Family Income Benefit - Have You Got Enough Life Cover?

Family income benefit is a form of term life insurance that pays out a regular monthly tax free income instead of a lump sum. This type of cover allows parents to adequately provide an income to replace their own if they were to die within the policies term.
Family income benefit is particularly attractive to parents who like to know their families have a regular monthly income rather than having to worry about complex investments to make the most of a lump sum payout.

New figures have shown that more than 1.5 million parents in the UK have not given any thought to how their dependants would coupe financially if they were to die prematurely and an even larger number have no provision in place for this eventuality.

Insurance company Bright Grey is warning that millions of children in Britain could be left in financial ruin because more than seven million British parents have no adequate financial cover such as income protection insurance or family income benefit insurance.

More worryingly, ten percent of parents expect their children to survive off family savings but with the amount being put away at an average of only 1,000 last year, this could be "a short lived security blanket", the organisation stated.

"It is worrying that so many families admit to not having sufficient protection in place, but are doing very little to address this," said proposition director Roger Edwards.

"People don't want to think about the financial consequences of themselves or their partner not being around, but it is one of the most important areas of your finances to get right, especially if you have a dependent family."

There are a variety of options for consumers to consider including critical illness cover, income protection insurance, mortgage protection insurance and accident sickness and unemployment cover and family income benefit.

Where can I find out more about protecting my family?
With some many types of protection for your family it can seem very daunting as to where to start to find the best solution. Before you start looking it is important to set a monthly budget, once you have a budget you will need to research your protection needs and prioritise the areas that are of high importance to you.

There are many online life insurance and protection websites that provide detailed information on the different protections available for family protection. Once you have read up on the different options you have many will have online quotation systems that will allow you to obtain instant quotes on the different protection options. Once you have an idea of the costs for the different options you can prioritise which ones you need and which once you would like if you can fit the monthly cost into your budget.

If you would prefer you can just go to an independent financial advisor, there are many online financial advisors these days you other fee free financial advice. They will take the time to complete a detailed analysis of your financial situation, known as a fact finding, and come back with a detailed proposal for you families financial protection. It is important to remember that you do not need to take their recommendation and you can use their advice to shop around and see if you can get the same cover at a cheaper premium.