Would your family be alright?

Protect

This area is about what happens to a household's income if the person earning it cannot work, temporarily or permanently.

Most household budgets assume income continues. Where it stops, the commitments built on it — a bond, school fees, monthly debt repayments — generally do not stop with it. The gap between those two facts is what this area describes.

Worth separating

Death cover and disability cover

These address different events and are usually arranged separately. Holding one does not imply holding the other.

Lump sum and recurring income

Some arrangements pay a single amount, others pay monthly. They behave very differently for a household that needs to replace a salary.

Employer benefits and personal arrangements

Benefits attached to employment generally end when the employment does. Personal arrangements do not.

Beneficiary and estate

Where a beneficiary is nominated, proceeds usually pass directly to that person. Where one is not, proceeds may fall into the estate and follow a different, slower path.

Questions people commonly want answered

• What would each existing arrangement pay, in what form, and to whom?
• What continues and what stops if employment ends?
• Which debts would need to be settled rather than continued?
• When was any of it last looked at, relative to when life last changed?