Nationwide Recommendations for good income protection please.

Recommendations for good income protect please. T.i.a

I have my policy with Aviva, I used a broker to help, I was rejected by Zurich for a (relatively) minor medical issue.
its not a bad idea to apply to 2 companies at the same time as you may be rejected by one; when applying most companies will ask if you have been rejected by another insurance company. I was lucky as I was accepted by Aviva before I was rejected by Zurich

I would recommend using a broker.

Don’t be afraid to negotiate on price or coverage.

I'm a financial broker and have worked in this industry since the late 1980s. I started my career in the industry working for what was then Friends Provident, now part of Aviva. Over the course of that time, I've been directly involved with Income Protection claims for clients with both Aviva and Irish Life. The claims with Aviva were always paid without quibble. The claims with Irish Life were difficult to get paid - clients were sent to Irish Life panel medical examiners who seemed hell-bent on convincing the clients that they were not nearly as sick as they really were. In a few cases, solicitors had to get involved before the claims were paid. Of course, the above is anecdotal - just a small number of claims in the context of the industry as a whole - and I know that Irish Life pay out a majority of their IP claims. But it left a bad taste in my mouth. My own Income Protection is with Aviva.

I am out of work at the moment due to mental health issues, I have my own income protection policy in plsce, I’m just trying to plan ahead should I end up out of work for a period of time, if I did have to apply to use my income protection policy is there any potential reason why they wouldn’t pay me out? And if I did need to claim off it for a period of time do they make it difficult to do this? My broker advised me to take it out and I never really thought I would have to use it so never gave it much thought until now

daveclarke5 said:

I’m just trying to plan ahead should I end up out of work for a period of time, if I did have to apply to use my income protection policy is there any potential reason why they wouldn’t pay me out?

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Sorry to hear this and I hope you make a recovery.

It’s important that all of this is documented very carefully from a medical perspective. I’m not an expert but I would imagine that a diagnosis of mental health issues leaving you completely unfit for work would need to come from a psychiatrist.

Also, you will need to demonstrate that your condition didn’t pre-date the start of the policy

One of the Income protection providers published their claims stats last week and reasons for claims were:

Cancer 37% Musculo-skeletal 19% Mental Health 15% Neurological 10% Heart 7% Respiratory/Circulatory 1% Other 12%

Age profile of claimants :

Up to 40 23% 41-50 33% 51-60 37% Over 60 7%

Thanks for coming back to my query, would the details from my GP not suffice?

daveclarke5 said:

Thanks for coming back to my query, would the details from my GP not suffice?

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You'll probably need to check the terms and conditions of your policy and maybe talk to the providers/underwriters.

daveclarke5 said:

Thanks for coming back to my query, would the details from my GP not suffice?

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I have no direct experience.

But I highly doubt that an insurer would commit to a payout of hundreds of thousands of euros (and that's a typical lifetime claim on one of these policies) without a specialist's opinion. Possibly their own specialist as well to make an independent assessment of you.

daveclarke5 said:

Thanks for coming back to my query, would the details from my GP not suffice?

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Sorry to hear of your mental health issues. As mental health issues are more difficult for an insurance company to independently confirm than, say a physical injury, it is likely that they will require a report from a consultant in the mental health area verifying that you are unable to work.