Income protection pays out a proportion of your income (50 per cent is common) if you can’t work because of illness, disability or accident. However, income protection won’t cover you if you’re made redundant. If you want redundancy cover you can sometimes bolt this on to income protection insurance for an extra cost, or you can take out a standalone policy. Go to Finanacial Advisor for more information.

Like all insurance policies, income protection plans take into account circumstances such as your age, gender, occupation, your health and whether you smoke or not. How much you pay in premiums depends on how much of a risk the insurance company sees you as.

Why is it better?

For many of us, income protection costs no more than PPI, but provides much better benefits. You can decide when the cover starts – after four weeks, three months, six months or even a year – so you can fit the cover around the cover you have from your employment.

The longer the period before the cover starts paying out, the cheaper the premium.

If you claim on the policy and then go back to work, your policy continues as before.

‘Higher risk lives’

For some people, however, the cost of standard income protection may be too high. However there are policies called ‘age related’ policies which don’t calculate your premium according to gender, occupation or whether you smoke. These may be more suitable for higher risk lives.

There are also ‘budget’ income protection policies which pay out for shorter period and consequently have lower premiums. There’s also the possibility that payment under an income protection policy might affect your state benefits – so you should always check this with your insurer or adviser.

Income protection can be expensive if you’re in a risky or stressful job, if you have health problems or you smoke. In most cases, women tend to pay more than men. Refer to Income Protection for more information.

Shop around

However, it’s always worth getting a quotation for income protection first and then submitting an application to the most competitive providers. We suggest you take advice and get help shopping around the different companies.

You should always consult an independent financial adviser (who can search the whole market for you). Try to find one that specialises in income protection products.

Critical illness insurance

Many people are sold critical illness insurance, often in addition to PPI. But it’s important to understand that critical illness insurance is not an alternative to PPI or income protection.

Critical illness insurance pays out a lump sum if you suffer from a serious illness like cancer or a heart attack. It can be useful additional cover because you can use it to pay off your mortgage or other large debts if the worst happens.

However, it won’t provide you with a regular income while you’re off work, and it won’t cover you for accidents or conditions like back pain or stress.

So, although critical illness can be useful additional protection for those who can afford it, you shouldn’t take it out at the expense of a general policy that gives you an income if you can’t work as a result of any illness or disability.

Other alternatives to PPI

You can also consider mortgage payment protection to cover your mortgage payments, or a form of payment protection insurance that lets you choose the level of cover you need each month. Visit Independent Financial Advisors for further information.

Independent Financial Advisors are a must for any age group. The young just starting out on their career path cannot afford to waste their hard earned cash – as tempting as it may be. With today’s precarious financial markets, the only way to get on the property ladder is by saving from a young age.

An independent financial advisor can be enlisted to help them cope with the situation and see light at the end of the tunnel that isn’t somebody bringing out another bill!

Sometimes, people are quite happy to drift along with their finances and manage to keep on top of them until the children come along. This puts a financial strain on a family that you just wouldn’t believe. An independent financial advisor will assist you in good planning so you can enjoy your children without excessive financial worries.

Another group of people that can always benefit from an independent financial advisor is the newly divorced. Often with property that needs to be dealt with and cash from property sales, relations can become strained if all parties concerned do not feel like they are getting a good deal. Also, from personal experience, I know it can be a little daunting to know what to do for the best with a lump sum of money when you have so many considerations for the future of yourself and your children.

If an independent financial advisor is not used, you could end up like the generation of retired women we now have who are finding they have no choice but to go back to work to make ends meet.

According to statistics, 1.27 million pensioners are still working, many having tried retirement and finding they could not manage on the state pension, have had to return to work. Thanks to advances in medical care, older people are living longer but this puts a financial burden on their retired children who are obligated to pay for care homes.

The financial provision for retired people in the UK is the worst in the developed world which means that after working hard and paying tax for a whole life time they are still not free to enjoy their retirement. Refer to Income Protection for more information.

Older people do bring wisdom and experience to the workplace and as such, Nationwide building society have recognised this fact and have raised the age that their employees retire to 75. There are now 239 female employees with this company aged 60 and over.

Perhaps, if they had used an independent financial advisor in their earlier years, this situation could have been avoided.

The employees of nationwide are fortunate in the fact that the company recognises their worth.

This is with the assumption that young people only want to watch programmes presented by the young but if they asked the general public they would know this is utter rubbish.

So, it would seem that the rich and famous are not above needing an independent financial advisor. Visit Finanacial Advisor for further information.

Independent Financial Advisors are a must for any age group. The young just starting out on their career path cannot afford to waste their hard earned cash – as tempting as it may be. With today’s precarious financial markets, the only way to get on the property ladder is by saving from a young age.

An independent financial advisor can be enlisted to help them cope with the situation and see light at the end of the tunnel that isn’t somebody bringing out another bill!

Sometimes, people are quite happy to drift along with their finances and manage to keep on top of them until the children come along. This puts a financial strain on a family that you just wouldn’t believe. An independent financial advisor will assist you in good planning so you can enjoy your children without excessive financial worries.

Another group of people that can always benefit from an independent financial advisor is the newly divorced. Often with property that needs to be dealt with and cash from property sales, relations can become strained if all parties concerned do not feel like they are getting a good deal. Also, from personal experience, I know it can be a little daunting to know what to do for the best with a lump sum of money when you have so many considerations for the future of yourself and your children.

If an independent financial advisor is not used, you could end up like the generation of retired women we now have who are finding they have no choice but to go back to work to make ends meet.

According to statistics, 1.27 million pensioners are still working, many having tried retirement and finding they could not manage on the state pension, have had to return to work. Thanks to advances in medical care, older people are living longer but this puts a financial burden on their retired children who are obligated to pay for care homes.

The financial provision for retired people in the UK is the worst in the developed world which means that after working hard and paying tax for a whole life time they are still not free to enjoy their retirement. Refer to Income Protection for more information.

Older people do bring wisdom and experience to the workplace and as such, Nationwide building society have recognised this fact and have raised the age that their employees retire to 75. There are now 239 female employees with this company aged 60 and over.

Perhaps, if they had used an independent financial advisor in their earlier years, this situation could have been avoided.

Others, particularly in the public eye, are not so fortunate. Former female newsreaders of the BBC claim the company is guilty of ageism because once the presenter reaches a certain age, she is passed over for a younger model.

This is with the assumption that young people only want to watch programmes presented by the young but if they asked the general public they would know this is utter rubbish.

It would seem that it can disappear as quickly as you can make it whatever your level of income and an independent financial advisor is always a wise route to take. Visit Finanacial Advisor for further information.