Life Insurance

Life Insurance is about making sure the people you love most are looked after financially should the worst happen. It could mean your family keeps the home they’ve grown up in, even if you’re not around to help with the expense.

Life insurance is a type of policy that pays out a sum of money to your dependants if you die. This means; your partner, your children or anyone else who depends on you financially. The cost of life insurance will depend on several factors, such as your age, lifestyle and health.

Life insurance gives you peace of mind that any financial commitments you have – including your mortgage, childcare costs or funeral expenses – are taken care of when you’re not around.

Income Protection

One of the biggest fears for many people is not being able to pay the mortgage – or meet other financial commitments – if they are made redundant or unable to work due to illness or accident.

Income protection pays out a tax-free monthly benefit if you are unable to work because of ill health or an accident; it enables you to pay the mortgage, as well as the daily costs of living.

Polices pay out a set amount of income after a specified period of time. You can elect a waiting period of between one and 12 months; the longer you defer, the cheaper the policy. It usually then pays out until you either return to work, retire, the policy expires, or death.

Critical illness cover

Critical illness cover pays a tax free lump sum if you’re diagnosed with a defined critical illness during the policy term.

A critical illness can include heart attack, strokes and non-terminal cancer. It can also cover you if you’ve suffered a physical disability following an injury, such as after a serious accident at work.

When you take out a policy you can decide how long it will last, e.g. until your children have grown up, or until the mortgage is paid off.

Recovering from a critical illness can also mean extra costs for you and your family. Your payout could be used to cover this.

Critical illness cover is often available as a combined policy with term life insurance.

Accident, Sickness, Unemployment

This type of cover is useful if you are concerned about whether or not you could cope financially in the event that you lost your job through redundancy or ill health.

You can take out an accident sickness and unemployment policy that is specific to a debt so that repayments will continue to be made in the event that you lose your income through an accident, sickness or after becoming unemployed.

Most accident, sickness and unemployment insurance policies will only pay out for a set amount of time, and can vary from a few months to a couple of years. Policies also carry certain restrictions. For example, you may not be covered if you are already at risk of unemployment when you take out a policy.