** Download our guide to Life Insurance**
** Get a low cost Life insurance quote -
scroll down & fill in your details on the enquiry form**
** Download our guide to Critical Illness **
** Get an Income Protection quote**
The last thing most of us want to think about is falling ill, having an accident or dying. Yet many people regularly spend the majority of their earnings every month, with little left over. So what if something happens to the flow of income?
If you or your partner were made redundant, were unable to work through sickness or accident, were diagnosed with a 'critical' illness, or died, how would those who rely on you cope financially? Would the safety net of State Benefits be enough to protect everything you have and want to keep?
Different products on the market will meet these different needs. Our job is to help you work out what would be needed in the way of capital to repay debts (Mortgage usually being the biggest problem), and to provide the sort of income you or your survivors need.
Under present tax legislation, the proceeds of ASU and Life/Critical Illness/Income Protection policies are paid out free of all personal taxation.
The protection market breaks down into quite separate sectors, but confusingly often uses the same or similar titles for products that are very different.
If you're not sure what you need – 'phone or email – just ask!
Probably the easiest distinction to make is between short and medium to long term contracts:
Short term – no 'underwriting' (meaning no assessment made of your health or occupation). Paid out as weekly or monthly income. All are usually sold as 6, 12 or 24 month contracts only.
- Accident & Sickness (AS)
- Accident, Sickness & Unemployment (ASU). Can sometimes cover redundancy
- Mortgage Payment Protection Insurance (MPPI). Not always thought by brokers (like us) to offer very good value for money.
Medium/Long Term – everything else! These policies will take into account, depending on the product, factors such as age, sex, health and occupation. Here are some of them:
- Life Insurance – there is approximately a 1:10 chance of dying before you are 65. Life Insurance is the only way to guarantee a lump sum on death. This may be necessary to repay debts, or to provide enough money for your surviving family or loved ones.
Policies can be written on single or joint lives, and will pay out the agreed lump sum or monthly income on the death of the insured if that happens within the term of years bought by the policy. If it's a joint life policy it can be set to pay out on the first or second death.
Download our Guide to Life Insurance here.
- Critical Illness Insurance – whereas statistics for death are relatively low, those for Critical Illness are not – roughly 1:4 of us will be diagnosed with one before the age of 65. Covers extends across a wide range of illnesses; the range itself is common to nearly all suppliers. Policies pay out on the diagnosis of any one of the listed complaints – regardless of subsequent recovery.
Although CI policies can be expensive when taken as 'stand-alone' cover, it's usually possible to add CI to a normal Life policy – often then known as an 'Integrated Life & CI' policy. If you want to know more about what the most common conditions are that CI policies cover.
Download our Guide to Critical Illness Insurance here.
- Mortgage Protection Insurance – designed to repay the mortgage in the event of the death of the insured. If it's a joint policy, to pay out on the first death. If you have an Interest Only mortgage, where you amount you owe doesn't change year by year, you will need Level Term cover. If it's a Capital Repayment type, then Decreasing Term cover will do the job; it's less expensive because the amount of cover goes down each year as your loan is gradually repaid.
- Premium Payment Protection
With most Life, Critical Illness and Mortgage Protection insurance policies it is possible, for a small extra premium, to add Premium Protection. This means that if you are sick and unable to work for a continuous period of 6 months, your premiums will be paid for you until you are able to return to work.
- Income Protection - unlike ASU (above) these policies guarantee to pay the agreed level of income for as long as the policy is in place. Cover can be bought for up to around ½ of declared earnings. Premiums are weighted according to occupation; cover for manual work costs more than for office or administrative jobs.
Low Cost Quotations
When we deal with clients through the Internet, and give limited advice in an area like Life or Critical Illness Insurance our direct costs are lower than when we give full advice in a face-to-face situation. For this reason we are sometimes able to reduce the fee we take for arranging the insurance. In turn, this can reduce the premiums to below those general in the marketplace.
Premiums in the market are either guaranteed not to change throughout the life of the policy, or are reviewable (usually giving a fixed premium for the first 5 years, but can then be increased). We do not quote reviewable rates - we only quote guaranteed rates.
We do not have a panel of favoured insurers. With every request for a quotation we search the whole market to see who is prepared to quote and at what price
If these notes have helped you to decide what it is you need - good! If they haven't but you're fairly sure you need something, please talk to us.
If you'd like a low-cost quote for any of the insurance products listed, just fill in the Quote Enquiry Form, then click to send it to us.
**This is not an instant on-line quote system; every request is treated individually and properly researched with all suppliers willing to quote before we reply. We guarantee to get an answer back to you within 48 working hours**
