Protecting you, your family & business

Protection of your assets and income earning capacity is an essential and sometimes neglected part of financial planning. Having both worked in the industry for 25 plus years we have seen the relief and comfort of a life assurance or critical illness claim and on the reverse the desperation left when illness or death are unexpected.

It is essential to consider how you would pay your liabilities (mortgage) in the event of premature death or serious illness that rendered you unable to work. The peace of mind that it gives to families devastated by ill health or death is undesirable when they are able to continue to function without major financial concerns. It is possible to personally insure your life against death, serious ill health, your income against being long term sick and all of these areas need to be evaluated to see if you are underinsured or the cover that you may have in place provides value for money.

If you own your own business the risks associated with death of a key employee or director or long term health problems have a huge impact and can cause the business to collapse with the loss of income and jobs for many. Reviewing your business the risks undertaken day to day and how to cope with a significant loss of key personnel or a shareholding director should be taken seriously to protect the ability of a business to continue in adverse circumstances.

Action points

• Evaluate any existing cover that you have personally and ask for it to be reviewed
• Calculate your liabilities and see if you have adequate cover
• Work out how much you need to live on as a basic minimum and see how you would generate this in the event of illness or death of the key income earners within a family.
• Review any protection your business has
• Work out the share capital attributable to each shareholder and how this would be purchased from the surviving family if one of the shareholders were to die
• Who are your key personnel within the business what would be the cost to the business to recruit a replacement and loss of sales/revenue in the interim

Alison & Adrian can evaluate your protection needs both individually and if you are involved in a business.