Most important times to think about protection needs

Legal & General, the UK's leading protection company, is highlighting the key life stages at which people need to review their protection needs.

There is currently a ‘protection gap' of £2.3 trillion in the UK. This is the difference between the amount of life assurance cover already in force, and the amount of cover that individuals would need to have in place for their families and dependants were they to die. Legal & General is aiming to highlight the importance of protection and reduce the level of unprotected debt.

Legal & General has highlighted the following nine key life stages for protection:

Buying a house - Critical illness cover and income protection
Getting married - Life insurance
Starting a family- Family income benefit
Starting a business - Business protection
Starting a new job - Review income protection
Expand family - Review existing family income benefit
Moving to a bigger house - Review existing life insurance and critical illness cover
Divorce - Family income benefit to cover maintenance payments. Review any joint policies.
Approaching retirement - Mitigate IHT with Whole of Life policy

Bonnie Burns, Legal & General's Protection Product Marketing Director said: "Protection insurance is typically seen as an afterthought when buying a house, but it is much more important than that. People may not realise that they could put their families under enormous financial pressure if they were to die or get ill because bills still need to be paid.

"Protection cover also needs to be reviewed as people move to bigger houses and expand their families otherwise their own personal protection gap gets wider. If people find that their budget restricts the amount of protection cover they can take, then at the very least mortgage debt and bills should be covered. Some protection is better than none."