Gender Pricing For Life Insurance

Posted on May 15, 2012 by admin — No Comments ↓

Treating men and women fairly?

There has been a lot of good from being involved Europe and lot of bad. On March the 1st The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that from next year insurance companies will not be able to calculate life insurance premiums by gender. Currently and historically gender has been one of the main risks factored when pricing a life insurance based product along with age and smoker status. Simple maths and historical data has shown as we all know that men die on average earlier than women. Therefore over the years prices for women have been generally cheaper than for men. Well this is all going to change.

On the 21st of December 2012 insurance companies will no longer be able to take into account your gender as a risk factor. Current policies will not be effected but for any women out there looking to take out cover. Now is the time. From the 21st of December prices for women will go up and your risk will be calculated the same as men. It’s unclear how this is going to affect the underwriting side of things. Of course there are many things that men are more likely to suffer from than women and vice versa. For example does that mean that men whose mother suffered from breast cancer are going to be judged the same as women whose mother suffered? How about if your father suffered from testicular cancer? Are women’s polices going to be loaded because of this?

Current opinions filtered down from underwriters at various companies has been inconsistent. Currently our advice is for women thinking of taking out cover to do so ASAP. We will be keeping a close eye on what happens and of course keep you up to date here on the blog. Any women looking to get a quote can fill in there details on our quote page.

We use a range of other insurance providers and their products may be more suitable for your needs
These articles are for information only and does not constitute as financial advice in any way

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Posted in General Life Insurance

Why Do You Need Key Man Insurance

Posted on May 9, 2012 by admin — No Comments ↓

Key man insurance is something that all companies who rely on people should at least think about. Most companies in the UK do not have key man insurance. Many directors do not know what key man insurance is. As with many shareholders who do not know what shareholder protection is. Life insurance its often thought about too late. We have had a few clients in the past who have been driven to our site after suffering the loss of a key person within their business. Sometimes it’s been one of the directors or shareholders but in each case the clients have told us what a nightmare it has been. Of course these are the businesses that have managed to stay afloat. I am sure there are many out there that have fallen into financial difficulties and folded. In some cases we have had clients call to try and get cover for a key person who has just suffered a critical illness. Of course as you may understand the insurance companies are not going to offer cover to someone who is critically ill. Unfortunately for these companies no matter how hard we try, no company is going to offer terms to someone who has just been diagnosed with cancer for example.

Obviously as we go through our daily lives especially within business, insurance is something that we all hate to sort out. Insure this insure that. It’s a payment that we would rather not make and a benefit we certainly would not like to have to claim. But in the event that something does happen, key man insurance is literally a business saver. It saves businesses. People that make a claim for key man insurance or shareholder protection will tell you it’s one of the most important payments they made each month.

During the next few weeks and months we will be running through various examples of how a key person insurance policy can benefit your business. We will be taking examples of businesses that have taken out cover and those that have not.

There are lots of variations and it works differently depending on what type of company you are. But whether it’s a limited company or a partnership, if there is someone important with which the company would struggle without, then you need to be looking at the options. You at least cannot afford not to.

We use a range of other insurance providers and their products may be more suitable for your needs
These articles are for information only and does not constitute as financial advice in any way

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Posted in Key Man Insurance

Buying Key Person Insurance

Posted on March 31, 2012 by admin — No Comments ↓

Insuring the key people who bring business and profits for your company is very important. These people are your human assets and their loss could have dire financial consequences for your company. One of the best ways to protect your human assets is to buy key person insurance for them.

This type of insurance is also known in the industry as keyman insurance. It is a fairly new product but becoming very popular especially among larger companies. This insurance will provide compensation if your company loses a key person who performs a crucial role for the business.

Identifying Your Key People

Almost all companies have key persons. It could be you as the owner of the business or a major partner. Identifying key people in your company is very subjective. There is really no hard and fast rule that will guide you when identifying the key persons in your company.

The most obvious persons who perform crucial corporate functions are the founders and the major business partners. For example, if there are three major partners in a company, a loss of one could have disastrous impact on the operation of the business.

If your company is into sales, a worker who rakes in big profits from sales month after month could be your key person. If he or she succumbs to a debilitating illness, then your company will lose its profitability. So you need to purchase key person insurance in order to minimize your loss. The proceeds of the insurance will serve as compensation for the loss of profits.

Companies who are engaged in scientific research and product development normally hire technical experts. The skills and the services of these experts are sometimes irreplaceable. Your company could suffer a great setback if you lose one of your experts. To protect your business, you should get keyman insurance for your key expert so that you can get money to hire a replacement.

The Need for Key Person Insurance

You probably know already why key person insurance is important for your company. This insurance protects the business against sudden dislocation. Given the crucial roles of your key people, the business may not be able to operate if they fail to work. So this could result to big financial troubles for you. Worse, your investors might lose their confidence in your business.

When choosing key person insurance, it is important to consider the overall value of your key people. As a rule of thumb, the amount of insurance should be equal to five to ten times the salary of your key person. You must also consider the potential profits that can be provided by your key person. You can make an accurate assessment if you evaluate the performance record of your key man for the past five years.

Keyperson insurance is crucial for the continuity of your business. You should never underestimate the importance of this type of business insurance for your company. If you want to avert financial stress and possible bankruptcy, then a key man life or health insurance is a viable option for you.

We use a range of other insurance providers and their products may be more suitable for your needs

These articles are for information only and does not constitute as financial advice in any way

Posted in Key Man Insurance

L&G Make Improvements to Key Person Critical Illness Cover

Posted on March 31, 2012 by admin — No Comments ↓

Legal and General’s Critical Illness Cover comes with a 5 Star rating from Defaqto, a leading UK independent research company, and have recently doubled their ABI+ illness definitions, giving clients the most* ABI+ illness definitions available from any provider for no extra cost.

ABI+ definitions go beyond the ABI model** critical illness definitions and offer wider cover for the client.

Below shows the changes made to their Critical Illness Cover Plans, increasing the ABI+ definitions from 4 to 11. This is good news for those looking for Key Person Insurance with good critical illness cover as Legal & General tend to be good on price too. Ask us for a key man quote now and see how much cover with Legal and General costs.

Critical Illness ABI+ before 23 May 2010 ABI+ after 23 May 2010
Aorta graft surgery – requiring surgical replacement.
Benign brain tumour – resulting in either surgical removal or permanent symptoms.
Coma - resulting in permanent symptoms.
Coronary artery by-pass grafts – with surgical thoracotomy.
Heart attack – of specified severity.
HIV infection – caught from a blood transfusion, physical assault or accident at work.
Heart valve replacement or repair – with surgical thoracotomy.
Loss of hand or foot – permanent physical severance.
Paralysis of a limb – total and irreversible.
Parkinson’s disease – resulting in permanent symptoms.
Third degree burns – covering 20% of the surface area of the body or 50% of the face or head.

This information was sourced from Legal & General June 2010

We use a range of other insurance providers and their products may be more suitable for your needs

These articles are for information only and does not constitute as financial advice in any way

Posted in Key Man Insurance

Bupa announce enhancements to Income Protection Cover

Posted on March 31, 2012 by admin — No Comments ↓

We are pleased to announce BUPA have made a series of enhancements to their Income Protection cover, which include a number of innovative benefits to help meet the needs of clients.

The enhancements include:

  • Benefit guarantee – by verifying your salary at application, BUPA guarantee that even if your situation changes you will receive the agreed amount if you make a claim
  • Exclusion discounts – if your medical history means that conditions such as back related or mental illness cannot be covered at underwriting, the premium will be reduced
  • Best Doctors – all income protection policies will now have access to the Best Doctors service, providing clients with the opportunity to receive a second opinion about their condition from world renowned doctors
  • Therapy Benefit – this benefit provides you with financial support for a range of complementary therapy treatments including acupuncture, chiropractic, homeopathy, osteopathy and physiotherapy up to a specified limit
  • Trauma Benefit – The key person or life assured receive this benefit if a traumatic injury results in paralysis of the limbs, loss of sight, hearing, speech, hands or feet, or physical independence
  • Fracture Cover Benefit – this optional benefit is payable if the key person or life assured suffers one of 18 listed fractures
  • Hospital In Patient Benefit – if the key person or life assured is hospitalised through injury or illness for six nights or more we may pay up to £200 a night for up to 90 nights

These are some great benefits for people taking out key man income benefit through BUPA and something that we would be happy to discuss in more detail with you.

This information was sourced from BUPA June 2010

We use a range of other insurance providers and their products may be more suitable for your needs

These articles are for information only and does not constitute as financial advice in any way

Posted in Key Man Income Cover

BUPA Therapy Benefit

Posted on March 31, 2012 by admin — No Comments ↓

There may be times in your life when you use complementary therapies to support your health and wellbeing. Bupa’s Therapy Benefit+ may be able to give your company financial support for a range of complementary therapy treatments that your emplyee needs receive.

What is Key Person Insurance Therapy Benefit
As a Bupa member with an key man income protection policy, you are able to be reimbursed up to a maximum of fifty percent of the amount you pay to a maxiumum of £100 per policy year for a range of complementary therapy services.

These services include:

• acupuncture

• chiropractic

• homeopathy

• osteopathy

• physiotherapy

How does it work

BUPA may pay fifty percent of the amount you pay for the therapy services as shown below as part of your Bupa Key Person Income Protection policy to a maximum of £100 per policy year. This sum is to cover all of the therapy services you receive during the policy year and not for each type of service or item charged individually. Treatment must be provided by an acupuncturist, chiropractor, homeopath, osteopath or physiotherapist approved by us.

Which therapy services are included
Acupuncture, chiropractic, homeopathy, osteopathy or physiotherapy services provided by an approved practitioner. The service must be provided by a practitioner approved by Bupa, see page 6 for more information.

Is there anything Therapy Benefit doesn’t cover This benefit covers treatment only, associated prescription fees and medication administered are not covered. Your income protection policy may exclude certain conditions. If this is the case, we will not reimburse any therapy costs for any treatments related to the excluded condition.

This information was sourced from BUPA 2010

We use a range of other insurance providers and their products may be more suitable for your needs

These articles are for information only and does not constitute as financial advice in any way

Posted in Key Man Income Cover

Key Man Income Benefit

Posted on March 31, 2012 by admin — No Comments ↓

Most normal key person insurance policies are taken out as either just a straight forward life insurance or a life and critical illness. But what happens if your key person has a car accident and badly damaged their leg for example. They haven’t died or been diagnosed with a critical illness but are certainly out of action for a good 6 months and unable to carry out their job. Financially this sort of problem could cripple your company especially if the person was bringing in the majority of income. To prevent this from being a problem companies are able to take out what’s called an income benefit as key man insurance. This benefit will pay out if the person is injured and unable to work. Depending on underwriting outcomes the cover will be offered for “own occupation” or “working tasks”. Own occupation is the better of the two and we will be discussing these in more detail in our next blog.Key man income protection benefits are paid on a monthly basis unlike normal life or life and critical illness key man, which is paid out as a lump sum. Benefits are worked out as a percentage of the companies income and the key persons contribution to that income. As normal, a questionnaire is carried out to asses the persons health which can obviously effect the premiums. Other factors which are taken into account are the occupation and the differed period. The longer you can defer the benefit the cheaper the cover will cost. But usually the minimum differed period will be one month. This means a person will have to be unable to work for at least a month before the premiums will pay out. Each insurance company is different and we would of course always recommend that any person looking to take out this cover would read the key facts document carefully.

We use a range of other insurance providers and their products may be more suitable for your needs

These articles are for information only and does not constitute as financial advice in any way

Posted in Key Man Income Cover

Group Protection

Posted on March 31, 2012 by admin — No Comments ↓

MyKeyManInsurance.co.uk is now able to offer group protection. This can be in the form of an income based benefit or a lump sum much like a life insurance or critical illness policy. This is a great addition to our companies arm and will allow us to offer a much more suited and tailored protection policy to companies which are of a larger size. Most Key Man Insurance policies are targeted at the key people within the business, such as directors etc but the group protection can cover everyone within the company under one policy.

Group Protection Benefits

Group income protection or group life cover is a great cost effective way of providing a key benefit to your employees and is a great incentive when looking to show that you care about the person you are employing. As well as offering a cheaper way for the employee to take out life insurance, the premiums are also seen as a business expense for tax purpose. Group income protection works slightly different in that the benefit is paid out to the company much like key person insurance. If one of your employees are off with a long term sickness, a group policy would pay your company a monthly payment. The minimum deferred period is normally 13 weeks which means the benefit would not kick in until after 13 weeks of the employee being off sick.

If you are interested in finding out more about group income protection or group life cover, please could you contact us on 01702 219560

We use a range of other insurance providers and their products may be more suitable for your needs. These articles are for information only and does not constitute as financial advice in any way.

Posted in Key Man Insurance

Key Person Insurance

Posted on March 31, 2012 by admin — No Comments ↓

Top Reasons Why You Business needs to Key Person Insurance

There are several reasons why your company needs key person insurance. This special type of insurance can provide protection for your business against financial losses, loss of productivity, or loss of profits.

The keyman insurance was designed as a financial safeguard for companies for the loss of a key worker. You have to admit the fact that every company has one or two crucial personnel who perform critical roles.

If you lose your key persons due to death, disability, or debilitating illness, then the overall productivity and performance of your business could be adversely affected. In some cases, such loss could result to bankruptcy and eventual closure.

To prevent a business disaster, you have to seriously consider getting keyperson insurance for your company. Here are some of the top reasons why you need this insurance.

Profit Protection

The loss of a key man may go beyond the cost of replacement. It is true that replacing a highly valued person is expensive. But if he brings big business to your company each year, then hisor her loss could affect your bottom line. With keyman insurance, the potential loss of profits could be averted. The proceeds of the policy could compensate for the loss in order to protect the profitability of your business.

Share Holder Protection

In many cases, a key person is also a major share holder of the company. If you lose him or her permanently due to illness or death, then you can face financial difficulty in buying back the share of your key worker or partner. Normally any shares will be passed on to the deceased family or partner. This may cause problems with shares then being sold to a third party. With key man life insurance or shareholder protection, you will be able to easily buy back the share of the key person.

Protection against Damages

If a key person holds a sensitive corporate project, then you have to ensure that it will be completed to avoid financial losses. Unfortunately, there is no way to predict the future. Your key man could suffer from a critical illness that will prevent him from finishing the project. Those who have stakes in the project could claim damages against you for cancelled or incomplete projects. So you may use the keyperson insurance to compensate the stake holders to avoid costly litigation and bad PR.

Indeed, a key man life insurance can offer numerous benefits for all companies. This insurance will protect you from financial ruin especially if you lose a key person. That is why you need to purchase key person insurance. If your company is adequately protected, investors and lending banks will easily give you more capital because they have confidence in the long term viability of your business. Many banks and investors will ask for a key person insurance to be in place before they will lend or invest money to the company. Banks will offer a key person insurance themselves which is often more expensive. Please speak to one of our qualified key person advisors for more information and key man insurance quotes.

We use a range of other insurance providers and their products may be more suitable for your needs. These articles are for information only and does not constitute as financial advice in any way.

Posted in Uncategorized

Term Life Insurance

Posted on March 31, 2012 by admin — No Comments ↓

Many people get quite confused over all the different terms that are used for life insurance related products. Over the years the FSA have changed the names of some products to try and make things clearer but it takes a while to filter through and you therefore have the same products often being called different things by different people. Life insurance and term life insurance are generally the same thing. Term life insurance is a life insurance policy taken out over a specified term (amount of time) and is often related to a mortgage term. So a 25 year term life insurance will be quite a standard type of policy. As this is protecting the mortgage loan it will sometimes be confused with mortgage protection or even mortgage payment protection insurance (MPPI). A mortgage protection insurance will normally be the same as a term life insurance but will be more specifically to cover a repayment mortgage lump sum. The mortgage protection lump sum will decrease along side the mortgage loan. This is the most cost effective way of protecting a mortgage loan. A level term life insurance policy is an amount which stays the same over the term of the policy. This will be more suited to an interest only mortgage where the loan amount stays the same. Term life insurance can also have attached critical illness insurance. Critical Illness can be added as the same amount as the term life insurance or as a lower amount. It is possible to take out critical illness insurance without term life insurance but this is not very common and some insurance companies do not offer it this way. Term life insurance will sometimes include terminal illness cover. This means that the benefit will pay out if the life assured is deemed to be terminally ill and will therefore pay the benefit before they actually die.

Term Life Insurance Quotes

To get a term life insurance quote it is best to speak to a qualified advisor who has access to the whole of market. This means they can compare term life insurance quotes from all the companies that offer it. As apposed to an advisor who can only quote from a panel. A qualified advisor will be able to advice on the differences in cover between the insurance companies and will then make an advised recommendation. With life cover only this will often be the cheapest quote. But it may be worth looking at more expensive companies when taking out critical illness as the policies will vary in cover. Advice will also come with relevant paperwork such as a key facts document which will out lines the policy in more details and will also explain which critical illness’s are covered within the policy. It is very important to read this document carefully in order to understand the policy.

For any more information in term life insurance, mortgage protection or critical illness insurance please do not hesitate to contact us and speak to one of our qualified advisors.

We use a range of other insurance providers and their products may be more suitable for your needs. These articles are for information only and does not constitute as financial advice in any way.

Posted in Uncategorized
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