PROTECTION
Most of us want to ensure that our families or business’s and ourselves are financially secure if we become seriously ill or die. This is where life cover comes into play as it provides a guaranteed death benefit if a claim occurs during the period of insurance. Life assurance can be set up for a specified period of time (term assurance) or for the whole of the insured’s life (whole of life assurance).
There are many other protection policies designed to protect an individual and his or her family against other events such as disablement, accident, critical illness, the loss of income due to being unable to do your job, redundancy and long-term unemployment.
Public surveys show that what matters most to people is their family. When it comes to the crunch, it’s family we first think of, family we worry about and family that gives us most happiness. The desire to shelter those nearest to us is fundamental.
The best way to ensure financial protection is to be a long-lived high earner or by inheriting or winning a large cash sum. But apart from eating up our greens and not going hang-gliding there is not a huge amount we can do to avoid an untimely death.
Even if we cannot greatly influence the cards that nature dealt us at birth – our genes – we can at least provide for those we leave behind.
This is where life assurance and other protection policies come in. The policyholder pays a regular or single premium and in the event of the insured’s death, his or her family gets a cash amount, generally many times the amount paid in premiums.
Because life assurance has been around so long, and because everyone should have some level of financial protection, more than 100 companies provide life assurance and protection policies. This makes for a competitive market which can only benefit consumers.
However, there are also many refinements on basic life cover, which provides a guaranteed death benefit if a claim occurs during the period of insurance. Life assurance can be set up for a specified period of time (term assurance) or for the whole of the insured’s life (whole of life assurance). There are many other protection policies designed to protect the insured and his or her family against other life events, such as illness, accident, disablement, redundancy and long-term unemployment.
The abundance of choice may seem like a mixed blessing. With so many options, making a decision could seem overwhelming. For a straightforward life assurance policy, you can try one of the web-based financial advice services that claims to come up with the best deal. You can find the services through an Internet search. You fill in details, such as age, medical details, gender, occupation, smoker/non-smoker and how much you want to insure your life for or somebody elses (if you have what is known as ‘insurable interest’ on their life). Hit ‘Enter’ and you know how much your premiums will be.
However, buying life assurance is not to be done without serious reflection. Lots of factors need to be taken into consideration such as – what is the right level of cover and for how long should it last? It’s really worthwhile to discuss these questions with an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA).
An IFA might well suggest, for instance, that instead of going for just a straightforward life assurance policy, you also take out a different type of protection product.
It’s clear that choosing the right mix of financial protection is not simple, particularly when there are so many providers and products. Among the decisions you need to make are:
- how much cover should I have
- for a specified term or for the whole of the insured’s life
- which protection policies should I have
- which fund is most suitable
- which provider is the most appropriate
Advice from Ferguson Oliver should help with all these questions. Even the first question – how much cover should I have? – is not that easy to calculate. Factors such as the age of children, who is the breadwinner of the family, how long the benefits need to be paid for and what level of cover are relevant. IFAs are used to doing the sums, they have sat exams that test that they do it properly. You can also expect an IFA to tell you about the relative strengths of a provider and how quickly they deal with claims. They will also help you with your application form which, once complete, will be sent to an underwriter at a product provider who will set your premiums.
Ferguson Oliver can deal with over 100 life assurance and protection providers and will recommend the most suitable for you. We offer the first consultation free of charge, giving you an opportunity to find out more about our expertise and how we will be able to help you. Contact us today for your free no-obligation consultation.
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