Life/Critical Illness /Loss of earnings Insurances

newlywed

Hi, can anyone help me please?

My hubby is self employed and so my wages are the main wages most months. I want to make sure everything is protected so that if anything happens to me, he won't suffer financially on top of everything else.

We rent our property. All my credit cards have payment protection insurance on so they should be paid off if anything happens (although it seems from other pages that this isn't always such a good idea). I want to get the cards sorted out but my debt free date looks like being 2010.

What kind of insurances should I be looking at to make sure that he has some kind of income (other than my private pension) if anything happens to me? I'm very confused about what insurance I should look at and how much I should get a quote for, is it just my current wages or current wages x how many years I think he'd need extra help?

All help and comments welcome!!
Many thanks.

lisyloo

although it seems from other pages that this isn't always such a good idea

I think it's better to get one policy to cover your INCOME rather than specific bills. If you cover the income then you should be able to pay all bills as
normal. I think the way you are doing it is likely to be more expensive.

I'm very confused about what insurance I should look at and how much I should get a quote for, is it just my current wages or current wages x how many years I think he'd need extra help?

The basic things you need to cover are:

death
sickness/accident
redundancy

You need to look at what you need and also don't forget to look at what your emplyer offers. You may find (for example) if you have been in your job a long time that you would get a good redundancy package and not need extra insurance.
With each one it depends on what you need - for example a family with children who need to provide child care would have different needs to a couple without children or a single person.

You need to work out which you need, work out what your employer has (most employers have some sort of sick pay scheme) then hunt around for the cheapest policies (there will be some articles on this site).

I woudl personally cancel the exisitng policie you have when you have new polciies in place as they are an expensive way of doing things (but don't do it immediately and leave yourself uninsured).

If you really don't feel you can do this then you could find a financial advisor. The problem with this is that these are sale/comission driven and will usually attempt to sell you things that you might not need so in my opinion if you have some time then it's best to do it yourself because........

No-one looks after your money like you do.

newlywed

Thanks lisyloo. Guess I'll be searching for insurance policies then. Cheers.