How important is the cost of premiums when you’re shopping for the best life insurance policy? Cost is an important factor, but in some situations it’s better to choose a slightly more expensive option to ensure you’re getting the cover you need. This is particularly true when choosing between a joint life insurance policy for you and your partner, or opting for two separate policies.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Joint Life Cover

For a young couple with little money to spare for life insurance, a joint policy is an attractive option, as both partners can be insured for less than the cost of two separate policies. If one partner dies, the surviving partner will benefit from an insurance payout that can be used to pay the mortgage, additional debts, or simply provide some financial relief by making up for lost income. However, getting a cheap joint life policy does not come without additional costs.

The most significant disadvantage in the long term is that getting joint cover to save on insurance premium costs means that couple ends up with a policy that only pays out once. The surviving partner benefits from the insurance payout, but the policy has now terminated, and they are left uninsured. Depending on how much time elapses between the purchase of the policy and the payout, the surviving spouse may be in their forties or fifties, and be facing much higher premiums if they want to purchase a new insurance policy for themselves.

There are some other problems with joint life cover, too. These typically come into play when one partner earns significantly more than the other, or if one partner is much younger or is in better health than the other partner. Joint life cover insures each partner for the same amount of money, so in the first scenario, one party may not be adequately protected against the loss of income of their partner. In the second scenario, an older partner, or one who is in poorer health, can drive up the total premium costs significantly, to the extent that two separate policies will actually be less expensive.

One more problem with a joint life policy crops up only if the couple separates, so most people tend to overlook this issue. Joint life cover cannot be divided between two separating partners—it’s simply impossible. In these situations, often the only solution is to terminate the policy. This means that not only that any money paid has been essentially wasted, but also that the couple may find premium costs have risen in the meantime due to their age or other factors.

What’s the Best Solution?

In most cases, the most practical way of avoiding these issues is to simply purchase two separate policies. Two policies cost more than one, of course—but you’re getting twice the amount of cover for what usually amounts to just a few extra pounds per month. Both parties can be insured for amounts that will leave their surviving partner with adequate protection, and the premiums for each policy will be calculated independently, so an older partner’s higher rates will not affect the premium cost for the younger partner.