Protection

If you are single, without dependents on your income, then life insurance is less of an issue. If, though, you have a partner or family – and a young family in particular – who may struggle to cope financially, then life insurance could offer the financial support that they may need at a very difficult time.

Term policies, the most common type of life insurance, only pays out if you die within the duration agreed in the policy. For example, if you take out a term life policy for 25 years, your family can claim if you die during this 25-year period. However, if you die once this time is up then there would be no pay-out under the policy.

A Whole Life policy tends to be more expensive because the pay-out is guaranteed, whereas a term life policy will only pay out if you die during the term.

Many couples take out joint life insurance, due to convenience and the fact it is normally cheaper but remember that joint life insurance normally only pays out once, on the first death, and leaves the surviving partner without insurance. The non-payed partner can then take out a new insurance policy but this could be more expensive as they will be older at the point of application and their medical status could have changed.

This depends on your personal circumstances as the amount of cover, which is also known as the ‘sum insured’, can be differ greatly depending upon your circumstances. If you are married, have a large mortgage and three children, you are going to need more cover than a single parent living in a two-bedroom flat with one child. It is normally recommended that you take our life insurance to the value of ten times your salary.

You can make a claim on your policy once you are diagnosed with a critical illness that you know is covered by your critical illness policy. You will need to notify your insurance company about your illness as soon as possible. The insurance company may require further proof such as a diagnosis from a doctor who specialises in the illness being diagnosed, or the results from tests that show support for the diagnosis. For instance, a biopsy may be required to confirm a cancer diagnosis. The specific definitions of the critical illness will be outlined in your policy.

Critical Illness Insurance premiums are calculated based on a number of factors including your gender, age, smoker status, medical history, your height and weight and the amount or type of cover that you choose.

Common exclusions are self-administered drug related claims, self-inflicted injuries and claims arisen from war or conflicts. Some companies may exclude conditions from a policy if you have a pre-existing medical condition, for example it’s unlikely that a company would cover you for cancer if you have a history of the illness.

Yes, you can combine life cover with critical illness cover, so your policy will pay out either if you are diagnosed with an illness that is covered by your policy or you die. It will pay out on whichever happens first before the combined policy ends.

The principal benefit of income protection insurance is to provide you with a ‘tax-free’ income stream if you are unable to work due to long-term sickness or injury. Unlike other protection policies such as critical illness or term assurance that pay out lump sum benefits, income protection insurance is designed to provide you with a regular monthly income which continues until your condition changes. This might be by either your recovery, a change in circumstances where you are no longer losing your earnings, or the policy ends. It will also stop paying should you die while the policy is in force. The policy will also end once you reach a normal end of work age, like retirement.

Usually, payment protection insurance is applied to specific regular payments you may have, and are normally limited to a mortgage, your rent, or a secured loan. Therefore, if you do not have one of these, you cannot usually buy payment protection insurance. Income protection protects your earned income and doesn’t not need to be spent on specific payments, but can be used to cover any of your regular payments, just the same as your salary does.

Critical Illness Insurance provides a tax-free lump sum of money upon diagnosis of a specified critical illness. This is not related to your occupation and by default does not provide cover should you be unable to work. One such example is that somebody may suffer from a heart attack or become blind/deaf, whilst this would more than likely have a huge impact on their life, it may not stop them from working, in this instance a Critical Illness Policy would pay out.

Home insurance cover comes in two parts – buildings insurance and contents insurance. You can choose either one or both of these based on your needs. Buildings cover insures the structure of your building for issues such as fire, subsidence, and weather damage, while contents cover could protect your belongings against problems like theft, damage and loss.

Yes, usually, although you can still buy separately. Buying a combined policy from the same insurer makes sense as the policies are usually complimentary and can often be cheaper than getting two separate policies.

Insurers generally define accidental damage as an unintentional incident that harms your property or its contents. Most standard policies cover key items like home entertainment systems, electricals such as mobile phones, computers, and tablets, furniture such as carpets, soft furnishings, and kitchenware but there may be varying exclusions depending on your insurer. You can also usually specify certain expensive items such as watches too.

Only the owner of a property can purchase buildings insurance. If you’re a tenant, you may want to look at contents insurance to make sure your personal possessions are covered.

We can offer advice on life assurance, critical illness cover, income protection, mortgage protection and home insurance. Our advisers will also advise you on putting your policy in trust for you at no extra cost.

Unlike some companies we are not affiliated to any one particular insurance provider and have access to a range of insurers to find the best product to suit your needs.