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Mortgage Protection Insurance is a term used to encompass various types of cover designed to protect borrowers if they become unwell, lose their job or from other events that could severely impact their ability to maintain their mortgage payments.
Generally speaking, there are three main types of mortgage payment protection insurance: unemployment only, accident and sickness only, and accident, illness and unemployment.
Each insurance is to provide peace of mind, and here we will discuss the following types of cover:
What tends to happen is customers when they buy a house but don’t always review their policy when they have changes in their life circumstances.
The chances are that the cover you took when you bought your first property might not be suitable for your needs now.
Here at Leedsmoneyman, we review the cover you’ve got, recommend any changes, or tell you that you’ve got the right cover in place.
Next, we find a provider for you and shop online for the lowest cover price we recommend.
Life cover generally falls into two types – ‘Whole of Life’ or ‘Term Assurance’. The whole of Life cover is guaranteed to pay out a lump sum on death whenever it occurs.
Term Assurance pays out if you die within a specified term of years. There are also different types of term assurance – for example, level, increasing, or convertible – but the type most commonly used as mortgage protection these days is Decreasing Term Assurance.
Linking to a repayment mortgage and the sum assured reduces the same rate as the mortgage balance over the specified term. Because the insurer’s risk diminishes over time, the premiums are generally cheaper than the other life cover types.
If the policyholder dies within the period, the sum assured should be enough to pay off the outstanding mortgage balance and ensure the borrower’s dependents will not be left with a debt they might not otherwise be able to manage.
There’s an argument that says that life cover gets taken for the benefit of other people – i.e. your dependents – because sadly, you won’t be around to see any service yourself.
However, these days, thanks to improvements in medical treatment, many people now survive conditions that once might have been fatal.
Nevertheless, whilst undergoing what may be long spells of treatment and recovery, it could have a marked effect on your ability to meet your financial commitments.
It is leading to the development of the Critical Illness cover. That works similarly to Life Assurance in that it has taken for a specific term of years.
The cover can have different options, such as level/increasing. It got designed to pay out a lump sum and, like Life cover, for borrowers, it is typically taken on a decreasing term basis in line with the reduction of your mortgage balance.
The key is that the benefit is paid if you fall victim to one of several specified critical illnesses and pays out whatever the long term prognosis of that illness.
The type of illnesses covered vary from company to company, but, in general terms, insurers usually cover between 40 – 50 specified conditions, including cancer, heart attack, and stroke. Payouts depend on meeting the required seriousness of the particular situation suffered.
The life companies all work to at least the pre-designated clinical definitions prescribed by the Association of British Insurers, which means that they can’t just arbitrarily decide that you’re not ill enough.
Hopefully, if your treatment is successful, it means that not only have you survived, but you can benefit from your prudence by no longer having a mortgage to pay after your illness.
In practice, many companies will offer Life and Critical Illness Critical cover as a combined policy. They would usually payout on the first event, i.e. whatever happens first – either death or a severe illness – the payout gets made. They can also get written on a single or joint life basis.
Whereas Life and Critical Illness cover pay out a lump sum, “Income Protection” pays out a monthly sum designed to replace your wages in the event of you being unfit to work.
There are no restrictions on the illnesses or injuries covered, unlike Critical Illness cover, the only factor being whether they make you unsuitable to work.
However, restrictions on how much you can cover and how quickly benefits would get paid. Additionally, the insurers want you to have an incentive to return to work rather than being better off on sick.
Typically, the most you can cover would be approximately 55%-65% of your income. Benefits would begin to get paid after a “deferred period”, which would generally equate to the length of time you would receive sick pay from your employer.
Benefits would continue to be paid for as long as you remain unfit to work or until the policy term ends, whichever comes first. However, most companies offer a “budget” option to make premiums cheaper.
Whereby benefits would get paid for a shorter period – usually between 2-5 years – to at least allow you to make alternative arrangements if it looks like you’ll get incapacitated for longer than that.
Like Life and Critical Illness cover, these policies are underwritten based on your health and lifestyle when you apply. All income protection policies get written on a single life basis.
Similar in many ways to Income Protection, these policies also cover you should you be made unemployed. Benefits are usually linked to your mortgage and other costs (rather than necessarily your wages) and would usually be paid one month “in arrears” after a successful claim.
These policies get underwritten at the time of a claim, which can sometimes mean confusion/delay regarding whether a request would get met.
They are a helpful safety net if you are made long term unemployed but be sure to check the details of how/when any unemployment benefits would get paid out, as it may be that you would have returned to work before any monies become due.
Probably the least common of the “mortgage protection” type policies but can often be valuable, particularly for young families. These plans can get taken to cover Life and/or Critical Illness get underwritten on the application in the same way as mentioned above.
However, unlike the traditional forms of policy, the cover would pay an annual or monthly income for the remainder of the plan’s term rather than pay out a lump sum.
Thus it can replace the primary breadwinner’s income for several years, dependent upon a particular client’s circumstances, which would get written on a level or basis, or an index-linked basis designed to keep up with inflation.
There’s an adage that says you can never have too much insurance. Indeed, many people have one or more of the different policy types, and it would be wrong to think of Mortgage Protection Insurance as just an “either/or” choice.
Affordability plays a huge role. Whilst it would be great to cover yourself for every potential opportunity, our Protection Advisor in Leeds will discuss the different types of cover available to you. Next, they will help tailor a suitable deal to cover your repayments to help support next of kin with financial support when sadly, something happens to you.
If you want to take out more than one type of policy, your Protection Advisor in Leeds would usually place all the cover with one provider to help save you from any additional policy administration charges.
A single homeowner like yourself might not be married or have any plans to settle down with kids soon, but that doesn’t mean you should rule out taking out any life insurance. There are reasons as to why single homeowners would benefit from taking out life cover.
If something unfortunate were to happen, having a life policy in place can support your family in dealing with unpaid debts such as outstanding mortgage payments.
Should the policyholder (the person with the life cover) passes whilst still making mortgage payments. The policy pays out a lump sum, equal to the cost of the current home loan, to cover the remaining mortgage debts.
If you are living with a partner or do have kids, the cover might get extended as a means of providing your dependents with an income boost to cover any living costs for the time being.
Although extra protection is not always necessary for single cover applicants, we firmly believe taking out any insurance to cover your mortgage is worth doing.
If a single homeowner passes before their mortgage has been fully paid off, their bank or building society can look to pay back the mortgage loan from their late customer’s estate, i.e., their collective belongings (accumulated assets is a term you might see used for this).
In most cases, we find that to pay off the remaining mortgage balance, and the property will get sold at auction. If the home has fallen into negative equity, the lender has the right to demand that the estate make up the difference.
The lender does have the right to demand that the property gets sold, and any family members cannot make up any shortfall. Additionally, if the probate process happens to be drawn out, the lender can continue to add interest charges, increasing the total amount to be paid.
Taking out life insurance will help to prevent these problems from occurring.
If you are looking at your options for potentially taking out life cover, please get in touch and speak to one of our dedicated protection advisors in Leeds.
If you have any intentions to become a first time buyer in Leeds or are already a homeowner with a change in circumstances, we recommend you to get on top of it now rather than late.
Life insurance gets designed to pay out, usually in a lump sum, in the event of death. Regarding your mortgage, the sum assured should be enough to pay off your outstanding balance, here is where our Protection Specialist Advisors in Leeds can guide you. Here is some information about the most popular types:
The whole of life insurance does not have an end date; therefore, providing premiums is being met the policy will payout. This type of insurance is used for family protection and as part of inheritance tax planning.
Term assurance is the most popular type of family insurance used to cover a mortgage. Our Protection Specialist Advisors in Leeds will recommend the sum assured and term of the policy, usually to run in line with your new mortgage. The providing that all premiums are maintained, the sum assured will be paid out if you were to die during the term.
There are various types of Term Assurance available, such as decreasing and increasing cover. As part of our protection review, the most suitable policy for your needs will be recommended when we provide you with relevant Mortgage Advice in Leeds tailored to your situation.
This is another version of Term Assurance, where instead of the sum assured is paid as a lump sum on death, gets paid as an agreed monthly payment. It’s very good for families looking to insure an income. A good Mortgage Protection Specialist Advisor in Leeds will usually recommend a mixture of insurance types tailor-made to match your personal and family requirements.
If you are part of a couple, you could consider taking out a single life policy that will payout in the event of one of you dying. It can be cheaper than paying the premiums on two separate policies but bear in mind that joint policies only payout on the first death, after that the cover ends.
If you had two separate policies, the second policy would remain in force even after a claim got made on the first, and this is where our Protection Specialist Advisors in Leeds can offer guidance.
Many companies offer their employees family a lump sum payment if the staff member dies while the firm employs them, this doesn’t mean the death has to be at the workplace or any way related to the job. The cover will most likely end as soon as you leave the company.
It’s very important to us that all our customers are given an equal opportunity to take insurance out through ourselves when they approach our Mortgage Broker in Leeds. We offer all our customers a free, no-obligation protection review where we’ll look at any existing policies you have in place and assess their suitability.
Our Protection Specialist Advisors in Leeds will then recommend which products, including critical illness and income protection, meet your needs. If required, we’ll then tailor the plan to match your available monthly budget.
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UK Moneyman Limited is Registered in England, No. 6789312 | Registered Address: 10 Consort Court, Hull, HU9 1PU.
Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
We are entered on the Financial Services Register No. 627742 at www.register.fca.org.uk
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Leedsmoneyman.com & Leedsmoneyman are trading styles of UK Moneyman Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
UK Moneyman Limited is Registered in England, No. 6789312 | Registered Address: 10 Consort Court, Hull, HU9 1PU.
Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
We are entered on the Financial Services Register No. 627742 at www.register.fca.org.uk
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