Other Income Protection Plan - opinions?

B

Boyd

Registered User
Messages
1,611
Hi,
I am considering getting income protection insurance (note: not critical illness cover), to kick in once the 13 week sick pay has expired from my work. I have been reading online about this and every thread seems to have at least one "its a scam, they never pay out" post.
Can anyone give experience of having and/or claiming for income protection? Obviously every insurance is not needed until you need it, but I'm unsure if income protection falls on the nice to have/must have category.

I'm 35, jointly own a house, with no dependents, and no debts other than the mortgage, which would be cover-able by my partner's salary. I don't smoke but have had the occasional cigar so I answered "Yes" to the smoking question. My initial quotes are in the region of E120 per month, before tax rebate.

Thanks
 
Last edited:
I'm a broker so just to note that before I respond. In my experience it is probably the best type of protection on the market. Don't confuse it with mortgage protection (decreasing life), payment protection or personal accident cover which are all different. We have sold Income protection for many years and I have dealt with a number of claims. I've never had a problem processing a claim for a client. We have one lady that was self employed before her accident. She is receiving circa €30k a year and probably will receive that until she is 65. If she didn't have that policy she would have really struggled. The company will probably end up paying out over €2 million in that case. As with all insurance policies, make sure you take advice if you do decide to go with it. Be aware of the terms and conditions and the limitations of cover and disclose all medical information at the outset and you won't have anything to worry about. I would recommend it (but I would say that wouldn't I!).
 
Hi,
Thanks @Jimbobp for the reply. Yep, I have mortgage protection in place, as required by the bank. I do not have payment protection in place, as it is (AFAIK) short term, and I have sick pay for 13 weeks from work. Hence, this is purely for maintaining a percentage of my income to allow me to pay mortgage long term, and to retain my lifestyle.

Does E120 sound expensive? What would be a ballpark monthly premium for this (I know that varies by salary, age etc) but E120 per month sounds rather expensive, when compared with house, car, life insurance etc. I know it pays out up to 65 or so, but still.....

Who would be the main players here? Aviva, Irish Life etc. I guess....
 
To be honest, if you've no dependents I don't know that I'd worry so much.

Some companies include income protection as part of their benefits package - it's worth asking.

If you are a member of a Trades Union you might be able to get a deal through them, again worth asking about.
 
username123 said:
Hi,
Thanks @Jimbobp for the reply. Yep, I have mortgage protection in place, as required by the bank. I do not have payment protection in place, as it is (AFAIK) short term, and I have sick pay for 13 weeks from work. Hence, this is purely for maintaining a percentage of my income to allow me to pay mortgage long term, and to retain my lifestyle.

Does E120 sound expensive? What would be a ballpark monthly premium for this (I know that varies by salary, age etc) but E120 per month sounds rather expensive, when compared with house, car, life insurance etc. I know it pays out up to 65 or so, but still.....

Who would be the main players here? Aviva, Irish Life etc. I guess....
Click to expand...

Obviously hard to know if you are getting a competitive premium as there is a number of quoting factors (occupation, smoker etc.). €100ish pm is probably the average (remember to take tax relief off that which is significant, especially if you are on the higher rate of tax). The main players are Friends First, New Ireland, Irish Life, Aviva & recently Royal London. You can reduce down the premium by looking at things like finishing age (60 instead of 65), also make sure to deduct your social welfare benefits from your wage as the companies pay net of social welfare. Happy to put it through our system for you if you want to PM me your details.
 
Sorry Sean, I thought I responded via PM not on the public forum with that last info, will PM those details to you.
 
Last edited:
@Jimbobp, thanks for that, I will have a think.

@Thirsty, we have sick pay from company for 13 weeks. We do not have access to an income protection plan, nor do we have a union.
 
Hi - I too am in the process of looking at Income Protection with a deferral period of 13 weeks up to aged 60. I have reviewed the literature of IL, FF, Aviva and R.L. I was wondering, (a) Cost aside, is there anything in particular I should be looking out for when making a final decision on provider (b) Is there any opinion among those with appropriate knowledge/experience as to who might be a preferred provider between IL & FF should it come to making a claim on the policy? Thanks.
 
daithicuc said:
Hi - I too am in the process of looking at Income Protection with a deferral period of 13 weeks up to aged 60. I have reviewed the literature of IL, FF, Aviva and R.L. I was wondering, (a) Cost aside, is there anything in particular I should be looking out for when making a final decision on provider (b) Is there any opinion among those with appropriate knowledge/experience as to who might be a preferred provider between IL & FF should it come to making a claim on the policy? Thanks.
Click to expand...

Worked as a broker for the past 22 years and worked for what is now FF for seven years before that. In that time, I've handled Income Protection claims for clients covered by both Irish Life and Friends First. I found that Irish Life made it more difficult to get a claim out of while Friends First were a lot more accommodating. My own Income Protection is with Friends First. I am aware that this is a very unscientific analysis and is entirely based on my own anecdotal experience. Perhaps by pure luck Irish Life got the difficult claims and Friends First got the easier ones. But if there isn't a huge difference in premium, I'd be inclined to go with Friends First on claims-paying experience.

Regards,

Liam
www.ferga.com
 
Thanks a lot Liam, I appreciate that.

My preference at the moment would also be FF. However, I am slightly hesitant, as I am wondering if Aviva's recent take over of FF will have any negative consequences on future claim payouts etc. Anyone have any thoughts on this?
 
Most life insurers pass on most of the income protection (90pc ish) to reinsurers. These are large companies who are not household names (eg Swiss Re or Munich Re tend to do the most business in Ireland). This means that the reinsurers call the shots. They provide the underwriting standards and claims manuals to the life cos and they have to follow these. Therefore if two companies are using the same reinsurer (which often happens) the standards are likely to be the same. So if Aviva/FF happen to use the same reinsurers the experience re claims may be the same.
 
LDFerguson said:
Worked as a broker for the past 22 years and worked for what is now FF for seven years before that. In that time, I've handled Income Protection claims for clients covered by both Irish Life and Friends First. I found that Irish Life made it more difficult to get a claim out of while Friends First were a lot more accommodating. My own Income Protection is with Friends First. I am aware that this is a very unscientific analysis and is entirely based on my own anecdotal experience. Perhaps by pure luck Irish Life got the difficult claims and Friends First got the easier ones. But if there isn't a huge difference in premium, I'd be inclined to go with Friends First on claims-paying experience.

Regards,

Liam
www.ferga.com
Click to expand...

Agree Liam. Irish Life's contract is full of hidden terms and conditions. I don't use their income protection contracts at all. The last thing someone wants if they are face with long term off work (in most cases you have to be out for 3 months, so you are seriously ill) is the stress of an insurance company not wanting to pay out on your cover.


Steven
www.bluewaterfp.ie
 
This thread has got me a bit nervous now. We recently signed up for mortgage protection and income protection with Irish Life. We have a separate life policy with New Ireland but went with our mortgage provider's insurer. I did think it was a tad pricey but we didn't have time to shop around. So can we cancel and get a new quote? Currently paying separate life policy of approx €30pm and mortgage protection and illness protection of €85pm so total of €115. Both early thirties non smokers.
 
You are fully entitled to stop and put a new policy in place (better get the new plan first before stopping). Is it income protection or critical illness you have? Better income protection may not necessarily be cheaper than what you have. But then, if you go out on a claim, you don't want to have to fight for your benefits.

Impossible to quote without knowing age, level of cover, deferred period, retirement age and whether there's indexation.


Steven
www.bluewaterfp.ie
 
Steven thanks for your reply. I'll have a look at it again.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top