Dying Matters Week – protecting you and your family financially

Every year, Dying Matters hosts an awareness week, highlighting the importance of talking about dying, death and bereavement.  We can all get quite complacent over our health and often don’t want to think about what could happen, particularly if we consider ourselves to be in good health.

So, whilst we raise awareness of talking about dying and death, we are also highlighting the importance of protecting yourself and your loved ones financially should something happen to you.

Many of us don’t realise how quickly our money could run out if anything were to happen to us, or our partner.  And, if you have a family, undoubtedly your priority would be to protect them, so now might be the time to consider some form of financial protection.

Shockingly, research by Legal and General  shows that the average UK employee and their households could survive financially on their savings for just 32 days*.  Yet, 30%* of employees in the UK don’t have financial back-up plans if they were affected by long-term critical illness, disability, loss of salary, redundancy or death.

There are several ways to aim to ensure you and your family are looked after should anything happen, including:

• Life assurance – will offer financial support in the form of a lump sum payment to your dependents if you were to die unexpectedly.
• Income protection – can insure against loss of income should you find yourself unable to work.
• Critical illness cover – is designed to give you peace of mind and financial support, generally paying a cash lump sum if you are diagnosed with one of a number of specified illnesses.
• Private medical insurance – Private medical insurance pays towards the cost of your private treatment and is designed to make sure that you can get specified acute medical conditions diagnosed and treated quickly.

So whilst we can’t always plan what is going to happen in life, we can plan to protect what is most important if the unexpected were to occur.

If you would like to review your protection options, our expert financial advisers can discuss your policies and solutions. Contact us today to book a no obligation initial meeting at no cost to you.

1*Taken from Legal & General’s 2017 research ‘Deadline to Breadline’, drawn on a survey of 2,027 employees representative of the UK adult population.

The insurance products mentioned in this article are based on an assessment of the health of the applicant and it is unlikely that cover will be available for previous or existing medical conditions. You should always refer to the terms and conditions of a policy or seek advice in order to understand what the policy does and does not cover before making an application.