Life Insurance
Think you don’t need life insurance if you don’t have children ? Think again. It may seem like an unnecessary expense. But there are many reasons to have life insurance, even if you’re not supporting a family.
Mortgage protection
Whether you live by yourself, with a spouse or significant other, you may want to buy life insurance as mortgage protection. Think about it you don’t want the person you live with to be homeless if you die unexpectedly, do you?
Term life insurance can be used to pay off an outstanding mortgage balance. Just select a term that matches the length of your mortgage payment period. Some companies even offer decreasing term insurance, which means the death benefit decreases along with your mortgage balance.
Income replacement
You and your significant other may have planned for a future based on two incomes but what if one of you passes away unexpectedly? Life insurance can be used to replace the lost income so the survivor can maintain the same standard of living.
Final expenses
You’ve seen the commercials funeral expenses, burial costs and medical bills can add up to a hefty amount. The last thing you want is for your loved ones to shoulder this extra burden.
Life insurance can be used to plan for these final expenses. Permanent life insurance is available in various amounts, so you can pick a death benefit that meets your needs.
At Home Shield life insurance costs from as little as £5 per month for £100,000 of cover.
Mortgage Payment Protection Insurance
Mortgages, although a fact of everyday life for the vast majority of people, do constitute a major debt. Home owners who have a mortgage will not always have the resources to cover their loan repayments in the event of an interruption to their income for any reason.
The reasons for needing mortgage payment protection insurance include redundancy, accident or illness. The balance between covering all expenses and not being able to afford your mortgage could be caused by a simple stroke of bad luck. Not having an insurance policy in place to cover your mortgage could result in your home being repossessed. Mortgage payment protection protects against this eventuality.
The insurance policy can be taken out in order to cover the outgoings of a borrower for an extended period – usually up to 12 months, although 24 month policies are available too – in the event of them being unable to work due to health reasons or being made redundant. In theory, this makes MPPI a simple and effective product that every borrower needs.
However, the cost of this type of insurance varied enormously between specialist mortgage payment protection insurance companies and major banks and building societies. Many borrowers have simply taken the first MPPI product offered, unaware that they are paying over the odds for their policy.
At Home Shield we search a panel of 18 providers to find the best policy for you, and with prices starting at just 90p per month can you afford to be without?
Landlords Insurance
What is it?
If you own a property you are letting to a tenant, regardless of it being a family member or a stranger, you are a landlord and require a landlord's insurance policy. This is a legal requirement. A standard Home Insurance policy will not suffice.
Why you need it?
There are several reasons, the main ones being:
- If you have a mortgage on the property the Mortgage Provider will stipulate you have adequate cover in place to cover at least the building itself. If you do not then you will be in contravention to the terms and conditions of your mortgage.
- If your tenant were to suffer any injury or loss they may pursue you for damages. Landlords Insurance automatically includes Legal Liability cover to protect you from such events.
- If the property, or any person in the property, suffers damage due to an electrical fault, for example, you could in some instances find yourself prosecuted. Even though you do not live in the property you still own it which makes you liable. Again Legal Liability will protect you against this.
When do I need it?
Your Landlords Insurance should be in place from the moment you take ownership of the property, ie the exchange of contracts.
What's included?
Everything you need. Landlords Insurance is basically the same as your own home insurance except with the added Legal Liability. It will also take into account the fact that you are not living there which, on a standard Home Insurance Policy, is a requirement.
Business Protection Insurance
Most businesses understand the need to manage the risks they face every day. They insure their premises, equipment and stock against fire, flood and theft. They insure their vehicles. But many don't stop to think what would happen if they lost their most important asset - their people.
The fact is many small and medium sized businesses rely on certain key people. It could be the sales manager, whose contacts and relationships with customers make sure that sales remain on target and the business is profitable. Or it could be a designer responsible for the development of new products. Without these people the business could suffer serious financial loss, or even have to stop trading altogether.
But it's not just about the loss of profit a business could suffer. What would happen if one of the owners dies or suffers a critical illness? Who would take their place in the boardroom? Would that person have the skills necessary to fill that role? Would they want to?
Business Protection is designed to protect businesses against the effects of losing losing one of their key people or one of the owners through death, critical illness or temporary disability.
There are many businesses without any cover at all. Don't let yours be one.
