Most lenders strongly recommend you get a policy when you take out a mortgage and it isn’t a bad idea. If done correctly, it shouldn't be prohibitively expensive. Yet lenders will try and flog you their own ridiculously expensive policies, often without regard to circumstance. For example, if you don’t have anyone to leave your property to and money is tight, then there’s no need.
For many with dependents it’s also worth considering the cheapest Level Term Assurance policy instead. At the very least when getting a new quote, see what the price difference is. This is because level term policies pay a fixed amount rather than decreasing sum. This has two advantages; first it means if you trade up to a bigger house in future you mightn’t need much additional insurance, plus as well as paying off the house it leaves extra money for dependents.
An unpleasant fact... why's it assurance not insurance?
If you're wondering why it's life ‘assurance' not ‘insurance', that's because assurance is for something that is certain to happen, insurance is where there is only a risk of it happening..... and death is assured. Though some do call this ‘insurance' too as there's no guarantee you'll die within the term
