Knowing exactly what may go wrong in life is probably impossible but, luckily, we have a range of insurance products to help us with those bad things that may happen and that may leave us out of pocket if we don’t have protection in place. If you are thinking about taking out long term income protection cover then you may well be thinking ahead for just this reason. So, what might the benefits be of taking out this kind of insurance?

Let’s look at what you may get cover for with long term income protection cover and how not having this cover may affect you. For example, how might you cope financially if you:

• became so ill that you were unable to work for a period of time;
• had an accident that meant that you couldn’t work for the short to long term?

If losing your job also worries you then you may also consider short term income protection insurance which is designed to cover against illness, accident and job loss.

You may not be likely to get any warning at all when these things happen. For most people they come out of the blue and leave them no time to prepare. This may hit you hard in the pocket, leaving you without your regular income. This may make it hard to:

• meet your mortgage repayment commitments;
• service any debts you may have;
• cope with your everyday living costs.

Even if you have savings in place and qualify to receive employer or state benefits these may not give you enough cash to pay for everything you need. Your savings and employer benefits may also not last long enough to allow you to manage for as long as you may need to.

Taking on long term income protection cover or an alternative short term policy may be worth looking at in these instances. With a long term policy you may, for example, typically be offered:

• a percentage of your income as replacement to keep you going until you die, get another job, retire or until your policy ends;
• cover for illness or accident;
• the chance to defer the start of payment (which may make your policy cheaper) if you may have employer benefits for a shorter period to start with;
• back to day one cover if you need it.

Short term income protection, on the other hand, may offer you:

• cover of a percentage of your income for a shorter period to allow you breathing space until you get back on your feet again;
• cover for illness, accident or unemployment;
• help and advice that may make it easier for you to get back to work.

Although you may take out either of these policies, you may also be allowed to take them out in tandem. So, if you want both short term and long term income protection cover then you may be able to arrange for both policies to be set up at the same time to give more complete cover. In any case, these may well be options worth looking at, especially for those with significant financial commitments that they may find hard to meet with no salary coming in.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.