Your policy does not follow the mortgage automatically
Mortgage life insurance is a contract between you and an insurer. Your lender is not part of it, so moving to a new deal or a new bank leaves the policy untouched. That is good news, because you do not lose cover, but it also means nobody checks whether it still fits.
Pull out your policy schedule and compare three things with the new mortgage offer: the amount, the end date and whether the cover is level or decreasing. If all three still line up, you may not need to change anything.
Where gaps tend to appear
The most common gap comes from extra borrowing. If you have released money for an extension, a new kitchen or to clear other debts, the loan is now bigger than the sum your policy would pay.
A longer term causes a quieter problem. If you stretch the mortgage by five years to lower the monthly payment, your policy might end while you still owe money. Switching from interest-only to repayment, or the other way, can also mean decreasing cover is now the wrong shape for the debt.
Changes to who owns the home matter too. If a partner has joined the mortgage, they may need their own cover. If someone has come off it after a separation, an old joint policy might now protect the wrong person.
- Further advance or capital raising
- A longer mortgage term than the original
- A change from interest-only to repayment or a mix of both
- Adding or removing a person from the mortgage
Top up or start again
If your existing policy was taken out when you were younger and healthier, it may be priced well compared with anything you could buy today. Keeping it and adding a small separate policy for the extra borrowing often works out better than replacing the lot.
Replacing makes more sense when the old policy is a poor fit on several points, or when your circumstances have changed so much that one clean policy is simpler. A new application means new medical questions, so any health changes since you last applied will count.
Watch for the waiting time. A fresh application can take a few weeks if the insurer wants a GP report. Start early, ideally while your broker is still arranging the mortgage, so cover is ready on completion day.
A good moment to look at the rest of your cover
Remortgaging is a natural checkpoint. Since you last bought cover you may have had children, changed jobs or lost the death-in-service benefit an old employer provided. A family that relied on one policy for the mortgage may now need income cover too.
Think about critical illness cover and income protection while you are at it. Your lender cares about the loan being repaid if you die. Your family also needs the payments made if you are alive but too ill to work.
How Hi Tomorrow helps when you remortgage
Send us your current policy details and your new mortgage offer. We will check the amount, term and type of cover against the loan and tell you plainly whether you have a gap. If you do, we compare the insurers on our panel for a top-up or a replacement and show you both side by side.
We time any new policy to start before old cover ends, so there is never a day when your family is unprotected.