Protection is often arranged at a significant point in life: buying a property, taking out a mortgage, starting a family or changing career.
Your circumstances, however, rarely remain static.
Your mortgage may increase or reduce. Your earnings may change. You might become self-employed, move employer, have children, relocate overseas or accumulate greater savings and assets.
Meanwhile, life insurance, critical illness cover or income protection arranged several years ago may still reflect the circumstances you had at the time.
A protection insurance review is an opportunity to establish whether that existing cover still serves its intended purpose.
At Henry Dannell, a review does not begin with replacing policies.
It begins with understanding what is already in place, what each arrangement was designed to protect and whether it still reflects your current financial position.
Arrange a Protection Insurance Review
What Is A Protection Insurance Review?
A protection insurance review assesses the cover you already hold against your current circumstances.
Depending on your arrangements, this could include:
- life insurance;
- critical illness cover;
- income protection; and
- wider mortgage protection.
The purpose is not simply to compare an existing premium with the cost of a new policy.
A meaningful review should establish:
- What protection is currently in place?
- What was each policy intended to achieve?
- Has the financial risk changed?
- Does the amount and duration of cover remain appropriate?
- Have workplace benefits or other financial resources changed?
- Are there genuine gaps or unnecessary overlaps?
- Would valuable terms or benefits be lost if existing cover were replaced?
The outcome does not have to be a new policy.
Existing protection may remain entirely appropriate. It may continue to play an important role but need supplementing, or circumstances may have changed enough for an alternative arrangement to warrant consideration.
The value of the review lies in establishing which of those outcomes applies.
When Should You Review Your Protection Insurance?
A review can be particularly useful after a material change in your personal or financial circumstances.
Examples include:
- buying or moving home;
- taking out or increasing a mortgage;
- remortgaging;
- changing employment;
- experiencing a significant change in income;
- becoming self-employed;
- getting married or entering a long-term partnership;
- having children;
- separating or divorcing;
- moving overseas;
- gaining or losing employer benefits; or
- taking on additional financial commitments.
A review can also be useful where several older policies have accumulated over time and it is no longer clear how they work together.
The relevant question is not simply how old the policy is.
It is whether the financial circumstances it was designed around have changed.
What Should Be Checked During A Protection Review?
A useful review should look well beyond the monthly premium.
The detail will depend on the type of protection held, but several areas are particularly important.
Type Of Protection
Start by establishing exactly what each policy provides.
Is it life insurance, critical illness cover, income protection or a combination of benefits?
Understanding the purpose of each arrangement makes it easier to see whether different policies complement one another, overlap unnecessarily or leave a meaningful gap.
Amount Of Cover
Consider whether the benefit still reflects the financial requirement it was originally intended to address.
Your mortgage balance, household income, regular expenditure and family commitments may all have changed since the policy was arranged.
A level of cover that was appropriate several years ago may therefore now be too high, too low or still entirely suitable.
Policy Term
Check when each policy ends.
Does the term still align with your mortgage, expected working life or the period during which other people are likely to depend financially on you?
A policy can provide an appropriate amount of cover but still end earlier than the financial requirement it was intended to protect.
Policy Definitions
Definitions can be particularly important for critical illness cover and income protection.
They determine the circumstances in which a benefit may become payable and should be understood before existing cover is compared with a newer alternative.
A newer policy is not automatically better simply because it is newer.
Deferred and Benefit Periods
For income protection, establish how long you need to be unable to work before benefits can begin and, where relevant, how long a qualifying claim could continue.
These periods should be considered alongside:
- employer sick pay;
- accessible savings;
- another household income; and
- other financial resources.
If those circumstances have changed, the structure of the existing income protection may warrant review.
Exclusions and Limitations
Understand any exclusions, restrictions or limitations applying to the cover.
These can materially affect the value of a policy and should be considered alongside the headline insured amount.
Premium Structure
Check the current premium and whether it can change under the policy terms.
Cost matters, but a lower premium elsewhere is only meaningful if the quality and suitability of the alternative protection are also understood.
Beneficiaries and Policy Ownership
Where relevant, consider whether existing ownership or beneficiary arrangements continue to reflect your intentions and family circumstances.
Changes such as marriage, divorce or international relocation may make this particularly important.
Where trusts, estates or other legal arrangements are involved, appropriately qualified legal advice may be required.
Additional Policy Benefits
Existing policies may contain definitions, features or benefits that would be lost if the cover were cancelled.
These should be understood before replacement is considered.
Should You Review Protection When Moving Home Or Remortgaging?
Yes.
A change in borrowing is a natural point to reconsider the financial risks surrounding it.
You may have:
- increased or reduced your mortgage;
- changed the mortgage term;
- moved to a more expensive property;
- changed the way household income supports the borrowing; or
- altered your regular expenditure.
Existing life insurance or critical illness cover may have been arranged around a previous mortgage balance and term.
Income protection may also need to be reconsidered if the amount of income required to support your household has changed.
However, a new mortgage does not automatically mean new protection is required.
The first step is to establish what cover already exists, how long it remains in force and what financial requirement it was designed to meet.
Only then can you determine whether the existing arrangements remain appropriate or whether a genuine gap has emerged.
Should You Review Protection After Changing Jobs?
A change in employment can affect both the income you want to protect and the support already available to you.
A new employer may provide different:
- contractual sick pay;
- death-in-service benefits;
- group income protection; or
- other workplace protection.
A change in salary or remuneration structure can also alter how dependent the household is on your earnings.
For professionals moving between employed, partnership and self-employed structures, the change can be particularly significant.
Employer and personal protection should therefore be reviewed together.
Workplace benefits are generally linked to the employment arrangement and may reduce or disappear when a role ends. Personal protection can provide different continuity, subject to the terms of the individual policy.
Understanding both is important before any additional protection is considered.
What Changes When You Become Self-Employed?
Moving from employment into self-employment can materially change the financial risks you carry personally.
An employed individual may previously have benefited from contractual sick pay, death-in-service cover or employer-funded protection.
Those safeguards may no longer exist once you become self-employed.
If illness or injury prevents you from working, the impact on earnings can therefore become much more immediate.
A review following a move into self-employment can consider:
- how your income is now generated;
- the consistency and structure of those earnings;
- which workplace benefits have been lost;
- how long accessible savings could support expenditure;
- whether existing income protection still fits;
- mortgage and household commitments; and
- what other personal protection is already in place.
For business owners, partners and professionals, it can also be important to consider how an absence from work would affect the business or practice from which income is generated.
The objective is to understand how the move into self-employment has changed the overall financial exposure.
Should You Review Cover After Marriage, Children Or Divorce?
Changes in family circumstances can materially alter who depends financially on you and what support may be required following death, serious illness or an inability to work.
Marriage or a long-term partnership may create shared financial commitments.
Having children can increase both current expenditure and the longer-term financial consequences of losing an income.
Separation or divorce may change mortgage responsibilities, property ownership, beneficiaries and the purpose of existing protection.
A review can consider whether:
- existing life insurance remains appropriate;
- beneficiary arrangements still reflect your intentions;
- critical illness cover continues to meet its intended purpose;
- income protection reflects current earnings;
- mortgage responsibilities have changed; and
- existing policies continue to support the right people and liabilities.
Where trusts, ownership, divorce, inheritance or estate matters arise, appropriately qualified legal advice should be obtained.
What If Your Health Has Changed Since Taking Out Cover?
A change in health is one of the strongest reasons to be cautious before replacing existing protection.
Your current policy may have been arranged when you were younger or when your medical circumstances were different.
Replacement cover would usually be assessed on your circumstances today.
That could affect:
- the premium;
- exclusions;
- policy terms; or
- whether equivalent replacement cover is available at all.
An existing policy should therefore not be cancelled simply because another arrangement appears cheaper or newer.
The first step is to understand the value of the cover already in force.
Where replacement is being considered, suitable new protection should normally be confirmed and in force before existing cover is cancelled.
Should You Review Protection When Moving Abroad?
Yes.
International relocation can affect both existing protection and the wider financial circumstances surrounding it.
Relevant considerations may include:
- the new country of residence;
- whether the insurer needs to be notified;
- geographical or residence-related conditions;
- how the policy operates overseas;
- changes to employer benefits;
- where beneficiaries are based;
- the currencies of major liabilities; and
- whether further international moves are likely.
Existing protection should not automatically be replaced simply because you relocate.
The first step is to understand whether the policy can continue and whether it remains appropriate for the new circumstances.
Where international arrangements interact with taxation, trusts, inheritance or succession, legal and tax advice from appropriately qualified advisers may also be required.
How Do Employer Benefits Affect Existing Protection?
Workplace benefits can form a significant part of your overall financial protection.
Depending on the role, these may include:
- death-in-service cover;
- contractual sick pay;
- group income protection;
- private medical insurance; or
- other benefits.
These resources should be taken into account before additional personal insurance is considered.
Changing employer can materially alter the position.
You may move from comprehensive benefits to considerably less protection, or the reverse.
A review can establish how personal and workplace arrangements interact, helping identify genuine gaps without duplicating cover unnecessarily.
Should You Replace An Existing Life Insurance or Protection Policy?
Not simply because another policy is available.
A protection review and a policy replacement are two different decisions.
Following a review, the appropriate outcome could be to:
- retain the existing policy unchanged;
- retain it and consider additional cover;
- reduce protection where the financial requirement has fallen;
- address a specific gap; or
- consider replacement where there is a clear and supportable reason to do so.
Existing policies may have advantages that should not be given up without careful consideration.
You are older than when the original cover was arranged. Your health or circumstances may also have changed.
Replacement protection could therefore be more expensive, contain different exclusions or not be available on equivalent terms.
Existing policies may also include valuable definitions or benefits.
A lower premium alone does not establish that replacement represents a better outcome.
The existing and proposed arrangements should be compared across cost, cover, definitions, exclusions, benefits and suitability.
Do You Need An Adviser To Review Your Insurance?
You do not necessarily need an adviser simply to read your policy documentation.
Advice becomes more valuable when the question is how several policies fit together or whether the protection still reflects your wider financial position.
A protection adviser can consider existing policies alongside:
- mortgage borrowing;
- household income and expenditure;
- employment or self-employment;
- workplace benefits;
- savings and investments;
- family circumstances; and
- other existing insurance.
This can be particularly useful where you hold several policies, have complex income, significant borrowing or international circumstances.
The role of the review is to bring those separate elements together rather than assess each policy in isolation.
What Can Happen After A Protection Insurance Review?
A review does not have a predetermined outcome.
It may establish that:
Your existing cover remains appropriate
No material change may be required.
Your existing cover remains valuable, but a gap exists
It may be appropriate to retain the existing policy while considering additional protection for a specific requirement.
Your protection requirement has reduced
A smaller mortgage, increased savings or changes in financial dependants may mean the original requirement is no longer the same.
Your circumstances have created a new risk
For example, becoming self-employed could increase your exposure to a prolonged interruption in earnings.
Replacement deserves consideration
In some circumstances an alternative arrangement may be appropriate, but the existing and proposed protection should be assessed carefully before anything is cancelled.
The purpose of the review is to arrive at the appropriate outcome for your current circumstances, not to create a reason to arrange new insurance.
Arrange a Protection Insurance Review
If you already hold life insurance, critical illness cover, income protection or mortgage protection, the first question is not necessarily whether you need another policy.
It is whether the protection you already have still does the job it was intended to do.
At Henry Dannell, we can consider your existing arrangements alongside your current mortgage, income, employment benefits, family circumstances and wider financial commitments.
Where existing protection remains appropriate, there may be good reasons to retain it.
Where circumstances have changed, the review can identify meaningful gaps and consider whether additional or alternative cover may be appropriate.
And where replacement is being considered, the existing and proposed arrangements should be compared carefully before any cover is cancelled.
The objective is not more insurance.
It is protection that continues to reflect the financial risks you face today.
Arrange a Protection Insurance Review
A mortgage is secured against your property. Your property may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage or any other debt secured against it.
Insurance policies are subject to eligibility, underwriting, exclusions, limitations and policy terms. Critical illness and income protection definitions, and the circumstances in which benefits are payable, vary between policies and insurers.
This information is for general guidance and should not be treated as personalised financial advice. Final website wording and regulatory disclosures should be reviewed against Henry Dannell’s current compliance-approved protection wording before publication.
