Insurance

Insurance

Life & Health Insurance

Making provision for your dependants should you die prematurely or protecting your lifestyle should you suffer a serious or long term illness is an essential part of financial planning.

Business owners may want to cover key persons within their firm should they die or suffer from a long term illness. Insurance can also be arranged to provide funds for shareholder protection if the owners die or become ill.

There are numerous options for cover and within those a number of choices to be made:

1. Life Cover

This could be for the whole of your life or a fixed number of years depending on your needs.

2. Critical Illness Cover

This pays usually a lump sum when you are diagnosed with one of a defined set of illnesses and medical conditions, such as heart attack, cancer or stroke.

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) provides useful consumer guidance on the definition of critical illness.

Use of Trusts

The correct ownership of the policy or use of trusts should also be considered for many types of insurance; this can assist with inheritance planning and ensure a rapid payout on a claim.

We will advise you on this as part of our service.

Additional Benefits

For life cover and critical illness cover choices include:

waiver of premium
cover buy back
reviewable or guaranteed premiums
accelerated cover
level, decreasing or increasing cover
sum assured as a lump sum or income

We will advise you which additional benefits are suitable.

3. Permanent Health Insurance

This provides an income should you be unable to work due to an illness or injury.

On selecting suitable cover you will need to decide:

If you want reviewable or guaranteed premiums
Whether the benefit and premium increase or are level
The ceasing age, typically 50, 55, 60 or 65
The deferred period, which is the waiting period from the time you are first ill to the date the benefit is paid, normally 1, 3, 6, or 12 months
The definition of incapacity applicable, this may be the ability to do your own occupation, any suited occupation, any occupation or ability to perform activities of daily living
The appropriate level of benefit; insurers may have different limits.

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) provides a useful guide.

Financial Planning Advice

Deciding on the correct type of cover, sum assured, term and additional options can be difficult.

We provide a stand-alone protection planning service that calculates appropriate cover and we can then advise on a suitable provider and arrange the cover.

Our full financial planning service includes a protection review.

We can arrange low cost life insurance, low cost permanent health insurance and low cost critical illness cover that can often beat even the online discount brokers. To find out if we can not only save you money, but also provide you with valuable advice please contact James Oram for further information.