Best Insurance

Income Protection is more important than Life Insurance as per The Protection Review(30-Aug-2011)

Development of a protection model using the hierarchy of needs is being considered by The Protection Review and the Income Protection Task Force. These organisations are getting the feedback from advisors and other sections of the industry to get a consolidated view on which of the protection products should be the first one that the advisers should prioritise on in terms of their advice to their customers.

While there are a myriad of protection products available for the customers to choose from, some of the main categories are short term income protection insurance - which encompasses of income protection insurance and payment protection insurance, private medical insurance, critical illness and life insurance.

It is an interesting observation that in the UK while 1 million life policies are sold every year and 500,000 critical illness policies are sold every year only about 100,000 income protection insurance policies are sold. The income protection task force feels that income protection should be the default start point. After all losing a job either due to unemployment, redundancy or losing income due to accident or sickness is more plausible than dying or suffering a major critical illness like cancer but the industry and its advisors seem to be focussing at the wrong end of the spectrum.

Kesh Thukaram, Director of Best Insurance welcomed the new hierarchical approach and said that the anomaly in terms of more life or critical illness policies sold when compared to income protection insurance is to some extent connected with the employment opportunities and the general economic conditions. Until recently, most people managed to save at least a few months’ salary and liberal government support to the unemployment meant that income protection was not a big requirement. The main worry was paying mortgages if they got any major illness and also well-being of their family. However, the employment scene in the country has dramatically changed in the last 12 months and short term income protection that people need until they find a new job is definitely far more critical than other requirements. He re-affirmed that the direction taken by the Income Protection Task Force was the right one and needs a wider debate and buy-in.

Best Insurance focuses purely on income protection insurance and has a limited panel of leading income protection insurers. Apart from income protection insurance, Best Insurance also provides people with life insurance and critical illness covers.