Welcome to the Financial Column in asociation with Money Plus, Bridge St., Boyle.
The husband of a good friend of mine, recently suffered a mild and unexpected heart attack. He is in his mid-fifties. Thankfully he was with a number of people, one of whom was able to administer CPR until the ambulance arrived. As a result he is making a good recovery.
It reminded me that such events can happen out of the blue and apart from the obvious dangers to one’s health, could potentially have a serious financial impact on a person’s family as well as on the person themselves.
In the case of my friends above, they have 2 children, one who is in 2nd year in college and the second is in 5th year and will do the Leaving Cert next year.
It reminded me of the importance, not only of having sufficient life cover, but also to have serious illness cover or income protection in place.
Recent research carried out on behalf of Irish Life found that more than 50% of Irish adults have no life or serious illness cover in place.
The question to ask yourself is :
Do I have a plan in place to protect my family and dependents financially if some unexpected event occurred which would threaten my family’s and my financial security?
How would you be affected in such circumstances – do you have sufficient protection through life insurance, serious illness cover, income protection in place, or are you presuming, as it would appear from the research, it will never happen to you?
I have highlighted previously that the cost of life insurance has fallen over the last number of years due to the fact that we’re all living longer, and increased competition between the life insurance companies. The younger you are when taking out life insurance, the cheaper the premiums.
Serious Illness (also known as specified illness cover) pays a one-off, tax free lump sum on the diagnosis of a specified illness.
However, unlike life cover, the cost of serious Illness (specified illness cover) has risen in the last few years for some of the same reasons such as we are living longer and are more likely to recover from a serious illness if diagnosed or treated in time, and therefore the amount of claims which the insurance companies are paying out.
A serious illness may result in significant medical expenses. While I recommend having at least €50,000 serious illness cover to cover potential medical expenses, I would recommend having more serious illness cover in place than this depending on your personal and family circumstances, and on affordability.
For advice on protecting your family and yourself and other aspects of financial planning please consult Belinda McCauley at Money Plus, your local independent financial broker. Belinda and her colleagues at Money Plus, Bridge St, Boyle would be delighted to help you. Belinda can be contacted at 071-9194000/ 086-7847827 or by email: [email protected].
