Furnishing your home comes before life protection

Whilst purchasing home insurance is a top priority with 81% of people ranking this as one of their top 3 priorities, furnishing the house (78%) and redecorating (76%) are deemed more important than worrying about having life protection in place (33%).

Twice as many people think having protection in place is a top priority when buying a new home (11%) rather than ensuring you have extra TV channels installed (5%), but it is worrying to see that nearly twice as many again would rate furnishing the home as a top priority (20%).

The house buying process prompted just three in ten (29%) consumers to buy life protection: with more men (32%) than women (26%) opting to purchase protection.

According to the research, just over half (53%) of respondents worry about what would happen to their loved ones if they were hit with a critical illness, yet despite this only two fifths (39%) have protection in place. Of those who do not currently have life protection cover, a third (32%) think taking out a policy is too expensive, almost a third (31%) do not think they need life protection yet, however a seventh (15%) do not think life protection is important at all.

TSB’s research shows that the younger you are the more likely you are to care about your loved ones with almost three quarters (71%) of 18-24 year olds saying they would be worried about what would happen to their loved ones if they became critically ill. Having life protection in place peaks when Brits hit the 35-44 age bracket with just under half (47%) having the protection in place.

With three fifths of respondents (61%) saying they do not have protection in place, The TSB claims there is potentially a ticking time bomb if mortgage holders were to die or become critically ill.