Summary
We recently helped our customer in Wokingham arrange income protection to provide financial support if they were unable to work.
Our customer was 26, self-employed and worked as a football youth coach. They wanted income protection of £1,200 per month to help cover their bills if illness or injury prevented them from working. An important part of their requirements was finding a policy that could also provide fracture cover.
This required some additional research because of the physical nature of their occupation and the fact that they had previously suffered broken bones. We were able to find a suitable option with Aviva that provided the level of income protection required alongside the fracture cover that was particularly important to our customer.
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The Scenario
Our customer was a 26-year-old self-employed football youth coach based in Wokingham.
Being self-employed meant they wanted to have financial protection in place if they became unable to work. They had a reasonable level of income, no liabilities and a good credit history, but their main concern was making sure they could continue covering their regular bills if their earnings stopped because they were unable to work.
They wanted to arrange self-employed income protection providing:
- Monthly income protection benefit: £1,200
- Policy term: 30 years
- Insurer: Aviva
- Additional requirement: fracture cover
Fracture cover was particularly important to our customer because they had seen a friend suffer an injury and then be unable to work.
As a football youth coach, our customer also recognised that an injury could potentially have a direct impact on their ability to carry out their normal work.
The Challenge: Income Protection with Fracture Cover
The main challenge was not simply arranging an income protection policy. We also needed to find an insurer that could provide the fracture cover our customer wanted while taking their occupation and previous history of broken bones into account.
There were two important considerations:
- Occupation – our customer worked as a football youth coach, so we needed to make sure the insurer was comfortable with their job when considering the protection required.
- Previous broken bones – our customer had suffered broken bones previously, which meant finding an insurer willing to provide the fracture cover they wanted required more careful consideration.
Our customer had already found fracture cover difficult to obtain, so it was important that we looked beyond simply finding an income protection policy and considered whether all of their requirements could be met together.
Finding an insurer that could provide £1,200 per month of income protection would not have fully addressed their priorities if the fracture cover they wanted could not also be included.
What We Did
We first looked at our customer’s overall protection requirements and why income protection was important to them.
The main objective was clear: if they became unable to work, they wanted a monthly benefit that could help them continue paying their bills. Alongside this, their experience of seeing a friend unable to work following an injury meant fracture cover was an important part of the protection they wanted to put in place.
We therefore needed to consider the whole situation rather than looking at the monthly income protection benefit in isolation.
Our research focused on identifying an insurer whose approach could work with:
- Our customer’s self-employed status
- Their occupation as a football youth coach
- Their previous broken bones
- The required £1,200 monthly benefit
- Their requirement for fracture cover
After reviewing the available options, we identified Aviva as an insurer able to provide the protection required.
This meant we could arrange an income protection policy that addressed the main concern our customer had raised rather than recommending cover that only met part of their needs.
The Solution
We arranged income protection with Aviva for our customer.
The policy was structured as follows:
- Monthly income protection benefit: £1,200
- Policy term: 30 years
- Employment status: Self-employed
- Insurer: Aviva
- Additional cover required: Fracture cover
The £1,200 monthly benefit was selected to help our customer cover their bills if they were unable to work.
Importantly, we were also able to arrange the fracture cover they had been looking for despite the additional considerations created by their occupation and previous broken bones.
Why the Solution Worked
The solution worked because it addressed the different parts of our customer’s requirements together.
In particular:
- It provided the £1,200 per month of income protection our customer wanted to help cover their bills.
- Aviva could consider our customer’s occupation as a football youth coach.
- The policy could provide the fracture cover that was particularly important to our customer.
- Our customer’s previous broken bones did not prevent us from arranging the required cover.
- The policy was arranged over the requested 30-year term.
Rather than treating income protection and fracture cover as separate considerations, we looked for an option that could meet the customer’s overall protection needs.
The Result
We successfully arranged the required income protection policy with Aviva, providing our customer with £1,200 per month of cover over a 30-year term.
Most importantly for our customer, the policy included the fracture cover they had been struggling to obtain.
This was particularly relevant because of their work as a football youth coach and their concern about the financial impact of being unable to work following an injury.
Our customer was happy that we had been able to secure the fracture cover they wanted after previously finding this difficult.
What This Case Shows
This case shows why the details of an income protection policy can be just as important as the headline level of monthly cover.
Our customer did not simply want £1,200 per month of income protection. Fracture cover was an important requirement because of their occupation, their previous broken bones and their experience of seeing somebody else unable to work after an injury.
Different insurers can approach occupations and previous medical or injury history differently. If you are self-employed and have particular requirements for your income protection, it can therefore be useful to consider which insurer can accommodate your circumstances as a whole.
Looking for Self-Employed Income Protection?
If you are self-employed and are considering income protection, we can review your circumstances and discuss the level and type of cover you would like to put in place.
Whether you are concerned about protecting your income if you cannot work or have specific requirements such as fracture cover, Kerr & Watson can look at suitable protection options based on your individual circumstances.
Contact Kerr & Watson to discuss your income protection requirements and the options that may be available to you.
