First of all, many of you probably could think of nothing worse than wasting a few precious minutes reading a blog about insurance because most of you are probably not concerned about insuring anything. Maybe your car, but after that insurance is like a foreign language to most simply because you’re not at that stage in your life. However, in a few years time when you have a mortgage, are married and have kids, this will be a completely different story. Just like when you couldn’t drive, you wouldn’t have been thinking about car insurance and rightly so, there was no need. But would you consider driving around without insurance now? No because, 1) it’s illegal and 2) you probably don’t have the spare cash to replace your car tomorrow if you had to. On the same note, if your parents don’t have life insurance and died tomorrow, you would be left paying the mortgage. How do you feel now?
Nothing in this life is guaranteed other than death. Not your health. Not your family. Not Tomorrow. If tragedy strikes without proper insurance in place, life can become financially uncomfortable very quick. But with insurance in place, you can help ensure these situations will be made easier if and when they do occur. And because life happens and we can’t control it we need to be prepared for the adverse affects which it can bring.
Ok, rewind…
1) What even is insurance? Insurance is basically a form of risk management, a way of hedging risk in the event of the worst case scenario happening. It’s an agreement between the policy holder and the insurance company to provide financial compensation in unfortunate circumstances. Insurance comes in different forms such as Life Insurance, Critical Illness and Income Protection.
2) What exactly does it do? It will provide financial security in the event of death, critical illness and many other situations, depending on the policy, which will help you and your family deal financially with the circumstance.
3) When do you need it? Insurance types will vary but for basic life insurance it’s a good idea when you have people depending on you financially such as kids, a partner or parents or have a mortgage.
According to the Health, Wealth and Happiness Report 2017: More than two thirds of the UK adult population either hasn’t purchased any life insurance (57 per cent) or doesn’t know whether they have or not (11 per cent). Many people don’t have insurance for various reasons but mostly because; a) don’t understand it or b) they think they can’t afford it. However, this is certainly not the case. With a good financial adviser it is very simple to get a plan that suit individual needs and budgets.
What are the benefits of insurance?
There are many different types of insurance and each serves it’s own purpose and benefits. People might have a few different types of insurance to cover the adverse affects of different situtations.
– Life Insurance can clear your mortgage on death leaving your family without the worry.
– Critical Illness Insurance does away with the need to fundraise and ‘Just Giving‘ pages should you or one of your family suffer from a critical illness.
– Income Protection Insurance does away with the worry about how your family will cope financially if you’re unable to work.
– Insurance provides financial security when you need it most.
Call your agent!
Jessica Patterson is a final year BSc in Communication, Advertising & Marketing student at Ulster University. She can be found on Twitter: @JessPatterson16 / LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-patterson-79a755113/