• Life cover provides a cash sum or income when someone dies. For example, if you take out life cover on yourself, a cash sum will be paid to your partner or family if you die.
• Critical Illness cover provides a cash sum when someone is diagnosed with a specified or terminal illness.

You can choose:

• the amount of cover you want.
• the amount of life cover that you can afford.

You will need to answer questions about your current state of health and, in some cases, provide evidence to prove this.

Before deciding what cover to take out, it is worth considering what your current needs are, taking a look at the benefits that you already have both through private arrangements as well as those through an employer. You should remember though that the cost of these benefits generally increase as you get older so it is better not to delay your decision too long.