Financial Planning & Protection

We all need 'peace of mind' from unforeseen circumstances, to protect your income, have access to medical care and for life cover. In the UK 300,000 people every year are unable to work for six months or more due to serious illness. It’s time to have your financial back-up plan in place.

Jargon Buster

• Accidental Death Benefit — A policy that provides a lump sum to your family should you die as a result of an accident
• Actuary — someone qualified to calculate financial risk and impact. They inform insurance companies so that they can assess their own risks and how much they should charge their customers
• Acupuncturist — a medical practitioner with full registration under the Medical Acts, who specialises in acupuncture, is registered under the relevant Act
• ADL (Activities of Daily Living) — routine activities that people tend do every day without needing assistance. The six basic ADLs are eating, bathing, dressing, toileting, transferring (walking) and continence
• ADW (Activities of Daily Working) — routine activities of daily work. Note: speak to your provider on exact terms
• Assurance — a term interchangeable with insurance but generally used in connection with life cover as assurance implies the certainty of an event and insurance the probability
• ASU (Accident, Sickness and Unemployment) — an insurance policy that provides you with a monthly sum of money should you become unable to work due to an accident, illness or redundancy
• Chronic Condition — a disease, illness or injury which either needs ongoing or long-term monitoring, control /relief of symptoms, rehabilitation. It continues indefinitely, it has no known cure, it comes back or is likely to come back
• Convertible term assurance — allows you the option of converting your term policy to a whole of life policy
• Critical Illness Cover — provides a tax free lump sum payment should the insured person be diagnosed with a specified critical illness, e.g. some forms of cancer, heart disease and many other serious illnesses. It can also be set up to provide a monthly income if you prefer, rather than a lump sum
• Critical Illness Insurance — can be arranged on its own or attached to other forms of assurance, such as mortgage life cover or family protection cover. It can also be on a joint or single life basis
• Day-patient treatment — when you have to go into a hospital or day-patient unit because you need a period of supervised recovery but do not have to stay overnight
• Death in Service — a policy that provides a lump sum of money should you die whilst working for your employer
• Decreasing Term Assurance — the sum assured decreases every year, usually in line with your repayment mortgage or loan
• Excess — this is the amount that you will be asked to contribute towards the cost of a claim
• Family Income Benefit — provides a regular (and tax free) income to your family when you pass away. It can be taken out as a standalone policy or as an add-on to other life insurance cover
• Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) — the UK's financial watchdog, the FCA regulates the financial services industry, including insurance companies. The FCA can advise you on making a complaint against an insurance company
• GIO (Guaranteed Insurability Option) — allows you to increase the amount of cover you have without the need for more medical information
• Guaranteed Premiums — when your premiums are guaranteed throughout the length of your policy, unless you alter your cover
• Health Insurance — covers the cost of an insured individual's medical and surgical expenses
• Homeopath — a medical practitioner with full registration under the Medical Acts, who specialises in homeopathy, is registered under the relevant Act
• In force — means that your premiums are being paid and that you are protected and fully covered by your life insurance policy
• Income Protection — pays a monthly income if you are unable to work due to accident or illness
• Increasing Term Assurance — the sum assured increases every year, usually in line with the Retail Price Index. Note: your monthly premium will also increase at the same rate
• Indexation — an index linked life insurance policy, where the value of this policy will increase over time in line with the Retail Price Index (RPI) and protects you against inflation
• Inpatient Treatment — when you have to stay in hospital overnight or longer
• Insurable interest — a life insurance policy that you take out for somebody else. You have to prove that the death of that person would impact you financially. For example, something that people do for their partners
• Intestate — a person that has passed away without making a will
• Joint Life — a life insurance policy covers two people rather than one
• Joint Life First Death — there will be a payout after the first person passes away in-relation to a joint life insurance policy
• Joint Life Second Death — there will be a payout after both people pass away
• Lapsed Policy — when you don’t pay your full premium, your policy and the benefits that come with it will cease and may be terminated
• Level Term Assurance — the sum assured remains the same for the whole of the policy term
• Life Assurance — interchangeable with ‘life insurance’ and provides a certain levels of protection for your family and loved ones when you pass away during the policy term
• Life Insurance — see 'Life Assurance'
• Long-term Income Protection — pays out until a fixed age, death or your return to work
• Medical Insurance — covers the cost of an insured individual's medical and surgical expenses
• Mortgage Life Insurance — life insurance to cover your outstanding mortgage if you die
• Mortgage Payment Protection — covers your monthly mortgage payments in the event of accident, sickness and/or unemployment
• NCD (No Claim Discount) — discount awarded annually to a policyholder depending on their claims experience during the previous policy year. Similar to no-claims bonus (NCB)
• No Claim Discount Protection — enables you to make one claim without adversely affecting your No Claim Discount
• Outpatient Treatment — when you have treatment given at a hospital, consulting room or outpatient clinic where you do not go in for day-patient treatment or inpatient treatment
• Physiotherapist — a medical practitioner who practises physiotherapy
• PPD (Permanent Partial Disablement) — when your policy pays out if you become permanently partially disabled as a result of an accident, for example, loss of fingers
• Practitioner — a practising member of certain professions allied to medicine. Including professions like dieticians, nurses, orthoptists, psychologists, psychotherapists and speech therapists
• Pre-existing Condition — a medical condition which you already have when your policy starts or have had in the recent past
• Premium — the amount of money you pay an insurer for providing your cover. These can be paid monthly or annually
• Premium Wavier — when you are able to continue with your life insurance policy without further premiums if you become unable to pay due to sickness, injury or unemployment
• Renewable Premiums — premiums that are paid by you to the insurer in order to keep the policy in operation and avail the benefits of the policy accordingly
• Renewable Term Assurance — allows you the option of renewing your term assurance after a set period
• Reviewable Premiums — when your premiums are guaranteed for a certain period (five years) and are then reviewed on a regular basis to establish if the premium you're paying is enough to provide the level of cover selected
• RPI (Retail Price Index) — a measure of inflation, which is published monthly by the Office for National Statistics
• Short-term Income Protection — has a fixed maximum payout period of between one and five years
• Specialist — a medical practitioner with particular training in an area of medicine (such as consultant surgeons, consultant anaesthetists and consultant physicians) with full registration under the Medical Acts
• Sum Assured — the amount of cover you are insured for
• Surrender — when you want to cancel your life policy
• Term — the number of years you choose for the policy to run
• Terminal Illness Cover — means that your life policy will pay out before you die if the life insurance company have medical evidence that your life expectancy is less than 12 months. Note: It will not apply during the last 18 months of the policy
• Therapist — a medical practitioner with full registration under the Medical Acts, who is a practitioner in osteopathy or chiropractic, is registered under the relevant Act
• TPD (Total Permanent Disability) — when your policy pays out if you become permanently disabled as a result of an accident, for example, and are unable to carry out specified daily activities of living
• Trust — a way of ensuring that your valuables go to the right people when you die. For example, place your life insurance policy in a trust, which means that you may be able to avoid inheritance tax on the payout
• Underwriter/Underwritten — qualified professional who assesses the risks of an applicant. They determine how much you need to be insured for and at what premium
• Whole of Life Assurance — life assurance to cover you for the whole of your life. Also referred to as ‘permanent life insurance’