It is everyone's responsibility to provide security for themselves and their families. What would your family do if you were not there to pay for bills - mortgage, utilities, repairs, food and clothing. Although no one is ever replaceable in themselves, life insurance can help to soften the blow of the loss of a breadwinner.

But, what type of life insurance do you need? There are the basic term life, whole life and endowment options, plus variations of these. Also, there are other categories such as critical illness insurance that will pay out for diagnosis of certain serious medical conditions.

A term life insurance policy covers against death within a fixed period e.g. the duration of a mortgage and can be fixed to pay off the loan if you wish. A whole life insurance policy runs until the death of the life assured and pays a sum to the dependants. An endowment pays out at the end of a fixed term or on earlier death.

Many life insurance companies will give you quotes online and here we bring you links to seek those quotes. Remember to check carefully what cover is on offer. Look out for bonus-earning life insurances where the sum insured builds up over the term of the policy. These policies can provide surprisingly good nest eggs if the duration of the policy has coincided with good investment returns, but they tend to perform poorly for those people who surrender them early.

Click below for a choice of life insurance quotes -