Personal Protection..

Selecting the right protection plan can seem like trying to find your way through a maze. With so many options, and so many factors that have to be taken into account, it’s not difficult to make a wrong turn. How much cover do you really need? How long should it be in place for? Should the benefit be paid out as a lump sum, or monthly income? Should the cover be written under trust? How would it fit in with your other insurance plans or benefits provided by your employer? These are just some of the matters that need to be carefully considered.

The reality is that professional advice is a necessity for anyone who is considering arranging protection, as this is the only way to ensure that the cover arranged will be suitable for your individual situation.

Most people are aware of the need for Life Assurance, in that most of us want to ensure that our families would be financially secure if we were to die. In simple terms, Life Assurance cover provides a guaranteed death benefit, either in the form of a lump sum or monthly income, if the person insured dies.

However, fewer people few consider the need for cover in case of ill health. Whilst some employers provide generous ill health benefits, in the case of a long term illness or disability the majority of people would have to rely on whatever benefits the state may provide. For this reason, cover for ill health is a necessity, especially for the self employed who do not have an employer to continue paying their salary if they are unable to work.

To cover ill health, insurers provide two types of plans. The first is called Critical Illness cover which pays out a lump sum if you are diagnosed with one of a number of specified 'critical' illnesses. The second type is called Income Protection which pays out a monthly tax free income if you are unable to work due to any form of illness, accident or disability. Professional advice when considering these types of insurance covers is vital, as they have a number of exclusions that you need to be aware of within the small print.

In addition to the above, there are many other protection policies designed to protect an individual and his or her family against other events, such as redundancy. These include Mortgage Payment Protection Insurance which provide a benefit if a mortgage holder is unable to work due to accident, illness, or is made unemployed. There is also Private Medical Insurance which provides cover for private medical treatment and allows you to select the hospitals that you would want to be treated in.

Rather than assessing the need for one or more of a range of policies, some of which overlap, you can add extras to life assurance policies, or even arrange all the cover you need under one “menu” policy. For example, rather than arrange separate plans that cover death and serious illness, it is usually more economical to arrange cover under one policy that covers you for both death and critical illness, and will pay out on the first event to happen. As always the more benefits and the more comprehensive policy you select, the more it will cost.

Selecting the right mix of financial protection to cover life assurance, ill health cover and any other needs is not simple, particularly when there are so many providers and products. Professional advice can help you calculate and select the correct mix of cover, from the best insurers, and then recommend the most suitable plan for you.

At Coast to Coast, we have the experience and specialist qualifications that enable us to provide personalised independent financial planning advice for your specific protection needs.

Following an initial meeting which is conducted without charge and at which we will discuss the relevant issues, we will let you know what our charges will be. In the overwhelming majority of cases this will be through a fixed fee which will be agreed with you prior to any work being done. If part of the process involves arranging products that pay a commission, this can be offset against the agreed fee, so allowing you to pay for the cost of our services through the premium paid to the insurers.

By working on this basis, you get a guarantee that you won’t be "sold" anything, and that the advice you will be getting is truly independent.

Please note that whilst we offer products from a range of insurers for term assurance, critical illness cover, income protection and private medical insurance, we can only offer products from a limited number of insurers for accident, sickness & unemployment insurance (also known as Mortgage Payment Protection).