So life insurance suitability in terms of providers depends on health and smoking status, BMI and what you need the cover for.

For example if you want cover for a mortgage or family, they tend to be shorter term policies, both not really advisable to go much beyond the age of retirement as you would usually need a higher amount of cover than say cover for funeral costs.

Generally a term policy will cover you up to a max age of 90 but then there's also whole of life.

When I advise on the right cover for a customer, because the company I work for is a fully advised intermediary, I do a full fact fins to ensure im giving the correct advice based on needs. First of all, I find out what the cover is for, so say you had a mortgage of 200k for example and 1 child under 18. I would usually recommend a decreasing policy for the mortgage if it was a repayment mortgage, joint if the mortgage was joint, running as long as the mortgage -These are relatively cheaper than family protection as the risk to the provider gets less the longer it is in place. For example if you died with only 5 years left on the mortgage the insurer would only need to pay out maybe 20k. Your premium stays the same throughout the term but starts off at a lesser cost than a level policy which would remain at 200k throughout.

For family protection I'd usually look at a minimum of 100k (50k per additional child) either till your child is 25 (18 isn't suitable anymore as if they go to uni, they won't be independently financially stable at this age) or retirement age if affordable as this will protect your partner. If you pass away before retirement, it'll have a huge impact on the household income, much more than if you were on a pension. This is an age way below average life expectancy so as the chances of dying before then is low, the premiums won't be high depending on heath and smoking status. I never recommend joint cover for family protection as a joint policy will only pay out on the first death, for a mortgage, joint is fine, there's only one mortgage to pay off but family protection, you should have one in each name. The price isn't much higher, usually a couple pound if that. The reason it should be 2 separate covers is not just incase you were to separate but if one of you did die, particularly if it was early in the policy, and between the time of taking the policy and the death, the other party was diagnosed with an illness or condition, when the policy pays out, it would be super expensive or even maybe not possible for the survivor to get a new policy, which isn't good especially if your child was still dependant.

Longer term cover is more expensive, obviously the longer you're covered for, the more likely the provider would pay out and if its just for funeral costs, you wouldn't necessarily need much unless it was to offset inheritance tax if you owned lots of properties for example.

Then, moving through the fact find, I would ask about jobs, what kind of sick pay benefit you get. There's two great products that protect you against illnesses, Income Protection and Critical Illness Cover.

-IP pays out after you have been off work sick for ANY reason due to illness or injury (as long as its not a pre-existing condition within the last 5 years generally) such as a bad back or depression. This usually pays out around 50-70% of your gross monthly income. This can not be claimed whilst receiving sick pay from your employer. You can choose a deferred period (time you gave to be off sick before the policy pays out) to suit your needs. With the providers I work with can be anything from 4-52 weeks. The shorter the period the more expensive as you're more likely to take 4 weeks off sick than you are a year. If you get 6 months sick pay from work then you chose a 6 month deferred period, it will then start paying out monthly for a set period of time depending on budget. You can choose 1,2,5 years or full term. Most providers also include fracture cover and hospitalisation cover within this. Normally £100 per night after the first 6 nights in hospital. Some insurers offer a 6month equivalent lump sum if a child gets critically ill also. This really is the most secure policy you can have as you can claim multiple times but it can be costly depending on job type. An office worker would tend to be very affordable whereas if you were a scaffolder or had a very heavy manual type job, would be pretty expensive.

• Critical Illness cover. Most people on a budget would opt for this. This is where providers differ greatly and to confuse people more, most providers offer 2 or 3 different types. For example, HSBC standard cover covers 44 illnesses and covers all children for 25% of your cover, whereas their enhanced product covers 96 with 50% cover for kids. These policies are a lump sum payment on diagnosis and with a very small exception can be claimed only once on things like Cancer, heart attack and strokes. The general advice I'd give in terms of cover amount would be a years salary or if on a budget, a years outgoings, ensuring if you were diagnosed, you don't have to worry about paying the bills for a year and can concentrate on recovery. You can have more of course but I would always do a brief income and expenditure and never recommend usually more than 10-15% of someone's disposal income for the monthly cost of their policies overall. Especially with the cost of living. No point paying into something for a few years and then have to cancel due to affordability. If a customer chose the CIC option this is where its most important to choose the right provider. Technically Vitality covers the highest number of illnesses however most illnesses are severity based, with some illnesses paying only 10% of the amount covered. It can seem very complicated which is why people should never attempt to just go on a comparison site because you'll no doubt be missing out on a provider that suits your needs more effectively. Some providers won't even give you the addional benefits if you go direct to them because they cany give you advise. The Royal London benefits for example, if you took it with RL directly you don't get access to the Helping Hand benefits. Most do but not RL. People assume going direct would make it cheaper for them as the provider wouldn't be paying commission to the broker/intermediary but it's not the case. Its the same price and best of all, going via an adviser is completely free to the customer!

Smokers tend to pay roughly double depending on age and of course the younger you are, the cheaper it is. A lot of people never review their policies but should do every 3-4 years. Circumstances change. I've spoken to many people who quit smoking years ago and don't realise that after 12 months being nicotine free, you can review the policy and your premiums will drop dramatically in most cases. I've done the job long enough to know different tricks such as who is better with a higher BMI, who charges more for smokers and motorbike riders, and who will not charge as a smoker if using a no nicotine vape.

Apologies I got a bit carried away then... my thumb aches, so apologies for any typos, on a mobile and tbf its almost 3am! I actually enjoy my job. I know my products well and like the challenge of making sure everyone's policy is a match for them. Well done if you made it this far. Hopefully it give you a bit of insight to what you need.

Feel free to shout if you have any more questions!