01The loan repayments that continue regardless
Protection & Planning
Protecting your income
Your income is the thing everything else is built on.It is also the thing most households have thought about least.
Protection & Planning
If your income stopped for six months, what would change in your household, and in what order?
Most people can answer that in about a minute, and the answer is usually clarifying. This page covers what income protection actually does, the 4 terms that decide whether a policy works, and how we approach it with you.
If you would rather understand a policy you already have, Existing Policy Support is the better place to start.
5 things worth working out first
02How long savings would realistically last
03Whether a partner’s income could carry the household alone
04What you would want to protect first, and what could wait
05Who you would have to ask for help, and how that would feel
What it actually means
What income protection covers
This area gets confused with medical cover more often than any other. They do different jobs, and most households need to understand both.
Income replacement
A regular payment while illness or injury stops you working. It covers a portion of what you earned, not all of it, and it ends when you return to work.
Waiting period
How long before payments begin. A longer wait costs less, a shorter one matters more if savings are thin. Usually the most consequential choice on the policy.
Benefit period
How long payments continue: a fixed number of years, or through to retirement. Where a policy either does its job for a long illness or quietly stops halfway.
Occupation wording
Whether you are covered when you cannot do your own job, or only any job at all. This wording matters a great deal for skilled and specialised work.
How the conversation goes
How we work it through
01
We look at your fixed costs, not your salary
What has to be paid every month regardless of what happens. That number is what a policy has to stand behind.
02
We check what you already have
Employer sick pay, existing policies, and savings you would genuinely be willing to spend. The gap is what is left after all of that.
03
We look at the wording, not just the price
The waiting period, the benefit period and the definition of disability decide whether a policy works. 2 policies at the same price can behave completely differently.
04
We review it when your income changes
A policy set against a salary from 5 years ago is protecting a household that no longer exists.
“People insure the car and the house without thinking. The income that pays for both is the one that gets left to last.”
Common questions
Medical cover pays the hospital. Income protection pays you, so the household keeps running while you recover. A serious illness usually creates both costs at once, which is why the two are considered together.
The principle is the same, but there is no employer sick pay behind you, so the waiting period matters more. Documentation of income also works differently, and we will walk you through what is needed before you apply.
Then you will have paid for cover you did not need, which is the outcome everyone should hope for. If that trade does not feel worth it to you at your stage of life, that is a legitimate conclusion and we will not push against it.
Next step
Work out what your income actually has to carry
Bring your fixed monthly costs. That one number does most of the work in this conversation.
Most conversations with us don’t end in a decision, and that’s completely fine.