This article was written prior to 15 March 2021, before the launch of the new Financial Advice Regime, and was published for information purposes only. It is not being actively promoted by Dollar Insurance. Dollar Insurance does not provide financial advice about the suitability of their products and cannot take into account your personal situation or goals. Before you decide to take out a Dollar Insurance Policy, you should read the relevant Policy Wording document which contains the terms, conditions, and exclusions of the Policy, and seek independent financial advice, if required, to ensure the insurance policy is suitable for you.

You’ve bought a life insurance policy—congrats! I bet it feels good to finally tick this off your to-do list. But before you move on to something more fun, there are a few more insurance-y things you might want to take care of. Just a few small steps to help you and your family get the most out of your life cover when it’s finally needed.

Here are four things to do after buying life insurance:

1. Save your policy documents

Life cover policies come with important documents, like your policy schedule and policy wording. These have a lot of info, things like your policy number and how much cover you have. Every year you’ll also get a new policy schedule to replace the old one.

You should keep these documents somewhere safe and even tell a family member where they are, just in case.

2. Leave instructions for making a claim

Since this is what insurance is for, you’ll probably want to make it easy on your beneficiaries. Bare minimum, you might want to let someone know you’ve bought a policy (even if it’s just mentioning Dollar Insurance and your policy number in a Will). That way they can kickstart the claims process for everyone else.

3. Talk to your family about any exclusions

Some insurance policies come with exclusions. You might want to draw attention to any exclusions with your family, so they’ll have a better idea of when the benefit will or won’t be paid. Letting your beneficiary in on some of these policy details could help clear up any confusion. This might be especially helpful if they can’t find the current policy schedule at claims time.

4. Stay on top of your payment details

Did you know that your policy could be cancelled if you stop making payments? If this happens, then your family won’t be able to make a claim—probably not the result you’re after!

To make sure you help keep your policy “in force” (a fancy of way of saying that a policy is current or working), make sure you update your credit card details when you get a new card. The same goes for any direct debit details or accounts. 

About the author: Dollar Insurance is all about making insurance as painless as possible, with easy to get funeral cover, for just $1 a day.  

Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is of a general nature only and does not take into account your personal situation or goals. You should consider whether the information is appropriate to your needs and seek independent financial advice, if required, to ensure an insurance product is suitable for you.

Any product information is correct at the time this article was published. For current product information, please visit the Dollar Insurance website.