Men and women differ on insurance

MEN on average insure themselves for double the amount of cover females do, according to research.

Irish men and women vary greatly on the monetary value they put on their lives and this differential is greatest for those in their 50s.

Head of sales and marketing at Caledonian Life Greg Dyer said: “Our research shows that the men of Ireland typically insure themselves for double the amount of cover females do. And while the differential is relatively small to begin with [35% in age 30 to 39], it grows with age and hits its peak in the age 50 to 59 category.

“In this cohort, men have life cover in place of over two and a half times the amount of women of a comparable age.”

Caledonian Life said men are the mainstay of life cover sales, as they are more likely to insure themselves and to select a far higher sum assured.

In the total pool analysed, 64% of all single life policies were taken out by men.

“Another notable feature of our findings is the low level of cover many people have in place. For example, e178,000 is quite a worryingly small amount of life cover for a woman in her 50s. In this day and age, many women of that age still have dependant children and often debt in the form of overdrafts, personal loans and so on.

“If they are a stay-at-home parent other costs will arrive if they were to die, such as additional childcare. It’s not a thought any of us like to dwell on, of course, but this average amount of life cover would not go a very long way. As a case in point, a e200,000 life cover payout would only last four years and four months for a family with monthly income requirements of e4,000,” he added.

Caledonian said that women typically pay less for life insurance, but this did not appear to influence the decision-making process.

“While it’s difficult to say what the reasons are behind this gender gap, some thoughts from our experts and brokers would be that men still earn considerably more than women and there are more stay-at-home moms than dads,” said Mr Dwyer.