Quite often you hear ‘it could never happen to me’ or ‘I’ll sort it out later’. Well the old maxim of “failing to plan is planning to fail” is no less suited to the ignoring of crucial decisions on protection.
There are many types of Protection Policies. Finding a policy or a combination of polices to provide adequate cover and the right protection for you and your family is not as easy as you may think. We can help you find the one that best meets your requirements.
Critical illness
Critical illness cover is designed to pay out a tax free lump sum on the diagnosis of a specific critical illness during the term of your policy.
The policy will pay out a pre-determined lump sum which can then be used to pay anything from your mortgage to medical bills or home modifications. It may simply be there to act as a salary if you require to off work.
The illnesses covered will depend on the type of policy and from which provider. There is no requirement for you to have any period of time off work before the policy pays out as they are designed to pay out on diagnosis of the specific critical illnesses.
Critical illness policies can offer much more than just paying you a lump sum.
- Children’s cover. Most providers include children’s cover into their policies. This cover will pay out a lump sum up to £25,000 per child and may be used as you see fit. Most importantly though is that this money may offer you the ability to take time off work to be with your child.
- Most providers offer extra support at a time when you may need it most. Some policies have 24 hour helplines, included giving you information and support when you may need it most.
- Best Doctor. Best Doctor’s covers you and your family and is provided at no extra cost by some lenders. It offers you a second medical opinion from a network of international medical experts to help you receive the very best treatment and care.
- Global Treatment. Global Treatment runs hand in hand with Best Doctor and potentially gives you access to the best international care. At a time when you want to know that the very best care is available to you, Global treatment offers you access to the highest quality treatment from around the world.
What’s covered?
Global Treatment covers you and your children, if they are diagnosed with a serious illness and require one of the following medical procedures:
- cancer treatment, (including malignant, in situ and pre-malignant cancers)
- coronary artery bypass surgery
- heart valve replacement or repair
- neurosurgery (for conditions like a benign tumor on the brain or spinal cord)
- live-donor organ transplant
- bone marrow transplant (for example for leukemia or genetic blood disorders)
Global Treatment will pay for:
- an expert second medical opinion
- treatment by a renowned specialist
- hospitalisation costs
- travel and accommodation costs for the patient and a companion, or both parents if their child is ill, for the duration of hospitalisation overseas.
- cash allowance of £100 per day of hospitalisation overseas (for up to 60 days)
- ongoing medication costs on return to the UK, up to £50,000, for approved medications not funded or only partially funded by the NHS.
Please note for these insurance products, terms and conditions apply. This information is a summary only. You will receive a full policy document upon application. This policy will set out the terms, conditions and limitations of cover provided under the plan.
Income Protection
Income protection is arguably the most important policy you could have. Most people insure their homes, pets and gadgets but neglect to protect their most valuable asset, their future earnings.
Income protection is designed to pay you a monthly income if you are unable to work due to illness or injury.
The benefits are paid out as a monthly income rather than a lump sum. However, the policy will pay out for ailments such as stress or a bad back as well as for critical illnesses such as cancer.
The benefits can pay out for many months or years as policies can be designed to pay out for up to 2 years or until retirement if you were unable to return to work.
Some policies will even pay a reduced amount if you were able to return to work but in a reduced capacity so helping fill the void in your salary.
Deferred periods
The policies come with deferred periods. This is the amount of time you would have to wait from being unable to work before the benefit starts paying.
An employed person could have a policy that runs in line with their company benefit package. This means that if your company pays you three months’ sick pay the policies deferred period could be set at 3 months and will start paying once their company benefit ends. This could potentially help reduce the premiums.
A self-employed person could have a policy with no deferred period or perhaps with just a few weeks thus ensuring you still had an income if you were unable to work.
We will work with you and discuss your needs so we can help tailor a policy to suit you and your budget.
Life Cover
Life cover can protect your family from the financial implications of your death. The policy will pay out a pre-determined lump sum to provide you with the peace of mind in knowing your loved ones can be financially secure.
Life cover comes in a variety of different forms to help protect different scenarios.
Decreasing term
This is designed to protect your repayment mortgage and as such should match the term of your mortgage and reduce over time accordingly. The policy should be reviewed when you remortgage to ensure you still have the required cover. The benefit of the policy will be paid to your beneficiary rather than directly to your mortgage lender.
Level Term
Level term policies will pay out a set tax free lump sum if a claim was made. They are typically used to protect an interest only mortgage or to leave your loved ones a lump sum amount.
Family income protection
This differs from the other policies as it does not pay out a lump sum but instead pays out a regular tax free lump sum to your family. The policy is started with a set term and if a claim is made within the term the policy will pay a regular income for the remaineder of the term. This policy is designed to help ensure your family still receives an income when you were gone.
Many providers now build in extra features to their policies. Some policies will reward you for keeping fit and active whilst others offer extra services that may benefit you or your family. These features could be telephone helplines such as Bupa Healthcare, counselling services or Best Doctor and Global treatment.
Best Doctor
Best Doctor’s covers you and your family and is provided at no extra cost by some lenders. It offers you a second medical opinion from a network of international medical experts to help you receive the very best treatment and care.
Global Treatment
Global Treatment runs hand in hand with Best Doctor and potentially gives you access to the best international care. At a time when you want to know that the very best care is available to you, Global treatment offers you access to the highest quality treatment from around the world.
What’s covered?
Global Treatment covers you and your children, if they are diagnosed with a serious illness and require one of the following medical procedures:
- cancer treatment, (including malignant, in situ and pre-malignant cancers)
- coronary artery bypass surgery
- heart valve replacement or repair
- neurosurgery (for conditions like a benign tumor on the brain or spinal cord)
- live-donor organ transplant
- bone marrow transplant (for example for leukemia or genetic blood disorders)
Global Treatment will pay for:
- an expert second medical opinion
- treatment by a renowned specialist
- hospitalisation costs
- travel and accommodation costs for the patient and a companion, or both parents (or you and a companion) if their child is ill, for the duration of hospitalisation overseas.
- cash allowance of £100 per day of hospitalisation overseas (for up to 60 days)
- ongoing medication costs on return to the UK, up to £50,000, for approved medications not funded or only partially funded by the NHS.
Please note for these insurance products, terms and conditions apply. This information is a summary only. You will receive a full policy document upon application. This policy will set out the terms, conditions and limitations of cover provided under the plan.