A pandemic, a cost-of-living crisis, job losses at home and conflict abroad, we are living through frightening and uncertain times.
It is during periods such as this that we count our blessings and value the things we hold dear – our health, our family and friends, our home.
There is very little that we can do to influence what is happening in the world but we can do all we can to protect ourselves.
To help, I have put together below a short guide to the different types of insurance we can get to do all we can to protect ourselves, our families and our property.
There are many different types of insurance and it is important to get the right help and advice before choosing so that you get a policy that meets your personal needs rather than some off-the-shelf solution off the internet.

Home and contents

Home and contents or building and contents insurance, looks after your house and your possessions. You can buy them as individual policies – buildings insurance and contents insurance, or as a combined policy.
The buildings insurance covers the cost of rebuilding your home if it is damaged in a storm, flood or fire or by lightning, vandalism, falling trees, motor vehicles etc. Cover can differ and it is worth checking what you are and aren’t covered for.
Contents insurance covers you for damage or theft to possessions in your home, garage or shed.
The key thing with this – and all other insurance – is to ensure you are not under-insured. If you don’t insure yourself against the full value of rebuilding your home or the full value of your possessions, your insurer might invalidate your claim and refuse to pay out or only pay a percentage of what you thought you were going to get. You’ll be surprised at how much it might cost to rebuild your home these days, and the value of the property you own.

Life insurance

As the name suggests, this insurance protects your loved ones financially if you die. A frightening, staggering, number of people don’t have life insurance, even though it is really quite cheap – about the cost of a few of your favourite coffees each week, and you can also guarantee the monthly premiums, meaning they will never increase in price.
If you are young, free and single, then you probably don’t need life insurance, but as soon as you have someone who depends on you, like children or a partner perhaps, then you will.
The simplest type of life insurance is level term insurance, where you can insure yourself and/or your partner for a set amount which will only be paid out if you die within an agreed period – the higher the amount of cover and longer the term, the more the policy costs. The amount of cover you choose will stay the same throughout the term of the policy. Other forms of life insurance include whole of life insurance, which pays out when you die, rather than for just a fixed period and decreasing term life insurance, which is there to primarily protect your mortgage. As your mortgage amount decreases then the decreasing term life policy reduces in line with the mortgage amount.

Income protection insurance

A million people every year are unable to work due to illness or injury. So income protection insurance is a policy you can take out to cover your income if that happens to you. It’s a long-term policy which pays out up to approximately 65% of your gross income if you can’t work because of accident or sickness. The policy runs until you die, retire or the policy comes to an end. If you make a claim the benefit will be paid out monthly. You can usually make multiple claims against income protection policies.

Accident, Sickness & Unemployment

This is similar to Income Protection in that it pays out an agreed monthly amount if you can’t work through accident or sickness as well as covering you if you get made redundant. However, this is a short-term policy which pays out for up to 24 months. The idea is that it can cover your monthly expenditure, including your mortgage payments and, in the case of redundancy, means you don’t have to rush into the first job that comes along, giving you up to 24 months to find a suitable job, knowing your monthly expenditure is covered. Again, you can make multiple claims.
Many people think they won’t need income protection or accident and sickness cover because their employer or the government will give them sick pay. In some cases this might be right, but in many others you might not be able to get by, particularly if you are off work for a long time. State benefits, for example, pay just £80 to £100 a week.

Critical illness insurance

Critical illness insurance is a one-off, lump-sum payment that is paid out if you suffer a critical illness or injury, as spelt out in your policy. After the pay-out, the policy is closed. The policy isn’t linked to your earnings and you can insure for however much you wish. Typical claims include cancer, strokes and heart attacks. You can take out the cover on a level term basis or a decreasing term basis.  A decreasing term critical illness policy is normally taken out to run alongside a decreasing term life policy to fully protect a mortgage. Critical illness policies can be confusing and vary enormously in what illnesses they do and don’t cover and even the severity of the condition.

For advice on any insurance or mortgage needs that you might have, please contact me for a free, no obligation discussion, on 07767 692653.