Is it time to review your cover? The turn of a calendar year can be a good time to assess what you already have and what you need going forward — especially if things have changed in your life of late.
So here are four questions to ask yourself, to ensure that your financial safety net is as tight as possible.
Is your family protected?
A lot may have happened since you took out cover. Perhaps you've tied the knot or separated. Maybe you've started a family, or your children have flown the nest.
Whatever 'family' means to you right now, making sure that your loved ones are financially protected is probably high on your priority list. Protecting your family means ensuring that, should anything happen to you, they would be able to maintain the same lifestyle and meet their financial obligations, including mortgage costs.
So it's important to check that you have an appropriate level of protection for your circumstances, be that life insurance, income protection, trauma insurance, mortgage protection or health insurance. In some cases, you may consider increasing your cover (for example, if you now have more people depending on your income) or reducing it (if you've paid off your mortgage).
Like to explore your options? Get in touch: our friendly LifeDirect insurance advisers will be happy to take a closer look at your protection needs.
Is your health covered?
Insurance types like health cover, trauma insurance and income protection can help if your health is not as good as it should be. But they do so in very different ways, and depending on your situation some may be more appropriate for you than others.
Would you like to have faster access to treatment and diagnosis, right when you need it? Then health insurance may be the one. Like to protect a loss of income due to a serious illness? You could look at income protection, which could provide a replacement income of up to 75 per cent of your gross pre-disability earnings if you were unable to work. Or, you could consider trauma insurance — you won't need to be unable to work to receive your trauma lump-sum payout, as long as you're diagnosed with one of the serious conditions listed in the policy.
Of course, if you've already taken out one or more of the above policies, now could be as good a time as any to ensure you still have the right level of protection for you. Feel free to contact our advisers if you'd like to talk about it.
Can you afford to boost your cover?
If your income has increased, or your household can now rely on combined income sources, you may be able to increase your level of cover and perhaps add other insurance types to the mix.
Once again, our LifeDirect insurance advisers can help you explore your options, depending on your budget and what's right for your situation and objectives. And in the meantime, our quote compare tool is a good place to start: click here to get and compare insurance quotes in minutes.
Would you like to fix your costs?
If you've had cover for a while, you already know that usually insurance premiums increase as you get older. What you may not know is that age-related premiums aren't the only premium type available.
If you're in your 30s and 40s, you may consider fixing your life insurance costs for the duration of your cover, by choosing level premiums. Level premiums usually start higher than their age-related counterparts, but they don't increase with age. Provided you can afford higher premiums in the short term, this usually makes them a good option if you plan to keep the same level of cover later in life, and you're looking for certainty of premium payment in the long run. Get in touch to learn more.
Here for your financial future
Looking at protecting your financial future? Is it time to review the cover you have in place, and perhaps explore other options as well? Call us on 0800 800 400, start a Live Chat or fill in our contact form to get in touch with our team.
Disclaimer: Please note that the content provided in this article is intended as an overview and as general information only. While care is taken to ensure accuracy and reliability, the information provided is subject to continuous change and may not reflect current developments or address your situation. Before making any decisions based on the information provided in this article, please use your discretion and seek independent guidance.
