Mortgage protection-whole life policy

My solicitor recommended i take out a whole life mortgage prot. policy instead of one for just the term of the mortgage! Would anyone agree with this? Its only an extra €10/month, but just wondering if its worth it!

What reasons did s/he give for this being a good idea? As far as I know in moist cases you should just take the cheapest form of decreasing term mortgage protection life assurance to cover the mortgage and keep general life cover separate.

He said that its better to take out a whole life one when your younger as if you take out a life policy when you're older its more epxensive and he regretted that he didnt do it. A lump sum will be paid out whenever you die and not just during the term of your mortgage if that makes sense.

Yes - that makes sense. But you need to decide/ascertain whether or not it makes more sense to just choose a no frills mortgage protection life assurance policy and keep your general life assurance separate. In most cases I reckon that keeping the two separate is a good idea. Are you sure that the original quote is the most competitive even before the €10 p.m. is added on for whole life cover - i.e. have you shopped around or just looked at a single quote?

Another thing to consider is that whole of life policies are reviewed at certain intervals so monthly payments may rise whereas fixed term type can have fixed payments. There are a lot of variations.

I wouldn't take the fact that it is only 10e higher for a whole of life policy into account too much. Premiums will nearly always be lower when you are younger (unless there are health/occupational issues etc). Whole of life policies will be reviewed and premiums increased during the life of the policy (as you age).

The main benefit (in my opinion) of whole of life policies over mortgage protection policies is that they are more flexible ie if you trade up the sum assured can be increased and often additional benefits can be added on to them if you are eligible such as critical illness, hospital cover etc if they are not covered by your private health insurance (all of which will increase the premium).

Peoples life assurance requirements differ depending on their circumstances such as dependents etc. If you require additional cover taking out another policy separately from the mortgage protection will at least ensure that the mortgage is paid off and there are additional funds available to dependents should they be needed. This can be achieved with a whole of life policy but you may end up paying a higher premium unnecessarily in the meantime depending on your circumstances. If you are taking out cover solely as a mortgage requirement the basic mortgage protection policy should be enough.