You may feel that once you’ve got your mortgage loan it’s job done – but what about protecting the income stream(s) that will pay the mortgage, along with all the other family living costs?
Many of us recognise the importance of insuring our homes, mobiles and pets. Yet do we apply as much importance to protecting the wage earner(s) who fund the above costs and much more?
Whilst many may feel that an untimely death, serious health issue, or a major injury are highly unlikely, or way off into the future – do take a look at the details below, as you’ll see that it’s possibly more likely, and earlier in life than you think.
Surely, it’s better to have some protection insurance cover in place and not need it, than to really need it and not have it!
What’s best for you?
There are three main areas to consider, and within these, a massive array of options to suit your age, lifestage, and pocket:
Life Cover – this pays out a lump sum when you die, or a regular income in the case of Family Income Benefit.
Critical Illness Cover – this pays out a lump sum when you have a specified serious illness.
Income Protection – this pays you a percentage of your monthly income when you can’t work due to illness or injury.
My Employer will support me
This may, or may not, be true, so do check what’s on offer – as you may be duplicating your cover. If, for example, you are off work long-term, due to illness or injury, and there’s only support provided at the basic level, you may only receive Statutory Sick Pay, which is just £94.25 a week, paid for up to 28 weeks if you qualify. This is less than one-fifth of the average weekly wage of around £500, which could leave a big shortfall in a person’s finances.
Separately, if you are part of the 4.9m workers that are self-employed, then your exposure could be more pronounced!
Added value benefits
The insurance industry recognises that a payout upon claiming may be the initial driver in setting up a policy. But it’s also aware that there is a real benefit – for both the insured and the insurer – if a relationship is maintained throughout the policy term, as reflected by the following examples:
- Incentives to keep healthy – including discounts off health club membership, and wearable technology to aid fitness.
- Specialist support – such as GP/nurse helplines, telephone counselling, carer support services, consumer rights, early intervention and rehabilitation services.
Costs and payout likelihood
With such a wide range of options on offer, do talk to us, as you may be pleasantly surprised at how little a plan may cost. As for paying out claims, take a look at the figures at the bottom of this page.
As with all insurance policies, terms, conditions and exclusions will apply.
Could it happen to ME?
Leaving loved ones behind to pick up the pieces.
– A current 35-year-old male has an average life expectancy of 86.
Across those years it’s probably likely that someone would suffer and survive a serious illness, long-term ill-health, or injury across the same period. If so, that would impact upon on the regular income stream, whilst the wage earner recovers.
- A sizeable 2 million individuals are currently off work and deemed as long-term sick.
- Going back 40 years or so, just 1 in 4 people survived their cancer disease for 10 years or more, nowadays it’s doubled to 1 in 2.
- Since 1961, the UK death rate from heart and circulatory diseases has declined by more than three-quarters.
97.6% of all Protection Claims are met
– equating to a sizeable £14.5m a day in payouts, and how that plays out for the key sectors are as follows:
Life Cover |
98.69% of all Life Cover claims paid |
Average payout of: |
£81,269 (Term) |
£4,740 (Whole of life) |
Critical Illness |
91.6% of all Critical Illness claims paid |
Average payout of £70,926 |
Income Protection |
88.1% of all Income Protection claims paid |
Average payout of £22,058 |
Get in contact with Gale and Phillipson for more information on how to protect your family.
Reference – BL065 – Jun – 2019
Sources:
https://www.gov.uk/statutory-sick-pay
https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-professional/cancer-statistics/survival
https://www.bhf.org.uk/what-we-do/our-research/heart-statistics