Whether it be making sure there is adequate provision in place to repay your mortgage or making sure your family are looked after, planning for the event of death or serious illness is extremely important.  There are many different types of protection products that can be taken out, here are a few examples;

Term Assurance

This is one of the most popular and cost effective ways of arranging cover, the way it works is to provide a lump sum of money upon the death of the individual for a certain period of time or term.  It is suitable to use in conjunction with covering a debt such as a mortgage as in most cases there will be a pre determined length of time that the mortgage will run for example 25 years. 

There are many options that can be stipulated at the time cover is taken out, the amount of cover can remain constant during the term of the contract, this is more commonly referred to as level term assurance and works well if someone has an interest only mortgage.  There is an option for cover to reduce over the term, referred to as decreasing term assurance or mortgage protection; this is designed to work in tandem with a capital and interest repayment mortgage.  One can also specific options such as indexation which will allow cover to increase in line with inflation, cover can also be placed to cover a single, joint or multiple lives.  

Critical Illness

Critical illness cover can be included as option on life assurance or cover can be taken out on its own.  Instead of paying out on the death of an individual the cover is designed to pay out a lump sum if the individual is diagnosed with a major illness.  There is a list of illnesses that all insurance companies will cover such as heart attacks, various types of cancer and strokes however some will cover more unusual and rarer conditions.

The major advantage to this type of policy is that with modern medicines and treatments and individual may well survive the illness but as the benefits are paid out upon diagnosis they can benefit from the payout.  The major disadvantage is that the cost of this cover can be very expensive.

As you can see there many things to consider when deciding what is the best way of protecting yourself and your loved ones.  Getting the right advice is very important.  If you would like more information do not hesitate to click here to contact us.