Life insurance, Income protection and critical illness insurance are all types of insurance that generally speaking you do not really need to review regularly.
Unlike home insurance which is renewed annually, protection policies tend to stick around for a while. That being said, there are times where its worth taking a look to review them. We call these times “Life events”. As you can probably guess, a life event is a time when something big happens. This post will look at those…
Change of job / pay rise
With higher income usually comes higher living expenses. That income protection policy you took out 5 years ago may not be enough now. If you were unable to work you have a base amount, but it might mean you have to give up some of lifes luxuries.
A top up policy might be worth looking into.
Marriage or Divorce
A major change to the family unit can mean a review on any policies you have. You may no longer need as much cover or on the flip side, if you have taken on a larger mortgage to ay for the divorce or marriage (or if you are unlucky – both!) then it may be worthwhile reviewing for a larger amount of cover.
Maybe you also want to reassess who the beneficiaries are of your policies.
Had a child (or children moved out)?
Do you need more cover to pay for childcare costs and the cost of bringing up a child? Or on the flip side, maybe your children have grown up and you no longer need as much cover. Unlike my younger brother they may have moved out before turning 30 and you got your life back sooner than expected.
You may be able to reduce your cover and save a few quid each month.
A remortgage
You can remortgage for any number of reasons. It might be that things have improved and you have reduced the term of your mortgage, it might be things have got worse and you have extended the term of your mortgage.
Maybe you took out additional borrowing to pay for the wedding and/or divorce or an extension.
Does your policy still do what it was intended to do?
Summary
This is not an opportunity for us to try to sell you insurance – I suppose it is, but thats not the reason for the post – it is to ensure you have the right cover and the right policies in place. That can just as easily be less as it is more.
Usually if it is more, we would not touch what you already have. We would do a top up policy instead.
As an example, I took out a small income protection policy when m daughter was born (it was all I could afford at the time). Childcare costs stopped, my income went up and we added to the cover we had.
What is good about that though is now I have 2 policies with 2 providers. Initially I had Best Doctors second opinion, Doctors global treatment and bupa health line included in my policy.
I now have:
Best Drs second opinion – I have used this.
Best Drs Global treatment,
Zoom GP appointments,
Mental health appointments,
Online physio support,
Bupa healthline – And this, which as a parent this is invaluable.
All of those things included. Whilst I have never claimed on either policy, I do have a range of benefits I can access to add value.
Its never a bad idea to review. You might save money, you might get better value for your money. It might cost you more – but even where that is the case at least you know you have protected what you wanted protecting and you or your family wont be left short.