“People spend a lifetime accruing and building assets. The secret is to make sure that when something goes wrong, it doesn’t derail all the hard work you have done.”

Personal insurance programs should form a basis for anyone looking to get ahead financially. At certain times in your life, you will have risks that need protecting so you don’t lose everything if the wheels fall off.

But the field can be confusing, particularly around what is important. Here is some quick information on covers that may be considered.

Life Cover – pays in the event of death, vital if you have family dependent on you, used to clear debts and look after dependents left behind.

Income Cover – pays if you cannot work due to sickness or injury, important if there is a main bread winner or a loss of income would financially derail your household. A medium- or long-term loss of income can devastate any financial goals you may have.

Private Health Cover – access to faster treatment. Importantly a good Private Health cover should get access to drugs not funded by Pharmac, particularly in the cancer treatment space where next generation medicines can be extraordinarily expensive and not available in the public system.

Trauma Cover – used as a lump sum payment in the event of a serious medical event or injury to allow time to recover, seek treatment or reduce financial burdens. (cancer, Heart attack and stroke make up 85% of claims in this space)

Self-employed and business owners have a whole layer of complexity over the top of this with shareholder protection, debt and personal guarantee cover and Key Person covers. In this situation, good advice is vital.

I expect you have seen and heard this before, but like most people, you probably imagine it wouldn’t happen to you. However, I have helped a number of families make claims over the years, whether due to illness or death. 

The peace of mind that brings a family in sickness and health is worth it’s weight in gold.

As Benjamin Franklin said; 

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. 

The last thing you want to worry about if you were hurt or injured, is what would happen to your family.

Planning these things in advance means you won’t have to worry about the health and wellbeing of your family whether or not anything befalls you.