I'm just looking into life isnurance for myself and wife so if one of us pops off the other gets a wad of cash to pay the house off and enjoy life without the other

I did a couple of the usual online quotes and they are coming back at around $1,400 for the year for a couple compared to approx half of that in the UK.

I know car insurance is silly priced here but is life insurance the same ?

Our UK life insurance company have said we can carry on with it in the UK even though living here which I didn't think we'd be able to but it may well be an option if I can't find anything better here.

Since i'm maturing a little, i've looked too and it's ****ing expensive

We pay about $110 a month for coverage of the Mrs & I for $300k. Thats for term insurance until we get too old to be covered. In addition, many employers offer a multiple of salary coverage through corporate/institutional life & health cover. I think we both have coverage of 2xSalary.

You are ?

There's plenty of leeway on the word "little"

Coincidentally, i have a meeting this morning with our advisor about this very topic.

I pay $19.95 per month for each $100,000 of term life cover. I started this policy in my 40s. You need to shop around.

I was looking at $500,000 to pay off the house and have some in the pocket too.

el_richo - let me know if you find anything out useful !

Just re-did mine - was "mis-sold" on a mix of universal & term coverage a couple of years ago that we were paying up for.

Decided to change tack now and just have term-10. We're 34 and paying about $50/mth as a couple for $550k coverage for the same reason as you are looking.

We have $160k term assurance to cover the mortgage. Both in our 40's when we took it out and I'm a smoker. We pay $80 pm total. Wife's was $30, mine was $50 pm.

You need to be sure you don't buy mortgage term insurance which covers only the outstanding balance of the mortgage. It would, upon death, pay off the mortgage balance but not provide any further funds.

Good point i.e. what we used to call Decreasing Term Assurance back in the UK. This one is what we used to call Level Term Assurance, where the assured amount does not decrease over the term of the plan but will end after a specific number of years i.e. not a whole of life plan.

Right - So I need to make sure if I get insurance here it is 'Level Term Assurance' ?

That's roughly our costs. The $50 a month for $550k coverage quoted by Hobbess is sounds like an exceptional deal, but I'm in my early 40's & the wife is just north of 34 so perhaps that accounts for the difference. Neither of us are smokers.

We also have critical illness cover for $55k that costs around $60 a month. It has a return on premiums rider that means that if we don't claim we get the payments back at the end. Without any interest of course. The wife was very keen on this cover after her best friend survived colon cancer & was fortunate to have critical illness coverage. Like life insurance, we hope never to use it!

Do many people get life insurance as a benefit provided by their employer? I thought some level of coverage would be a standard component of the remuneration package provided by most employers. I get 3 x salary, at no cost to myself, and I'm an Administrative Assistant, not a high flying executive. I know it wouldn't cover most Vancouver mortgages, but if I were to buy property I could always take out insurance for that.

Yes. If you have a regular salaried job it will likely come with some sort of life insurance.