Not your average insurance, life assurance covers insureds for an eventuality. While insurance protects you from a possible or potential event, assurance protects the policyholder from an assured or inevitable event. Life insurers take the financial risks out of disability while limiting the devastating financial effects of death by providing for your family after you are no longer able to do so.

Like most insurers, life insurers now make use of the internet to provide life insurance quotes. As a result, some  life insurers have moved from long-term insurance to short-term insurers. The difference between long-term and short-term insurance is no longer about the term, but the type of insurance policy. Long-term policies come with investment options, making them a long-term investment.

Broker life insurers

Long-term life insurers who offer investment options with their policies, such as Allan Gray and Sanlam, operate strictly with brokerages. Given the complexity of such policies, they require the expertise of an advisor.

Brokerage firms understand life insurance and the extent and exclusions of the policies. Using a broker helps you navigate the complexities of life insurance policies. Broker life insurers can also help you calculate how much life cover you need. Broker life insurers, however, often promote one life insurer above another because of their relationship with them. As brokerages get paid by life insurers to represent them, these life insurance policies come with the added cost of brokerages built into them.

Direct life insurers

The internet  has changed the way short-term insurers operate. Seeing the success of offering online insurance quotes, life insurers now offer long-term insurance direct to the public. Life insurers like 1LifeDirect and Outsurance offer now offer life insurance and disability cover direct to the public without the broker. Life insurers who operate in this way have the added advantage of cheaper premiums. The problem with direct life insurers though, is that they don’t offer advice on how much cover you need to take out. They will help you understand the limits of your life insurance policy, though.