Protection

Financial products are sometimes at their most useful when they are protecting our families, our incomes or our property. Whilst protecting ourselves against events such as accident, sickness or even death may not be pleasant things to think about, the benefit of being able to set financial issues aside at emotionally difficult times cannot be overlooked. 

There are many ways in which businesses, families and individuals can protect themselves, and because of the large range of products available there is usually an appropriate policy for most circumstances, and most budgets. Being a fully independent financial advice firm, TB Patterson Associates, can search the whole of the market on your behalf. Whether your criteria be cost and you simply wish to have the cheapest policy available or you wish to have the highest level of cover available we can help you.

Below is a short list of the main types of protection available.

• Life Insurance – Pays out specifically in the event of death. Usually used to repay debts such as mortgages in the event of death but can also be used to provide income for your family or simply a financial cushion should the worst happen. Options available include decreasing, increasing and level policies.

• Critical Illness Cover – Pays out in the event of the diagnosis of a specific critical illness listed within the terms of the individual policy. The specific critical illnesses covered vary between providers and can be as low as 22 different illnesses up to a possible 58. Options available include decreasing, increasing and level policies.

• Income Protection – Pays out in the event of you being unable to work through either an accident or illness. Policies provide a maximum of, usually, 65% of your income should you be unable to work. For example, if you were on a salary of £20,000 you could receive an income of £13,000 per year while you are unable to work. Options available include, but are not limited to, short term benefits, long term benefits, own occupation, inflation linked and level policies.

• Accident, Sickness & Redundancy – This type of policy is very similar to income protection but is usually tied to a specific need such as protecting mortgage premiums. Payouts are usually limited to either 12 or 24 months.

• Key Person Insurance – Pays out in the event of the death or diagnosis with a critical illness of a key person within a business. The proceeds of the policy can be used to protect against loss of profit, cost of training another employee to replace the key person and other resulting costs due to the loss of a key employee.

• Shareholder Protection – Pays out in the event of death of a shareholder within the business. Proceeds can then be used to buy out shareholders stake in the business from their family.