Parents are "massively underestimating" the value of unpaid work around the home when considering levels of protection cover, Legal and General has reported.
The provider's Value of a Parent 2013 Research report showed the value of a mum's domestic work was more than double the estimate of the work they think they do and for dads there was a difference of 55%.
The report said: "People tend to take their wages into account when deciding on a level of cover, but they often don't consider the unpaid domestic work they do.
"If either parent were unable to work or carry out the tasks around the home due to death or illness, how would they or their partner cope financially?"
The average value of the unpaid domestic work that a non-working parent carries out is highest at £34,562.
Parents in full-time employment are contributing just under £24,000 worth of unpaid domestic work around the home in addition to their wages; 14% higher than in 2011.
Ellen Roome, IFA at advice firm The Finance Roome, said: "This gap between paid and unpaid domestic work is something we look at. There is a massive need if a spouse dies and suddenly there are domestic duties and childcare responsibilities that need to be funded.
"Clients just do not think about this a lot of the time and it is just about making clients see how much unpaid work they do."
According to L&G's report, the top financial priority for 73% of parents was to ensure their children were looked after in the event of death or illness.
Yet less than a third of parents had critical illness cover, only 14% had income protection and 12% had family income benefit.
Only 29% of parents with cover had reviewed it in the last two years and 81% of parents thought the government should be responsible for looking after them if they died, became critically/terminally ill or were affected by long-term sickness or disability.
Grandparents are the number-one back up plan to maintain a lifestyle if a parent died.
