Is this a good time to review your Protection Policies?

With everyone confined to their homes for the foreseeable future why not use this as an opportunity to sort out your financial affairs and tackle some of those tasks you’ve been putting on the long finger.

One such thing that many people never get round to is ‘Reviewing their life cover’.

Most people will already have taken out a life insurance or Serious Illness policy at some point in their life, they put the policy documents in a drawer, hope they never need to claim and think ‘job done’.

This shouldn’t be the case however, you should review these policies every few years just as you would with your car or home Insurance, after all you wouldn’t keep paying the same rate of car insurance if you changed your car would you? There are numerous reasons why your existing cover may no longer be appropriate. Below is selection of some reasons why you might need to review your cover

Marital Status Changed?

Have you married since taking out your original policy? Are you single now through death or separation? You may need to review your life insurance. Do you still need cover, are your children no longer dependent on your income? If so then it might be appropriate to cancel your cover. However if you are now a lone parent with dependent children then you may have to increase your cover. As the sole earner your children are 100% reliant on you. What would happen if your income stopped? You need to look at life insurance and income protection.

Children

Expecting a baby? Do you now have more children than when you took out your original cover? You need to make sure you’re children are financially cared for if something is to happen you or your partner. While a mortgage protection policy will clear your mortgage it will not leave a cash lump sum to pay for the day to day needs of your child. This is what life insurance is for.

Buying a House or Moving House

You must take out a mortgage protection policy when you buy a family home. We would always advise putting a separate life insurance policy in place too to protect your family. Mortgage protection will take care of the house; life insurance will take care of the people you love in it.

Given Up Smoking?

If you were priced as a smoker when you commenced a plan but have since given them up (and have been off them for at least 12 months) this can be one of the biggest factors in calculating your premium. In some cases, premiums can reduce by up to 50%, if this is the case, it is well worth getting up to date quotes

Changed Jobs

Do you have a new job? An increased income? As your income has risen, you may need to increase your life cover too. Remember life insurance is there to replace your income lost on death. If there is more income to replace, then you need more life insurance. On the other hand if you have experienced a drop in income, then maybe you can save money by reducing your cover. Your previous employer may have included life cover as an employee benefit.

Shop Around

A recent survey by Royal London found that you could pay as much as 21% more for Life Cover if you buy it through your bank rather than from a Broker. Royal London compared the price of various life assurance policies sold by AIB, EBS Building Society, KBC Bank and Permanent TSB to those sold by brokers in Ireland and they found that significant savings could be made by shopping around.

Most Life Assurance Providers ‘Price Match’ their competitors which means they will offer the same amounts of cover/benefits to you on your plan for the same price as the cheapest Provider in the market place. At the moment, a number of Life Assurance Providers are offering special offers and discounts. Just to mention a few of these special offers –

·        Royal London are offering a 12.5% discount on Term Assurance plans and 15% on Mortgage Protection Plans. This is on top of one month’s Free Cover.

·        Zurich Life are offering 15% discount on Mortgage Protection Plans, up to 17.5% on Term Assurance plans & up to 10% discounts on Specified Serious Illness Cover

Other factors such as the Gender Directive in December 2012 or simply the competition between life companies, could mean that it is possible for you to reduce your monthly premium without compromising on the quality of cover

All staff at Wealthwise Financial Planning remain working remotely throughout this crisis and we’d be happy to answer your queries on any protection policies or provide a quote by email or phone.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us at any on the numbers below:

Barry Kerr (Leitrim)                  086-1093599     barry@wealthwise.ie

Barbara McManus (Leitrim)    086-1688793      barbara@wealthwise.ie

Brian Trainor (Galway)             087-3356453     brian@wealthwise.ie

Conor Harte (Leitrim)                086-1706271    conor@wealthwise.ie