A quick checklist for reviewing income protection

Jennifer Gilchrist 20 November 2019

At Royal London, we believe that income protection is essential for all working age adults unless they have alternative financial support or lots of savings they can call on if they can’t work due to illness or injury.

Women drinking tea in the garden And while it’s vital that the cover you put in place for your clients is tailored to their needs, it’s just as important to make sure it keeps pace with their life and changing circumstances.

To help you with this, we’ve put together a quick list of things to consider when you’re setting up or reviewing your clients’ income protection:

Is the benefit amount keeping pace with increases in your client’s salary or have you mitigated against this through setting up inflation-linked cover?
Has your client moved job or been promoted as this could impact their cover? They could now have more cover through their employer so you’ll want to make sure they’re not over insured and paying for more cover than they need
Did you set your client’s cover up to run to their retirement age? If so, have their aspirations changed? And with the State Pension age gradually increasing for men and women to 67 by 2028, you need to consider the impact this will have on their plans and the cover you have set up for them. The government has also announced plans to bring the timetable forward for the State Pension age increasing to 68 between 2037 and 2039
Have you set up cover in connection with a mortgage? Is this still appropriate or does a longer term now need to be considered?
Does your client have more disposable income than when you set the cover up? If so, now could be the right time to move them from a cheaper type of cover (e.g. limited payment cover) to full-term income protection.

It’s never too early for income protection to be taken out by your clients or their families. Starting a new job or business, or going self-employed are seen by consumers as key triggers for considering protection cover*. So they could be good reasons to get in touch with them either to review their income protection or even to suggest to them the time is right to consider this type of cover.

Our Menu Plan is flexible and can be adapted to suit your clients’ changing needs, so speak to us today about how we can help support your client protection conversations.

*Source: Royal London State of the Protection Nation Report 2019

About the author

Jennifer Gilchrist is Proposition Specialist for Royal London’s intermediary protection business. Having worked in the industry for over 30 years, she has a wealth of experience in marketing and developing protection products and is a frequent press commentator. Jennifer’s had many articles and comment pieces published in the trade press. Outside work, you’ll often find her pounding the Edinburgh streets at 6am on a misty morning. She’s also an avid tennis fan but that extends to watching rather than playing!