Moneysworth wins Best Small Protection Advice Firm 2023!
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We’ll be heading to London this week for the prestigious Health Insurance Intermediary Awards where we’re finalists in two categories.
We’ve made the shortlist in the following categories:
As an intermediary specialising in helping those who may be considered high risk for insurance, we’re delighted to feature in these shortlists against some great competition.
The awards will be taking place at London’s Grosvenor House on Thursday 15th October 2015 with over 900 industry professionals and experts expected to be there.
Wish us luck!
Obtaining Critical Illness cover for anyone with Type 2 Diabetes can be very difficult, but it is possible in some circumstances, as one of our recent cases demonstrates.
The first problem is that most insurance companies will automatically decline any application for Critical Illness cover from a person with Type 2 diabetes, irrespective of positive factors, such as good control and lack of complications. So it’s difficult for consumers to know where to go.
Normally buying life insurance and critical illness cover can be done in many places like the bank, large comparison websites and financial advisers, however if your personal circumstances mean that you do not fit the standard mould, you would be well advised to use the services of a life insurance broker who has particular specialisation in dealing with people who have health conditions.
Moneysworth has been successful in arranging Life and Critical Illness cover on a number of occasions for people with Type 2 Diabetes, as a recent case demonstrates.
A gentleman in his early 40’s made an enquiry on our website: www.moneysworth.co.uk. Type 2 Diabetes had relatively recently been diagnosed, his control was good and he didn’t have any diabetic complications, but he was overweight. With a raised BMI (Body Mass Index) of 31, this made finding cover even more difficult. He wanted Life and Critical Illness cover and had a specific budget in mind for his premiums of £75 per month.
As we do in all cases, we researched the whole market for the client to see if life and critical illness cover would be available. Our research indicated that only one insurance company would offer him cover, so we applied to them. The insurer wrote to his GP surgery for further medical information and on receipt of that offered a guaranteed premium policy for £75 per month, covering the client for Level Life or Critical Illness cover (without exclusions) of £75,350 over 23 years.
People with an existing health condition who have been declined elsewhere should not give up hope of getting the cover they want until they have used the services of a specialist life insurance broker. If a client wants to find out what might be available and apply, Moneysworth do not charge a fee. This means Moneysworth is only paid a commission by an insurer if we are successful. Remember if you’re unsure if a broker is a specialist, you could ask the question: ‘What percentage of your clients have pre-existing health conditions?’. At Moneysworth that figure is over 75%!
Yes, you do have choices about how you apply for life insurance and if you have diabetes making the wrong ones could cost you.
So here are the tips
1) Fully Disclose All Medical Information – cutting corners or forgetting to mention medical information risks making your cover invalid, but if you fully disclose all information you will have peace of mind knowing that the cover is valid.
2) Applying Direct To A Life Insurance Company Has Downsides – There is nothing wrong in applying direct its just that in doing so there’s a very good chance that you will end up paying more than you need to because there’s will be a good chance that another life insurance company would have charged a cheaper premium. In fact if you already applied direct to a life company and have an existing policy you should still read the tips below and consider getting a second opinion. It wont cost you anything but could save you lots.
3) Research Is Important – Good research will pay dividends and can save you a small fortune. Unfortunately its not easy to do this yourself.
4) Use An Expert – Some companies specialise in offering a service for people with pre existing health conditions such as diabetes, providing a more expert service to help find you best deal www.moneysworth.co.uk are one such company who individually research every single case and provide this service on a non fee basis so they are able to provide you with an indication of likely premium before you apply. An expert will also be able to provide you with information about what other associated types of insurance cover might be available, such as critical illness or income protection.
5) Most Advisers Do Not Specialise In Diabetes – If they dont really specialise its unlikely that they will be able to perform the research to the same standard as a real specialist.
6) How to Spot A Non Specialist – There are a number of ways. 1) Check the website -if the company is genuinely offering a specialist service this should be clear visible on the webite. 2) When speaking on the phone are they asking you the right kinds of questions about your diabetes, do they sound like they are dealing in this day in day out? 3) Sometimes companies pretend to be expert, they tend to rush to the application stage before doing any research – If they quote a preium straight away its probably not a good sign. If in doubt a good questions to ask is what percentage of their clients have diabetes.
7) Think About The Future As Well As The Present – If you develop further complications or additional health conditions in the future you may find it more difficult to obtain cover in the future. As a diabetic if you develop cardio vascular disease in the future, as things currently stand in the market, you will not be able to obtain new life insurance from any mainstream insurer.
8) Guaranteed Premium Rates Are Best – This means that the premiums cannot be increased in the future so you know where you stand so make sure that your premiums are not reviewable.
9) Remember That Once Your Policy Starts Your Insurance Is Guaranteed – Once your policy begins future health changes will not effect your cover or your premiums, which means you no longer have to worry about what the future may bring.
10) Prices for New Policies Will Go Up At The End Of The Year – This is true, especially so for females. If you have diabetes the process time from start to finish for life insurnace normally takes weeks rather than days. You can avoid the price hike by getting your cover in place before the changes take place – that probably means getting on with things now
If you would like a quote or would like to speak to an expert visit www.moneysworth.co.uk or call us on 0845 430 5200
I have just read an article in todays Cover Magazine here http://tinyurl.com/7dlbkwe in which Zurich’s head of underwriting is quoted as stating that huge numbers of applications received contain ’embellishments’ of the truth about applicants’ health details.
Why would anyone wish to take out life insurance using information which if succesfully contended at claim stage by the life company might lead to the claim being disallowed? How pointless is that? In stead of (presumably) saving a bit on the premiums, non disclosure risks wasting every penny of the premiums.
Of course in such cases it won’t be the person who is insured who will ever know. It will just come as an extra horrible shock to those who are left. Messy!
As so many of our clients at Moneysworth have pre existing health conditions (including diabetes, heart conditions and other health conditions), it is common for life insurance companies to write to our client’s doctors for medical information before making a final decision. Though on the face of things this might be seen to cause a degree of anxiety during the waiting period, the reality is that at the end of the process clients can feel extra peace of mind, knowing that the insurance company holds a report from their doctor.
In fact in many cases clients say to us that they would prefer the life company to write to their GP so that they can feel safe knowing that medical information HAS been disclosed!
And of course by using Moneysworth our clients know that we have properly researched the market to find the best solution for them individually. Which is important when you consider that different insurance companies charge widely different prices for people with the same health conditions.
So if you have a health condition and want to apply for life insurance make sure that you fully disclose your health information and if possible use the services of a life assurance broker who really does specialise in helping people with pre existing health conditions. That way you will know that you are fully covered and at a good price.
I have been trying to get my ahead around some statistics that I came across yesterday.
Sainsbury’s commissioned the research looking at how many people in the UK had mortgages with no life cover in place to repay the outstanding balance. The results show some surprisingly big numbers, much bigger than most would perhaps guess.
Firstly the total figure of mortgages without life cover is given at £245,000,000,000 – thats a quarter of a trillion. But ‘billions’ and ‘trillions’ are everyday newspeak terms now, over used by both politicians and news reporters these words have become a sort of TV litter which we therefore tend to ignore as part of the familiar landscape.
Dig a bit deeper into the Sainsbury report figures though and we start to find more meaningful statistics.
The number of people with no life insurance to cover their mortgages? Just under 7 Million, or to put in a more meaningful way that equals just over 4 in every 10 mortgages. The report goes on to break down this figure between different age bands, as follows
Age Percentage of mortgage holders unprotected
18-24 62%
25-34 38%
35-44 33%
45-54 30%
55-64 55%
65+ 58%
Of course within these figures there will be mortgage holders who have valid reasons for not having life cover. The biggest such group will be single people with no dependants – fair enough. Another group might those with significant personal wealth.
But what about all the others? What about the significant majority who are not particularly wealthy but who do have dependent partners and/or families? What about the growing number of older people who find themselves with mortgages much later in life than they had originally anticipated? What are the reasons why these mortgage holders choose to have no life cover?
Here are some of the common reasons people give when asked.
”I’ve never really thought about it.” –
”Its a waste of money – its (my death) will probably never happen ”
”Its too expensive – I can’t afford it”
”No one will insure me with my health conditions”
But for the moment I should mention one other factor which I suspect lurks in the background for many and that is fear. Fear is a great inhibitor in all aspects of life. Fear changes our behaviour, it makes us more cautious, it makes us avoid action, fear makes us hide.
Generally people tend to fear the unknown. I am not a professional psychologist but based on my own observations fear is especially to do with a future outcome that is not known. Often the reason why people don’t face up to their fears is because they are scared as to what the outcome might be if they do. By avoiding action we feel like we are keeping the possible undesired future outcome at bay. Mostly its a subconcious kind of response.
So how does ‘fear’ apply to this issue of life cover for mortgages?
Perhaps underneath these figures many people are frightened about the questions they may be asked if they do apply for life cover. Perhaps they are frightened of having to reveal ’embarassing’ personal medical information about themselves.
Or perhaps they fear the final outcome – the fear that if they apply they they might get turned down and all that that might mean. For example it could confirm their own worst fears that they are going to die sooner rather than later, or in some way mark their financial credit record making it more difficult for them to borrow money in the future if they applied for a loan or mortgage. So some people might choose to avoid applying for life cover in order to avoid some sort of final judgement which they fear might finally mark their cards for good.
But of course fearing something does not mean that it is going to happen.
The problem is that many people are needlessly putting their families at risk by continuing to take no action. Put bluntly if you have no life cover for your mortgage on your family home then your home is at risk. If you have a family you owe it to your family to seek the appropriate life insurance in order to protect the family home for them.
Of course this for many will involve confronting a fear of the unknown.
But if only people with such fears knew where to look they might be quite surprised at the outcome. Here at www.moneysworth.co.uk we offer a specialist service for people with pre existing health conditions who are seeking life cover, for mortgages or for family protection (for other reasons too). Our service is confidential and non judgemental. We have over a number of years developed and refined a process which is designed to help customers find best outcomes. Each case is indivually researched. Further more our service is fee free to our customers and is with no obligation. Therefore it costs nothing to try.
The results are very encouraging. It should be said that we are not able to offer all customers a 100% guarantee that we will be able to find the life cover that they seek but we are able to help the majority, many of whom have been turned down elsewhere before coming to us. Very often the premiums acheived are considerably less than the customer originally feared.
Customers frequently express a high level of satisfaction with our service and often say that a great weight has been lifted for them. With the peace of mind knowing that their dependants are now protected they no longer need to live in fear.
