Hi, I'm due to start my own business in a couple of months and am considering taking out insurance against (long term) sickness or accident. I'm keen to take out a sound policy with a sound insurance company but knowing that insurance companies (sorry for tarring all with same brush) will often try to avoid paying out if they can. Does anyone have any advice, ideas or recommendations?
Yes you really need to look at proper PHI also known as income protection. Seek advice from an ifa not a bank as they are whole of market. Would have done it for you had I still been authorised. Can give you a lady IfA's name if you message me on my user name smowy747 at btinternet.com using the at symbol instead of the at letters and no spaces.
Read the small print very carefully. There was a feature on sickness insurance on the telly a few months back. I can't recall the exact scam but am pretty sure it was to do with what the insurers classed as a payable sickness as opposed to what you or I might class as a payable sickness.
That is why you need decent quality PHI with a reputable company. It is also important to have the right deferment period, benefit amount etc so proper advice is required.
My husband had perfectly legit and valid medical insurance for loss of income when self employed. However his illness meant he had a very poor year of work before he finally gave in and claimed. He really put it off as he thought things would get better. When he did claim the insurers said the income would be based on the income from his final year before claim. So he would have got virtually nothing. He appealed and they repaid his premiums which amounted to nothing much in the scheme of things. He never worked again and wished he had read the small print and not put off stopping work and claiming immediately he fell ill.
Not straightforward as he felt he had to try and work before claiming and giving in.
Read the small print of a policy and be aware of the issues and implications of illness and potential claims.
if you are of good health and keep relatively healthy, then sometimes it is worth doing a savings plan where you keep your own money rather than feed some insurers pocket,, payouts depend on what you pay in, so do some insurance searches, see what the premiums are and what the payout may be, and work out what you are most comfortable with, you could work for 30 years and feed an insurance company, whereas you could have save that premium for the same amount of time and have a nice little bonus when u give it all up
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A £30 premium could give £500 a month of protection so £360 saved in a year, being your premiums, can nowhere near match £6,000 of benefit paid had you needed to claim. That continues until you die, go back to work or reach the pre set retirement age.
So unless you can save £500 a month, every month, savings won't cut it. Like all insurances you are damn happy to have it when things go wrong........ but it won't happen to me......
Quote: Originally posted by snowy747 on 20/7/2013
Yes you really need to look at proper PHI also known as income protection. Seek advice from an ifa not a bank as they are whole of market. Would have done it for you had I still been authorised. Can give you a lady IfA's name if you message me on my user name smowy747 at btinternet.com using the at symbol instead of the at letters and no spaces.
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Topic: Self employment - insurance re sickness
