Income Protection For Doctors

As a doctor it is sensible to consider taking out Income Protection from day one of your career, but as it progresses and your responsibilities and liabilities grow making cover even more important.

Why should you consider Income Protection?

Income Protection Insurance will provide you with an income if you are unable to work due to long term illness or injury.

Unlike other protection policies Income Protection insurance is desired to provide you with a regular monthly income which will continue until:

• You recover and can return to work.
• You are no longer suffering loss of earnings.
• The policy ends.
• You reach the maximum age you have chosen when you took out the policy.

The options are usually age 55, 60, or 65 the lower the maximum age the lower the premiums.

Income Protection Insurance is heavily based on occupation. It is very important for doctors to choose an income protection policy that will cover them on the basis of their occupation.

Agreed Value or Indemnity Insurance?

It is important to decide when taking out income protection whether you require Agreed Value or Indemnity Insurance.

Agreed Value is where you prove your income at the application stage, and the insurance company agreed to the monthly benefit. This means that in the future, regardless of your income reducing you will still be paid the agreed monthly benefit. This also means that in the event of a claim financial evidence will not need to be produced.

Indemnity Policies is where financial evidence is not required at the application stage, but will be needed in the event of a claim. However if your income reduces in the future the policy will only pay 75% of your lower income level. Indemnity cover does have lower premiums than agreed value. For salary based wage earners indemnity cover is attractive lower cost form of cover.

Stepped premiums or Level premiums?

Income protection policies can be tailored to suit your needs, with flexible benefit and waiting periods.

When considering taking out income protection you have the choice of how you would like to structure your insurance premiums either through Stepped or Level premiums.

• Stepped Premiums - Insurance Premium is calculated on our age, meaning the younger we are the cheaper the cost.
• Level Premiums - Insurance Premium is calculated on an average premium, meaning you might pay more younger but you pay a lot less when you get older.

Initially when we see insurance premiums we can be miss-lead in thinking the cheaper Stepped premium option is the better. But when looking deeper Level premium cover provides a greater long term saving and in many cases can save you up to 50% of the total amount of insurance cover paid over your life time.

History has proven to us that when we most need insurance (ages 40 to 55) the cost of insurance can sometimes be too expensive to keep. By taking Level Cover your insurance premium will stay the same, so in our later years when we need the cover the most, we will still be able to afford it.

If you are doctor and after income protection insurance - please fill out the enquiry form on this page or give us a call so that one of our experienced advisers can help you to find the policy that is most appropriate for you.