The coronavirus outbreak has really highlighted how important protection insurance is. Not only for medical professionals, but for everyone. It needn’t be a complicated process to secure coverage, but it is crucial you find the right level of cover to suit your individual circumstances.
This does not constitute advice and advice should be sought in all instances before acting on it.
Life Insurance overview
When it comes to life cover providers and plans, the options available to you are vast, but the goal is still the same: to provide a financial safety net for your family in the event that you pass away unexpectedly. The right policy can ease the potential burden for your family and provide peace of mind for the policyholder.
Your family can use the pay out from your insurance provider for pretty much anything, for example:
- repaying a mortgage,
- covering the inheritance tax bill after your death,
- paying off loans or any other outstanding debt,
- or anything else your family chooses to spend it on.
Insurance for doctors
With the pandemic this year, insurance providers had to adapt quickly to the increasing demand, and many doctors were worried that because of their profession, they would either be denied outright for coverage or have a hard time finding a provider willing to cover them. Luckily, that wasn’t the case.
It’s normally a high-risk occupation being a doctor, but the pandemic has made it even more so. Medical professionals were subject to additional questions as part of the insurance application process, but insurers quickly remedied any potential discrimination by amending questions to pertain to situations outside of their work so frontline workers were still able to get insurance.
Doctors have the following options for life insurance:
- Term Life Insurance – typically used for a specific financial commitment, a mortgage, for example
- Increasing Cover – the premium increases with inflation, usually measured against the consumer price index (CPI)
- Decreasing Cover – financial protection decreases over time, for example, if the coverage is tied to a repayment mortgage
- Level Life Cover – fixed premium throughout the life of the policy
- Whole Life Insurance – normally more expensive than term life insurance because the plan is open-ended
The four key things you need to think about when shopping for a policy are:
- How long do you want cover for?
- What kind of cover are you looking for or need?
- What pay out do you desire?
- Do you have any pre-existing conditions that could exclude you from coverage? (if a policy is obtained without disclosing medical conditions, your family’s claim could be denied or the cost of covering you could end up being significantly higher).
Try our Protection Comparison Tool
To start, check out our Protection Comparison Tool.
Just put in a few key details and you’ll get some initial quotes that will give you an idea of what’s available. What’s offered to you will depend on your current health, personal circumstance, level of coverage desired, and what kind of policy you’re looking for.
What’s next?
Once you have an idea of what’s on the market, meet with your financial adviser to ensure that you’re not duplicating cover anywhere and that you are fully bridging the gap between your NHS death in service benefit with the correct level of cover.
Advisers will help ensure that your life cover policy is just one facet of your wealth protection strategy and that it fits into your overall financial plan. Get in touch with us today so we can help you find the right level of coverage for you.
Could protection insurance be right for you?
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Dental & Medical Financial Services have been helping doctors and dentists to build and protect their wealth, whilst saving tax for over 25 years.