More home owners insure the contents of their property than the mortgage they borrowed to buy it, putting their families' future at risk in the event of their death, a survey from Friends Provident said on Saturday.
Just over two-thirds (69 per cent) of home owners have life cover to meet mortgage repayments, compared to the nine out of ten (92 per cent) who have contents insurance, the survey found.
"Most people are happy to insure their car, their laptop or their mobile phone but often give too little thought to insuring themselves," said Ian Jefferies, head of protection marketing at Friends Provident.
"In some cases they are not pressed by their lender to prove they have life cover in place.
"In other cases they cancel their policies further down the line or fail to increase their cover if they increase the size of their loan for home improvements."
Ironically, rule changes preventing mortgage lenders from tying insurance policies into a mortgage package may inadvertently have worsened the situation.
The regulation was introduced because it was felt house buyers should be free to shop around for more competitively priced products on the open market.
"Shopping around is a good thing - the problem is that in many cases house buyers are just not shopping at all," Jefferies said.