Family protection
We check the cover you have against your income, your children and your mortgage, and compare policies' small print as well as their price.
We check the cover you have against your income, your children and your mortgage, and compare policies' small print as well as their price.
If you bought cover alongside a mortgage years ago, check it against your income, your children and the mortgage you have now.
Cover needs the right amount, the right term and the right person to receive the money. Writing a policy in trust can help ensure the proceeds are paid to the appropriate beneficiaries and may help avoid the proceeds forming part of your estate for certain purposes. The precise treatment depends on the trust and your circumstances.
We consider a sufficiently broad and diverse range of relevant products and providers across the market, subject to the scope of the service we provide. We compare the small print as well as the premium. Two policies at the same price can define “critical illness” very differently, and that definition is what decides whether you get paid.
Pays a lump sum to your family if you die within the term. You choose the amount and the length of cover. Most policies also include terminal illness benefit at no extra cost, which pays the same money early.
Pays a tax-free lump sum if you are diagnosed with one of the conditions listed in your policy. It only covers the conditions on that list, and the lists differ a lot between insurers.
Pays a monthly amount if illness or injury stops you working, typically 50–70% of gross earnings, after a waiting period you choose. Some policies pay for a set number of years, some until you recover or retire.
Protection policies include exclusions, definitions and eligibility requirements. Cover depends on the terms of the policy and on the accuracy of the information given when you apply.
If your income stopped tomorrow, how long could the household run on savings and sick pay? What would still need paying: the mortgage or rent, childcare, the car, the bills? Does your employer's death-in-service cover exist, and how many times salary is it? Would your partner keep working, or need to stop for a while?
Those answers give you a figure. We then find cover for that amount at a sensible cost, set up to pay the right person without delay. The appropriate level and type of cover depends on your income, liabilities, dependants, existing benefits and circumstances.
A common starting point is enough to clear the mortgage plus a multiple of household income for the years your dependants still need supporting. Work the figure out from your own numbers.
The policy is held in a trust, outside your estate. The benefit can be paid to the people you chose quickly, without waiting for probate, and normally falls outside your estate for inheritance tax.
It generally costs nothing to arrange at the outset.
Not necessarily. It may mean a higher premium or a specific exclusion, and insurers differ considerably in how they treat the same condition. We consider a sufficiently broad and diverse range of relevant products and providers across the market, subject to the scope of the service we provide. We approach the insurers most likely to offer you sensible terms.
It may not be, and it ends the day you leave. Death-in-service benefit is valuable but typically pays a multiple of salary on death only, with nothing for critical illness and often little beyond a few months of company sick pay for long-term sickness.
The large majority do. Where a claim is not paid, the common reasons are that something was not disclosed on the application, or that the condition being claimed for is not on the policy's list. Both are avoidable at the point of applying.
If you are unsure whether to declare something, declare it.
Speak to the insurer or to us before cancelling anything. Missing a single payment need not end a policy, and there is normally a grace period.
These are protection policies with no cash value, so a lapsed policy returns nothing. Reducing the amount or shortening the term can keep some cover in place.
Enough to clear what you owe and replace your income for the years your dependants need it, less what is already in place. The full answer.
Critical illness cover pays a lump sum on diagnosis. Income protection replaces part of your earnings while you cannot work. The full answer.
Debts to clear, plus the income that would have to be replaced, less what is already in place.
Work it out →Eight questions on retirement, protection, savings, your mortgage, your estate and your day-to-day money give a first score. The other 17 complete the written report.
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Independent Financial Adviser
Independent Financial Adviser
Your first call is with an Account Manager and is at no cost to you. Tell us what is on your mind: a pension you have lost track of, a fixed rate ending, a will you keep meaning to write.