Family protection

A common starting point is enough to clear the mortgage plus a multiple of household income for the years your dependants still need supporting. Do the sums properly. Too much cover drains money every month for decades, and too little leaves your family short at the worst moment of their lives.

The policy is held in a trust, outside your estate. The benefit is usually 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 and takes about ten minutes.

Not necessarily. It may mean a higher premium or a specific exclusion, and insurers differ considerably in how they treat the same condition. Whole-of-market access means approaching the insurers most likely to offer sensible terms.

Rarely, and it ends the day you leave. Death-in-service benefit is genuinely 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 it is usually because something was not disclosed on the application, or because 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 something is worth declaring, declare it. Telling the insurer more than they strictly need costs nothing.

Speak to the insurer or to us before cancelling anything. Missing a single payment does not usually 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 usually keeps something in place.