Income protection insurance advice

fitzykev

Hi has anyone got any advice in income protection insurance? Like most reliable insurer to take it out with? My reason for taking out income insurance has nothing to do with covid but more to do with injury or other illness. 

Weighty1

The most reliable insurer to take it out with is the insurer who you answer all the questions honestly for.  Presuming you are talking about long-term income protection and not the short-term PPI type cover then most have really good claims rates paying out on 90+% of claims.  These stats are often skewed by the fact that insurers have to report a claim as declined if the policyholder returns to work before their deferred period is up OR if they can't prove any loss of income.  The reality is very few don't pay out.
There are some plans which have free or costed add-on benefits, such as access to worldwide medical treatment, small lump sum payouts for fracture, payouts for every night in hospital after the first 6 or 7, plus other benefits such as access to your own nurse adviser, medical second opinion services, online GP services.

Why not speak to a broker and let them lead you to the best option for you?

Sandtree

First of all need to clarify if you want the budget product (ASU - accident, sickness and unemployment) or the full fat product (permanent health insurance). 

If its the former, very few are selling it right now and the couple I have seen are only offering it as AS (ie no unemployement)

If its the later, the speak to a broker and they will advise you

dunstonh

There is no one best provider when it comes to proper income protection (PHI type and not the PPI type - not that there are many, if any, PPI types available at the moment).   Depending on your occupation and the options/terms, some friendly societies will be better than insurers or vice versa.

Also, you could pigeon hole most plans into a budget, standard and comprehensive style classification.   There is no official classification that does this but the variety of coverage options and terms is so great that you could effectively refer to a plan as a budget plan etc.    Budget plans are often an option of last resort.   So, you need to do your research well.   Or use an IFA or whole of market protection adviser.

 Like most reliable insurer to take it out with?

Because PHI is underwritten at point of sale, this means the providers know your details at the outset and offers terms based on that.    So, the claims to payout ratio is very high.    

[Deleted User]

I'm self employed and recently took out an income protection policy, with Legal & General, i'd say it's a comprehensive one and i used a broker from lifesearch.co.uk
The service i received was very good and would recommend the guy that dealt with me.

Weighty1

[Deleted User] said:

I'm self employed and recently took out an income protection policy, with Legal & General, i'd say it's a comprehensive one and i used a broker from lifesearch.co.uk
The service i received was very good and would recommend the guy that dealt with me.

The L&G plan isn't a particularly comprehensive one.  It's often well priced but in terms of additional features, such as fracture benefit, child-carer benefit, trauma benefit, additional health services, it has none of these but does have hospitalisation benefit.  Don't see that as me saying it's not a good plan, my own income protection is actually with L&G as well, but there are more comprehensive policies available.  LifeSearch are pretty good though, I started my insurance career there so there may well have been a good reason for the adviser recommending L&G.

dunstonh

[Deleted User] said:

I'm self employed and recently took out an income protection policy, with Legal & General, i'd say it's a comprehensive one and i used a broker from lifesearch.co.uk
The service i received was very good and would recommend the guy that dealt with me.

L&G usually focus on the budget end of the market.  They changed some of their protection plans a few years back to offer a bit more but they are effectively a price-focused provider rather than a quality-focused provider.

There are plenty a lot worse in terms of coverage but I wouldn't have classified their offering as a comprehensive one.

An adviser should tailer the provider/cover type to your budget.   That can mean constraints.   These can be reducing the age it will pay out to,  increasing the deferment period or using a cheaper provider with coverage lopped off.   So, its likely your adviser recommended the best that you could get within your budget.

micky66

Hi is family and personal income plan the same as ppi ? I see some sites saying you could still claim not sure if these are scams? 

Sandtree

PPI, ASU sold connected to some form of credit, was not intrinsically a scam but there were significant miss-selling issues. 

The opportunity to start a complaint on miss-selling PPI has now been closed by the FCA

Weighty1

micky66 said:

Hi is family and personal income plan the same as ppi ? I see some sites saying you could still claim not sure if these are scams? 

Family and personal income plan is Legal & General's name for Family Income Benefit.  This is a form of life insurance which provides a monthly income on death instead of a lump sum.  I arrange a lot of this cover as it's excellent for family protection purposes and being a life insurance product it is completely different from PPI.