When you think about personal protection, it’s important to consider children, partners, and family members, as well as yourself and what would happen in the situation if you unexpectedly passed away, became critically ill or were unable to work due to an accident or sickness.
Life Cover
If the worst happened and you passed away, would your family be able to manage financially and have the means to cover the mortgage, bills and other regular family expenditure?
In the event of your death, life insurance gives your family financial protection by providing a lump sum to help them pay off debts, mortgages or the regular family financial outgoings. This protection cover can be a lifeline in an already tragic situation, especially if your income is heavily relied upon.
Our planners can help you arrange life cover that matches your mortgage debt and pays out a lump sum or regular income for your family to help replace the lost income in the event of your death. A regular income can be more beneficial than a lump sum as it is less likely to impact your entitlement to state benefits. It also safer in the sense that a lump sum could be spent unwisely at a time when you are particularly vulnerable.
This type of cover can be relatively inexpensive, and our experienced, independent planners can help tailor the cover to suit your personal situation, to ensure you have appropriate protection in place.
If you are a director of a limited company, there are tax advantages in taking out life cover through your company. A Relevant Life Plan offers an extremely cost-effective way to arrange Life Insurance cover by allowing you to achieve double the cover at a similar cost or halve the price of an existing policy through tax efficiencies*, when compared to taking out a personal policy. Our friendly planners can explain in detail how a Relevant Life Plan could work for you or you can read more here.
Critical Illness
Unfortunately, critical illness can affect anyone and never comes with a warning. Indeed, for those below retirement age, critical illness is approximately 5 times** more likely than death. As much as we all hope that it will never impact our life, it’s highly advisable to prepare for what you would do if you found yourself in the situation of being unable to work while recovering from a critical illness. Critical Illness cover removes the financial worry of being ill, by giving you a lump sum of money to live on while you recover or receive treatment.
Depending on your illness, you may also need funds to adapt your home to make yourself more comfortable or pay for additional health care to aid your recovery. Critical illness cover pays out a lump sum of an amount you choose or need and can also be linked to a life cover plan too. It is paid out on diagnosis, so it’s the doctor’s opinion which supports the claim. Industry wide, around between 90-95% of claims*** are paid out. With many options available to tailor the policy to suit your circumstances, it’s highly advisable to seek free expert advice from an independent planner to find the right type of cover for your situation.
Income protection
If you’re employed, you may be fortunate enough to receive pay from an employer if you are sick or injured and need to take time off work. However, most employers will only pay such benefits for a limited period of time (1 to 6 months), after which you would be left to cover your living expenses with only state benefits (subject to qualification) to support you.
If you are self-employed, you won’t even have the security an employer’s sick pay to fall back on leaving you to immediately rely on savings or family to financially support you. Whether you’re on your own or you have a family to support you, protecting your income should be an extremely high priority. Even if you are healthy, an accident can happen at any time and the pay-out you would receive if you have income protection in place is tax-free and can help you protect your finances while you recover.
The policy can cover things like bills, mortgage repayments, rent, childcare costs and basic living costs. Our planners can help you look at the most suitable cover for your situation. Depending on your budget, it’s possible to cover just a percentage of your income or maybe just your essential bills. Income protection can only be arranged through an planner, so get in touch for free expert advice from an independent planner.
Do you have existing cover in place?
If you have existing insurance which was taken out some time ago, it’s likely that your situation may have changed. It is highly advisable to regularly review any policies you have to ensure the cover they provide is appropriate to your situation.
Our planners can review any existing policies you may have and with your personal situation in mind, will ensure your requirements reflect the cover you have in place. In some cases, cover may be available at a lower cost than when you took it out.
Prioritise your finances today
Dedicating time now to review your financial protection is important and gives you and your family the best chance of being financially protected and safeguarding your future, should the unexpected happen.
Our team of expert and friendly planners offer a FREE initial consultation to discuss your needs. Please call 0330 441 2244, complete our enquiry form or email [email protected]
* Exact savings depend on individual circumstances
**Source – Chartered Insurance Institute R05 manual question 7.1 chapter 7 printed 2021
*** Source - https://www.legalandgeneral.com/landg-assets/planner/files/protection/sales-aid/claims-magazine.pdf and https://www.aviva.co.uk/insurance/life-products/critical-illness-cover/critical-illness-insurance-need-now/