Click for MMM Home Page

Income Protection

As independent advisers, we specialise in identifying the most competitive and comprehensive Income Protection for your needs, taking account of your professional specialisations.

What is an Income Protection Plan?

An income protection plan is designed to pay you an income in the event of you suffering from an illness or injury, whether permanently or not, that results in a reduction or loss of earnings.

  • It pays you a tax free income in the even of you being totally unable to work in your chosen profession, directly as a result of illness or injury.
  • It should commence payment when your salary or practice drawings reduce or cease.
  • It can supplement any ill health benefits provided by your occupational pension scheme.
  • Ideally, it should pay an ongoing income, to your chosen retirement age which is selected at the outset, or until you can resume your own occupation.

Why is Income Protection so important?

It is a fact that workers in the UK are significantly more likely to suffer from a long term disability than they are to die before the age of 65. There are currently 2.4 million people claiming incapacity benefit in the UK, and of those 73% have been claiming for 24 months or more, and 48% for over four years.

The most common types of long term illness are mental/stress related, affecting 40% of claimants, with 20% being affected by musculo skeletal disorders (source: Moneyfacts Investment, Life and Pensions Magazine, february 2007).

Wherever possible, it is essential to have cover in the event of you not being able to carry out your own specific occupation and this aspect cannot be underestimated in identifying cover that fits your exact needs, rather than something that just loosely fits.

We always source income protection plans from across the whole market, where in addition to meeting the 'own occupation' definitions that we require, the insurer also has a fair and speedy claims process which is very important in trying to claim for long term sickness or disability.

Finally, we can also help to control the costs of this cover by dovetailing it with our MMM Locum/Business expenses cover as the latter would cover you for the first year of incapacity, with income protection insurance applying after the first year of incapacity.