Life Assurance

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Life Assurance

Arranging protection products often doesn’t get the attention is deserves. That’s why so many people have a level of cover which bears no relationship to their needs and very often have products which don’t have the features they need and/or aren’t structured correctly.

Our main tasks when advising on protection products are:

To explain the differences between the various products in simple terms and without using technical jargon

For example, some products like Income Protection and Specified Illness can fulfil a similar need but they do it in entirely different ways. Which you should choose will often depend on your personal circumstances.

To ascertain which features you value and use this information to recommend an appropriate product

Many providers in the market price match each other so very often you won’t be able to narrow down your choice of provider based on price alone. It makes sense to research the features available and use this to choose the product which best suits your circumstances.

To calculate the appropriate level of cover.

In our experience there are three ways people choose their level of cover;

• A rule of thumb or a round figure sum
  This often bears no relationship to the actual need.
• Based on affordability
  This usually only helps for older applicants. For younger applicants it generally doesn’t provide much guidance as cover is generally more affordable for younger applicants so taking the correct amount makes sense.
• Based on a calculation using information gathered during the financial factfind.
  Contrary to popular belief it is possible to calculate the appropriate amount of cover which you should take out and whilst we always assess affordability, calculating the correct level of cover for your circumstances is the method we prefer.

Life cover is currently more affordable than ever so now is the time to get the cover you need. Having insufficient cover, the wrong product or a poorly structured product is almost as bad as not having any protection products at all. For example most parents want to have a level of cover which in the event of the demise of an earner will replace lost income until their youngest child has finished third level education, yet the average payout by one life assurance company last year was only €76,000 (less than twice the average industrial wage).