One third of mortgages are sold without life cover - Defaqto

A Third of new mortgage debt has no associated life cover a report by independent financial research company Defaqto has found.

In 2009, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) recorded 636,973 new mortgage-related life assurance policies written, but the Council of Mortgage Lenders recorded only 925,000 new mortgage advances.

Ben Heffer, author of the report and Defaqto's Insight Analyst for Protection, acknowledges that in some cases, there may be prevailing individual circumstances that dispense with the need for life cover.

However, he adds: "The figures suggest that there are many people taking on debt whose loved ones would have no means of paying it off for them if the worst happened. The protection gap does not just apply to life cover but is also a real problem when you look at income replacement products, with so little income protection being sold."

The report entitled ‘Opportunity Knocks' concludes that, as a result of lower inflation and having less personal debt to service, those in employment now have more disposable income, thus presenting the industry with a key opportunity to sell more protection products.