Being female means I’m less likely to crash my car and more likely to live longer than the male of the species. This in turn means I pay a lot less for my car insurance as well as any life insurance. There is a downside though as historically annuity rates have been much higher for us women.

However on December 21st this year, it’s all change, as the European Union’s crusade against inequality sees the introduction of the gender directive. Insurance companies will no longer be able to  use a person’s gender as a factor when calculating the cost of an insurance policy, and annuity rates will be the same for both men and women.

So as a woman it probably means I will need a stiff drink before I open my next car insurance renewal letter. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot I can do about that apart from sell the car and buy a bike. However…. if I’m cycling everywhere on our increasingly busy roads then I need to make sure that I have some life insurance in place. Back to square one? Actually the answer is no.

Products such as life insurance and critical illness cover are different because the premium that is agreed when you take out the policy remains the same for the life of the policy. That means that as long as I take out the policy before December 21st, then my gender still has an affect so my premium will be a lot less.

In reality I’m not going to sell the car, and I already have life and critical illness cover in place, but there are millions of women out there who don’t have any life cover. Infact a report by Axa Life in 2010 found that 82% of women surveyed didn’t have any critical illness cover.

If you are considering life insurance and critical illness cover then there is no time like the present for getting it sorted or reviewing your existing cover. If you don’t have any cover, then now is the time to start thinking about it…..quickly.