It makes sense that those with the most dangerous occupations find it most difficult to get cheap life insurance at a reasonable level of cover.

After all, the chances of an accountant living life with the same knife-edge panache as a stuntman or a racing driver are thin, no matter what your accountant would like you to think.

Members of the armed forces all face expensive life insurance quotes, while policies for offshore rig workers, sportsmen and those in the emergency services are all among the most expensive when it comes to life insurance cover.

What might be a surprise though is that getting the best life insurance can be difficult for your local gardener, and if you're a livestock auctioneer you'd be up there with Steve McQueen.

Similarly doctors, nurses, bailiffs, and - bizarrely - picture framers are in the higher end categories, and it is essential to understand this before you choose a policy.

While it may seem somewhat confusing, these categories and the jobs that fall into them have been put together based on years of observation by the boffins who control the life insurance industry, and are based on the same principle that underlies all insurance and all good gamblers - calculated risk.

Membership of a particular socio-economic group - or class - does not in itself determine the policy or the life expectancy upon which it is based, but the behaviours associated with these groups do affect your life expectancy and that is why these categories exist.

Actors, for example, another high risk category, are well known for their excessive lifestyles, and their life expectancy is diminished as a result.

Managerial positions, deskbound as they are, tend not to allow for excessive smoking, and so it is accepted that those in managerial positions are far less likely to smoke than their colleagues working outdoors or in manual or labouring jobs.

Furthermore, your occupation is a good indicator of your income, and like it or not your income has a huge effect not only on your quality of life but on the length of time you can expect to enjoy it. Were it not for the excessive alcohol consumption, heavy smoking, drug abuse and rampant excess, your typical City broker earning hundreds of thousands a year would live far longer on his diet which contains more fruit, vegetables and fish than his counterpart earning a tenth of his salary and subsisting on a diet of turkey burgers, cheap pop and oven chips.

The point here is that those who have large incomes tend to live on a far better diet than those who do not, but as the City broker example shows, insurance companies are fully aware that there are other lifestyle issues which may eliminate these benefits.

Sophie Neary, product director at BeatThatQuote.com, said: "As with any form of insurance, life insurance policies vary hugely depending on a wide variety of factors, so it pays to do your research if you want the best possible policy.

"BeatThatQuote.com collects data from all of the UK's leading insurance companies and allows you to search quickly and easily for the right policy for your needs."