Life Insurance Why Does The UK Have A 2.3 Trillion Protection Gap?
According to Swiss Re, one of the world’s largest re-insurance companies, less than half of the UK population has any form of life insurance protection. They then go on to put a figure on the value of this protection gap. Using an average income of 20,000 and assuming that the value of protection needed ranges between 5 and 10 times income, they put a value on the protection gap at 2.3 trillion.
But in all probability, whilst the gap is huge, 2.3 trillion is likely to be somewhat over stated. After all there are people who are disqualified from having life cover due to their age – just over 1 in 5 are under 18 years old, the minimum for life cover, and 1 in 6 are effectively uninsurable as they’re over 65. Then there’s a raft of persons for whom life insurance is just not necessary. These are people aged between 18 and 65 who do not have dependents. Having said that, without doubt, there are still many families in the Swiss Re survey that have been correctly identified as desperately needing life insurance.
So if they need life insurance, why do they hold back?...