Income protection is an essential part of wealth protection and preservation. If you need to take time off work due to a long-term illness and you don’t have safeguards in place, you could cut off crucial earnings, which could have a serious impact on your finances.
This does not constitute advice and advice should be sought in all instances before acting on it.
It’s important when creating a plan to take into account specific needs you have as a medical professional to protect your income in the event of long-term illness or disability. Do you know how you’d handle it financially if you were unable to work for months, or even years?
Plan for the future
A strong financial plan sets financial goals with your personal ambitions in mind. Be sure you regularly check in with an independent financial adviser to review you plan and make any necessary adjustments based to changing circumstances, new life goals, or a shift in economic fortunes. Planning for retirement and beyond will certainly mean not only building your wealth, but taking steps to protect it as well.
It’s important to incorporate ways to protect your wealth so you are prepared for if the worse does happen. Without a back up plan, your financial future could be in jeopardy – and you might not be able to pass financial security down to loved ones after you’re gone.
Protection planning
If you are unable to work and lose your income for a period, you’ll most likely have to tap into your savings just to cover your living expenses each month. If you are worried that this could deplete your finances, then you should put a protection plan in place.
Because many doctors and dentists enjoy the fruits of a lucrative profession, it’s common these days for these individuals to be responsible for multiple generations of family.
If you have demanding family responsibilities, do you have sufficient back up plans to protect your wealth and continue with your financial commitments if you are unable to work?
If you’re not considering all your responsibilities when planning your finances, then you may end up losing more than you bargained for.
Protection doing double duty
You might not realise, but an protection policy can have additional benefits.
Odds are, if you’re actively building and managing your wealth, you’ll likely also have an inheritance tax liability on your estate. You can significantly reduce your liability through gifting and clever will drafting, but many times that won’t completely cover the entire liability.
There is actually a protection policy (usually joint lives last survivor) in trust that is the solution to providing tax-free funds to reduce or completely cover the tax expense. It’s another excellent way to ensure you’re providing for your family after you’re gone.
Life assurance held in trust could also be used to provide an inheritance. It also bridges the “IHT effectiveness” gap on discounted gift trusts (for 7 years, as per the rules surrounding gifts) and loan trusts often up to and beyond 20 years. So the policy could work twice as hard for you as part of your financial plan.
Hear from some of our clients: Read testimonials to find out how we’ve helped them protect their financial future.
We can help
As busy medical and dental professionals, it might be difficult to find the time to build a comprehensive wealth protection and preservation plan on your own, so don’t hesitate to get help.
Business owners and self-employed dental and medical professionals especially need to ensure they’re protecting their income, so we strongly advise partnering with an independent financial adviser that specialises in working with the healthcare industry professionals.
Want to build & protect your wealth?
Investments | Financial Planning | Retirement | Save Tax | Protection |
Dental & Medical Financial Services have been helping doctors and dentists to build and protect their wealth, whilst saving tax for over 25 years.