Written by SYS Wealth & Financial Planning based in Limerick & Tipperary.

Managing your financial life today can be a fairly complex affair, with lots of different challenges and aspects involved. Our role is to help you make wise decisions in relation to all areas of your financial life from family budgeting to maximising on savings and investments.

However, our starting point with clients is often in a very different place. Life is full of uncertainties. But no one likes to dwell on what would happen if the unexpected happened – how we or our loved ones would cope with the financial uncertainty and hardship that comes with loss of income due to serious illness or death.

We play an important role in helping you to safeguard your future and that of your family, no matter what life throws at you. We help you protect your financial future against unexpected and premature events such as illness, accident and indeed death. Each of these events often has a devastating affect emotionally on families. It’s our job to ensure that your financial situation is not an increased burden should one of these events occur. We will advise you and help you arrange the necessary and most appropriate financial products to protect you and/or your loved ones and ultimately give you peace of mind so you don’t have to dwell on ‘what if’.

We recognise that priorities change over your lifetime that is why we work with you to identify your current and future needs first.

Here we examine three popular protection products and how they can protect you and your family:

Life Assurance

Probably seen as the most basic financial protection product, life assurance pays out a lump sum upon the death of the life assured.  However, life assurance comes in many different forms, so it is very important that you have the right type of policy to meet your specific needs. For some people, it may be simply to provide financial protection for a family in case of the death of a parent or it may be to repay a specific mortgage or loan in the event of death. Life assurance policies also play an important role in tax planning, particularly in the area of estate planning and inheritance tax planning. It’s important to be aware that there are a range of different features and benefits, different structures to use and a range of different products available in the market.

It all adds up to the need for careful advice, and this is where we, as financial planners, can add value. The advice you get will be based specifically on your needs and the product chosen will be the best available in the market.

Specified Illness Cover

Suffering a significant illness is always a worry for families. What’s the prognosis, what’s the best treatment available and how do you access the best care? And of course you worry about how much it will all cost and are there other costs emerging as a result of the illness.

Specified illness cover pays out a lump sum benefit in the event of the life assured suffering from one of a list of illnesses as specified in the policy, and at a level of severity as outlined too. The benefit is paid upon diagnosis of the illness at that level of severity. This can literally be a life saver, sometimes enabling a policyholder to immediately access treatment that may otherwise be financially beyond them. Alternatively, the benefit can be used to remove the financial burden of a long recuperation period or indeed changes that need to be made to the policyholder’s living situation – e.g. modifications to a house etc.

Again, with Specified Illness policies, the devil is in the detail. We are aware of all of the policies available in the market and can help you decide the required level of cover and will find the policy that best meets your needs.

Income Protection

Income Protection, sometimes called Permanent Health Insurance (PHI) is a product that financially protects you from being unable to work due to illness or accident. After a waiting period (as decided by you), the policy pays out a replacement income at a level (also decided by you) until a specific age. The policy pays out until you are able to go back to work, in some cases the benefit may continue to be paid right up until the end age of the policy, often at age 60 or 65.

There are many different benefits available under these policies with different benefit levels, waiting periods and ceasing dates. Some insurers pay out partial benefits should you return to work part-time and some also will pay towards your rehabilitation and sometimes even towards any training you undergo, for example to enable you to return to work in a less physical role than before your illness or accident.

Again, the breadth of benefits, features and costs can be almost bewildering at times! However, we can simplify the process for you.  We will take the time to understand your requirements, sift through all of the policies available in the market and find the right policy for you at the best price.  All part of our unique 5-step model that we have developed at SYS Wealth & Financial Planners.

Take the first step towards protecting what matters most. Talk to us today about how we can help you protect your family financially against all of these unforeseen events.