keyperson.questCompare providers
  1. Home
  2. Life insurance
  3. Family life insurance

Affordable family life insurance, without the guesswork

Affordable family life insurance is cover that gives your partner and children financial security if you pass away, at a price the household can keep paying.

MoneyHelper says a policy giving your loved ones a decent amount of protection can cost from just a few pence a day (MoneyHelper ↗).

This guide covers the types, the price and how much to think about.

Every claim here is our summary of a named external source, linked beside it. Sources change: check the wording at the link before you rely on it.

Add up your needs ↓What drives the price →
01 · The basics

What is family life insurance?

Family life insurance is ordinary life cover bought with a family in mind.

MoneyHelper says life insurance is designed so that your dependants, such as your children or a partner, are financially looked after if you pass away, and it pays out as either a lump sum or regular payments (MoneyHelper ↗).

Term cover runs for a set period, such as five, ten or 25 years (MoneyHelper ↗), which you can match to the years your family would depend on you.

It comes in three shapes.

Term life insurance →
How the cover moves over the term
Start of termEnd of term

Level: a fixed sum for the family

Pays a lump sum if you pass away within the term, and the amount stays the same. MoneyHelper calls it the most simple and affordable option (MoneyHelper ↗).

The bars show the shape of the cover only. They are not to scale and carry no insurer's figures.

02 · The price

How to keep family life insurance affordable

MoneyHelper lists what sets the premium: your age, health, lifestyle, whether you smoke, your family medical history, the length of the policy and your occupation, plus the level of cover (MoneyHelper ↗).

Some of those you control, and the card sets out four ways to use them.

Four ways to keep the cost down
  • Match the cover to the needDecreasing cover for a repayment mortgage could be cheaper than level cover (Legal & General ↗).
  • Shop aroundMoneyHelper lists insurers direct, brokers, comparison sites and advisers, and says your mortgage lender might not have the best deal (MoneyHelper ↗).
  • Check what you already haveWork death in service is linked to salary and stops if you leave (MoneyHelper ↗).
  • Set priorities if money is tightMoneyHelper says some protection might still be better than none (MoneyHelper ↗).
03 · Starting age

What £25 a month buys, by starting age

Age makes a big difference in one insurer's published examples: the same £25 a month buys far less cover the later you start.

Age cover starts

£25 a month, 25 years

Cash sum

Age 20
£1,083,422
Age 30
£563,838
Age 40
£214,688
Age 50
£75,521
Age 60
£23,258
Age 70 (19 year term)
£8,645

Legal & General's published examples for its level life insurance: customers who don't smoke and have good overall health, paying £25 a month for a 25 year policy, quotes taken from its site on 13 March 2026 (Legal & General ↗). Its figures, not ours, and not a quote for you. Decreasing cover could be cheaper.

04 · How much

How much life insurance does your family need?

MoneyHelper says the amount of cover you need depends on any debts, your mortgage or rent, the number of dependants, and your take-home pay or income from other sources (MoneyHelper ↗).

Put your own figures in the tally.

It uses no rule of thumb of ours.

Take off cover you already have.

Legal & General says most UK employers offering death in service pay two to four times salary (Legal & General ↗), but MoneyHelper points out it ends if you leave that job (MoneyHelper ↗).

Type your own figures. Nothing is filled in for you.

Mortgage£0
Other debts£0
Income for the years chosen£0
Less cover you already have−£0
Your tally£0
A tally of your own figures only. It ignores inflation, interest, tax and State benefits, and it is not a recommendation of how much cover to buy. Nothing you type is stored or sent. Headings from MoneyHelper (MoneyHelper ↗).
05 · Whose life

One policy for both parents, or two?

Couples can take out a joint policy or a single policy each.

The trade-off is between price and the number of payouts (MoneyHelper ↗).

One joint policy

Two single policies

Price
Usually more affordable than two singles (MoneyHelper ↗)
Two premiums
Pays out
Once, when the first of you passes away (MoneyHelper ↗)
Once for each of you (MoneyHelper ↗)
Who is paid
The surviving policyholder, unless you arrange otherwise (MoneyHelper ↗)
Into your estate, unless you name beneficiaries or use a trust (MoneyHelper ↗)
After a claim
Cover stops; the survivor has none under it (Legal & General ↗)
The other policy carries on
Swipe to compare
06 · Next steps

Family life insurance: next steps

Two things protect the payout itself.

Be honest about your medical history, because insurers check it at claim time (MoneyHelper ↗).

And consider a trust: MoneyHelper says a policy written in trust is not considered part of your estate and can be paid outside probate and Inheritance Tax (MoneyHelper ↗).

Legal & General notes that an unmarried partner has no legal claim on a policy that is not written in trust, unless a will provides for them (Legal & General ↗).

Life insurance in trust →Life insurance for a mortgage →
01

Add up

Work out what the family would need

Debts, the mortgage or rent, the children’s years at home and the income that would stop.

02

Check

See what you already have

Death in service from work, or cover bundled with an account or a mortgage.

03

Compare

Get more than one quote

From insurers, brokers, comparison sites or an adviser.

04

Protect

Name beneficiaries, or use a trust

So the money goes to the people you chose, without waiting for probate.

05

Review

Look again when life changes

A new baby, a move or a bigger mortgage can change what you need.

07 · For business owners

Run a business? There is a business version

If you are a director of your own company, the company can pay for family cover on you through relevant life insurance (Royal London ↗), instead of you paying for a personal policy.

This site is mainly about cover a company buys, and the cards show who each policy pays.

Key person vs relevant life →
08 · Sources

Check it for yourself

Every claim on this page is our summary of one of the documents listed here.

We last checked them against the live sources on 28 September 2026.

The documents are the authority, not this page.

Insurers and HMRC update them, so validate any figure or condition at its link before you rely on it.

Questions

Family life insurance, answered

MoneyHelper calls level term cover the most simple and affordable option.

Decreasing cover can cost less still, but Legal & General says it is designed to protect a repayment mortgage, because the cover falls over time.

The cheapest policy is only good value if it covers what your family would need. MoneyHelper ↗

There is no single rule.

MoneyHelper says the amount depends on your debts, your mortgage or rent, how many dependants you have, and your take-home pay or other income.

Add those up, then take off any cover you already have, for example death in service from work. MoneyHelper ↗

MoneyHelper says life insurance payouts are not taxed, but may be added to the value of your estate and be subject to Inheritance Tax.

Writing the policy in trust means its value is not considered part of your estate. MoneyHelper ↗

Yes, with joint life cover.

MoneyHelper says a joint policy is usually more affordable than two single policies, but pays out only once, when the first of you passes away, whereas two single policies can each pay out. MoneyHelper ↗

MoneyHelper frames the need around who depends on you.

A parent at home may not bring in an income, but without them the family might have to pay for childcare or the other parent might need to work less.

Those costs are what the cover would be for, so put your own figures on them. MoneyHelper ↗

Beta · information only

Personal cover sorted? See the business side.

If you run a company, the business protection guide sets out what each business policy does and who it pays, from HMRC's manuals and the insurers' own guides.

01Key person, relevant life and shareholder cover

02Who each policy pays, with sources

03No email, no quote, no sales call

Information, not advice

We are not an insurer, broker or regulated adviser, and we do not give quotes or recommend a policy. For regulated advice, use an adviser authorised by the FCA.

Open the business guide →

Takes you to the business protection insurance guide.

Not financial advice. This page is general information. Before buying insurance, the FCA tells consumers to check the firm on its Firm Checker (FCA ↗). For free guidance, see MoneyHelper.