Protection underpins every part of the financial planning process and whilst planning for your future is essential, the unexpected must be considered and insured against.

The purpose of protection is to provide you (and your family) with financial security in case of an unexpected death, accident or sickness. In the event of one of these untimely circumstances, your long-term goals can be jeopardised unless the necessary protection is put into place.

The three most important protection products are:

• Life Insurance
• Critical Illness
• Income Protection

We firstly assess your requirement, calculate your available budget and then find the most suitable product for you, having searched through our extensive database of insurance companies.

As many companies now provide Life Cover as an employee benefit, it is important to accurately assess the level of Cover that this provides verses what you actually require. This will depend on;

• your existing debts
• number of financial dependents you have
• period of their dependency

The sum assured should be large enough to clear any debts and then provide enough income (from the capital lump sum) that all your financial dependents are provided for. Ensuring these policies are placed into the correct trust arrangement is another key consideration for this area of financial planning.

Note: It is currently worth reviewing your existing life insurance plans, as the cost of cover has fallen dramatically in recent years.

Serious illness can have massive implications both emotionally and financially for you and the people around you. During a period of such stress and anxiety a Critical Illness policy can provide much needed relief from the financial burden by providing the funds to clear a mortgage, pay-off other debts or even to delay a return to work until a full recovery is made.

The key consideration with this type of cover is not about the cost, it's essentially to select the right Insurer, ensuring the contract has a comprehensive list of critical illness definitions with a high rate of claim pay-out.

The ability to meet your day-to-day expenditure and saving commitments is normally dependant on your ability to generate income. Therefore, not being able to carry out your daily job, resulting from a back problem or a stress related illness may require a long period of recuperation and may jeopardise your ability to service these responsibilities.

Although company employees usually have an element of illness cover within their contract of employment, these tend to be limited from three to six months. An Income Replacement policy would provide continuous cover at the required monthly amount until a pre-determined date (can be up to retirement age).

An income replacement policy is invariably essential for anyone who is self employed.