• Your own life stages, such as your first job, marriage, buying your own home or car and having children
• Your health
• You and your spouse's salary increases over time
• Your debts and financial commitments
• The economic and financial environment, such as the high inflation rate.

The type of life insurance cover you buy is also important, as it should suit your particular needs. Everybody has different needs, so take a moment to consider the features and benefits of your life insurance and understand exactly what you are buying.

Things that you should consider are:

• whether your life insurance premium is competitive in relation to the market
• if the premium is guaranteed (will not change) or not, and if so, for how many years
• will there perhaps be unlimited premium increases that will be effected in the future
• whether the premiums will increase with the age of the life assured
• what the exclusions are with regards to pre-existing health conditions and suicide
• the type of disability cover you have if you decide to buy this.

Are you recently engaged or married?

When a couple gets engaged or married, life seems to become a blur of exciting events. The transition from being single to soon being a couple can be filled with parties, bridal showers, wedding preparations and shopping together for new household items!

It is all very exciting but you have to realise that it is not only yourself that you need to be concerned about. You also have to include your partner in your plans. You have to think about life insurance for both of you, in case anything happens to you or your loved one. Your debts and expenses will also multiply, as both of your individual debts are added together.

If you both had life insurance policies before you got married, remember to change details on these policies, such as your married status and address change. You would probably want to change the beneficiary details as well.

The main purpose of life insurance at this stage in your life would be to maintain all the current monthly payments, if your spouse unexpectedly passed away. In addition, you may need to add to your monthly expenses because of certain tasks that he or she performed before, where you have to make use of external services. Communal chores such as gardening, maintenance of the home and other domestic duties will fall under this.

Buying life insurance should definitely be a priority in your life at this stage. Let this chapter in your life be one where you take care of tomorrow!

Are you starting a family?

This is one of the most exciting and biggest life-changing events in your lives! Having a baby and starting to raise a family has an enormous impact on your financial circumstances. The beginning of this new life stage inevitably means that your shopping expenses increase. You have to buy baby food, nappies, clothes, a cot, pram, pushchair, baby toys etc.

In additional, you may need to pay for childcare or decide to be a stay-at-home mom or dad for baby's first few precious months. You may also need to consider a bigger car and/ or house to accommodate the growing family. Your holidays will probably soon have to coincide with school terms when prices are higher because of peak season prices for accommodation.

Additional life insurance at this stage is more a necessity than a luxury. You have a responsibility to ensure that your dependants are provided for.

Are you divorced or widowed?

Although this is a very unsettling and traumatic time in your life, you may have to, in all probability, change certain details on your life insurance policy. Whether it's a small change, such as updating the beneficiary on your policy or submitting a claim, your life insurance cover cannot be ignored during this time.

You might even have to increase your life insurance cover. As a parent facing single parenthood, you will have an even greater financial obligation towards your loved ones. Even if your life journey has taken an unexpected turn, you can have peace of mind knowing that your loved ones are provided for.

Needs for the mature

There are many reasons why it is a good idea to take out life insurance cover at this stage of your life. You may think that because you no longer have your children or dependents staying with you that you don't need any life insurance cover. This could not be further from the truth. Having life insurance cover in place can assist you in the many ways:

with funeral costs and the settlement of your estate with estate tax liability, which is usually paid on your death to assist your loved ones to cope with the financial strain that may occur if they have to adapt their lifestyle(s), which could mean more expenses

If you have had a life insurance policy in place for a long time, you may want to consider reviewing your cover, to ensure that your policy is up to date. There is no time like the present to do this.