Before you take out the policy you should decide the amount of cover you think would be needed if you died this is known as the 'sum assured' or policy benefit.

You should then decide how long you want to take the cover out for or the 'term' of the policy.

How much Life insurance do I need?
You certainly need enough cover to:

Generally, Life Cover protection policies will not pay out if:

Serious Illness Cover- Accelerated Serious illness cover is an optional benefit which pays a lump sum if you suffer one of the specified serious illnesses set out on your policy conditions such as cancer, heart attack and stroke. You and your family can use this lump sum to pay off bills or the mortgage, and to help give an income at this distressing time. Serious illness can strike at any time. The effects can be catastrophic. Not only could you face increased medical bills on top of your regular bills, you could also face them when your income is reduced because you can't work.

Accelerated Serious illness Accelerated Serious illness cover is an optional benefit which pays a lump sum if you suffer one of the specified serious illnesses set out on your policy conditions such as cancer, heart attack and stroke. for example if you took out a life policy for say €300,000, and you included accelerated serious illness cover on your policy for say €200,000. So if you suffered a serious illness you could claim €200,000 which is the serious illness benefit. If you were to die at a later date in the policy term, the remaining €100,000 life policy benefit would be paid out to your dependents or next of kin.

Hospital Cover Hospital cover helps to pay some of your day-to-day bills if you are in hospital for usually at least three days (72 hours). This cash is yours tax-free to spend in any way you want. You are covered for 365 days over the period of the cover, which ends on your policy anniversary before your 60th birthday.

Accident Insurance Cover If you are out of work for more than two weeks because of an accident, accident cover will usually pay you a weekly amount of between €120 and €400 from the start of the third week for up to one year, or until you go back to work. And it's tax-free. You can usually cover yourself for up to 40% -50% of your earnings before deductions.

Inflation protection (indexation) This option allows you to increase your cover every year (to keep in line with the cost of living). And, you do not have to provide evidence of your health. This is often called indexation. This option protects the real value of your cover as time passes. If you do not take this option, your cover will stay the same throughout the term of your plan and as with inflation the real purchasing value of your policy proceeds reduces. This cover usually works having to pay an extra charge for this benefit. This extra charge will depend on your age and the term of your plan. Usually the value of you policy is increased by 5% each year and the repayments from between 5%- 8% each year.

Guaranteed cover again Guaranteed cover allows you to extend your cover, at any stage throughout the term of your plan. And, you do not have to provide any new evidence of health. The benefit of this option is that without it In future years you can get cover without providing evidence of health.