Increasing term insurance

For an extra premium, you can also buy the option to increase the amount you are insured for, either at set intervals, such as on each anniversary of taking out the insurance, or when a particular event occurs – marriage of the birth of a child, for example.
As you would expect, if you choose to increase the amount you are insured for your premiums will become more expensive.

The advantage of buying this sort of add-on to a basic policy is that the premiums are worked out on the basis of your health at the time when you first took out the original policy, even if your current health is not so good.

Keeping your options open

While increasable insurance lets you increase the amount you are insured for during the policy term, renewable insurance allows you to take out another policy regardless of your state of health at the time.
Premiums will be based on your age at the time you renew but there will be no increase if your health deteriorates.
Although you may pay more for this option, it could be worth considering if you are worried about future health problems which would make life insurance expensive (or even unobtainable).
However, the option of renewing your policy may not be available if you want the renewed policy to end after your 65th birthday.

Term extension

As well as – or instead of – being able to increase the amount you are insured for, it may be possible to extend the term of the policy (i.e. increase the length of time it runs for). This should be cheaper than taking out a new policy at the end of the term: premiums increase as you get older.