Young people are ignoring Life Cover

The number of young people who are buying life cover and other forms of financial protection is at an all-time low.

Figures for 2008 released by Protection specialists LifeSearch show that only 3% of all protection policies written by the company during this period were bought by young people.

Life insurance, Critical Illness and Income Protection are just three protection policies that are less expensive for younger people (age 25 and under), not only because of age, but also because younger people are likely to be healthier, which keeps premiums low. Yet despite this price advantage young people are not purchasing protection products in significant numbers.

For example, a Life Insurance policy over a 30 year term would be £1548 more expensive if it was bought at age 35 rather than age 25 (for a healthy non-smoking male looking for £100,000 of level term assurance).

LifeSearch Policy Adviser, Matt Morris, said: "Clearly more effort needs to be made to reach younger people. Many younger people have debts, mortgages and families that need financial protection in the event of the main income provider being unable to work. Often they either buy no financial protection at all or rely on the internet to get the best deal. That might work with car insurance, but not with financial protection."