Protection

We probably all know people – friends or family – who have fallen ill, had serious accidents or died suddenly. Even when you’re young and healthy, the chances of these things happening to you are more likely than you might think. 37% of the critical illness claims paid by provider Bright Grey were made by people aged 40 or younger. (Source: Bright Grey claims statistics 1 January – 31 December 2012)

Life’s a lottery. You never know when your number’s up.

Losing a family member through accident or ill health can cause enormous financial problems, but the implications don’t stop there.

Incredibly, more people insure their pets than members of their family. (www.telegraph.co.uk, February 2012)!

You’re young and single, fit as a fiddle and have a regular income? With only yourself to worry about. Why would you need insurance?

If you depend on your salary to pay your mortgage or rent and the bills, then your main concern might be how you’d cope without it if you had an accident or got too ill to work, you might consider our income replacement cover.

As a family, life is hectic. There are the pressures of work, the financial burdens of running a home and the time and energy needed to take care of the children.

If you don’t have protection in place and become too ill to work or die suddenly, the consequences can be devastating. Emotional trauma can be quickly followed by financial worries and that’s the last thing that any family would need. Life assurance, critical illness and income replacement might all give you and your family peace of mind.

Single parents can have double the responsibilities. Often they’re the breadwinner as well as the main carer.

As a single parent your children look to you for everything. The right protection helps make sure that whatever happens to you, your children have all the financial support they need. In addition to the above policies, family income benefit might also be worth considering.

Life Assurance

If you choose life cover you can ensure your family receive a guaranteed lump sum if you die or are diagnosed with a terminal illness. If you want your family to get a lump sum, you choose between an amount that stays the same, one that goes down in line with your outstanding mortgage or one that goes up with inflation.

A level lump sum will pay out the same fixed amount no matter when the claim’s made.

An increasing lump sum grows by the rate you’ve chosen, i.e. between 2% and 5% a year, or a rate based on the change in retail price index (between 2% and 10%) to keep pace with inflation.

A decreasing lump sum will pay out less and less over time. People usually choose this option to cover the remaining balance on a mortgage which will be getting smaller as they pay it off.

Critical Illness Protection

Critical illness protection pays out a lump sum if you’re diagnosed with a critical illnesses from a specified list. Critical illness protection is designed to help you if you suffer a serious illness or have to undergo a certain type of operation. It can help ease your financial worries at a traumatic time for both you and your family. A one off lump sum cash payment could help to pay off your mortgage, provide funds to convert your home or cover any care costs.

Some critical illness covers include additional payments on additional conditions that may be less serious than other conditions but which could still have a significant impact on your life. Some covers may also include other added value services and benefits, as well as critical illness cover for your children.

You can choose to cover yourself and your partner. If you choose to cover both of you then the plan will pay a cash sum on the first diagnosis of a specified critical illness.

Income Replacement Cover

You might think it won’t happen to you, but if you were in this situation how long could you afford to pay for everything, such as your mortgage or rental payments, household bills, children’s school fees, mobile phone and broadband payments, or save for those luxuries in life?

Income Cover for Sickness will give you a monthly income if you can’t work and you meet our definition of ‘incapacitated’, i.e. you’re ill or injured and can’t do your job or you have a serious illness on our list or are unable to perform a number of everyday tasks already agreed. You can even get cover if you work part time, or don’t go out to work but look after the home all day instead.

Family Income Benefit

Just like term assurance, family income benefit can make sure your clients and their families have sufficient financial support in the case of death or terminal illness. Unlike term assurance, it provides a continuing monthly income, rather than a one-off payment.

Family Income Benefit is an innovative type of life insurance product, which is useful and extremely good value when compared to some other types of life or health insurance.

Read more about the unique benefits of Family Income Benefits in out recent blog post here.