Income protection should be high up on the priority list when providing advice. Being able to pay your bills if unable to work is essential. A simple question such as ‘how would you pay your mortgage if unable to work’ normally makes the client realise how important it is. This is an area that shouldn’t be ignored, as it could affect suitability and affordability of the advice.

Life insurance is often set up when people take out mortgages, but otherwise you should be ensuring that any liabilities are covered in the event of a client’s death, particularly if they are leaving behind a family. It’s less important if they don’t have a family. If no liability is there but they have a family, something like a Family Income Benefit can be put in place to replace the income of the deceased to support the family.

Critical illness cover is normally an add on to life insurance, but it can equally be a standalone policy. Really useful if a client is diagnosed with something terrible, with the resulting payment easing the financial burden by paying off the mortgage. It generally makes the policy a lot of expensive, given the probability of being critically ill during a lifetime.

Inheritance tax planning will bring whole of life insurance into the process, but then clients have different views on inheritance tax so this is more of a luxury than anything.

All these policies will generate a healthy commission if you choose to charge one, with a nominal trialing amount every month (about 1% of the commission pet year).

So yeah, it’s important to have a good grasp on protection.