life insurance

[louiserob]

What is the benifit of taking out joint term life assurance over single person life assurance. ie why is there a choice, what beneifits are there for married couples taking out joint as apposed to single life assurances.

[Loosehead]

When there's 2 of you you can take out a JLFD (Joint life first death) policy and it pays out on the first death, this means that, first death would cause the payout. This is often ujsed for protecting mortgages.  

[louiserob]

Thank you loosehead.  I understand that. But surely that means the surviving party (lets say spouse) would have to take out another insurance after the death of other spouse to make sure any children are provided for in the event of death. Obviously if the children were over 18 that would not be applicable.  They would have somewhere to live but no means to maintain it.

[Loosehead]

Depends on your intended purpose for the term assurance. It is most commonly used to make sure a mortgage is paid off when one person dies. If you want it for other purposes then JLLS (joint life last survivor) may be preferable.