I'm looking for income protection insurance (I'm a self-employed plumber/electrician etc) to cover myself & family in case I'm unable to earn for any reason. Are there any good companies and/or brokers I should be asking?
One policy I've looked at has exclusions for non-physical illnesses (e.g. stress etc) but they tell me this is industry standard practice. (Seems to me it doesn't much matter why I might be unable to work: the lack of income would be exactly the same whatever reason.)
It also has some dodgy looking conditions about considering other work for which one is qualified. I'm concerned that they might interpret this to mean that if, say, I broke a leg and was unable to do my present physical work then, because I used to be in IT they'd say I could be doing that and classify me as an unemployed IT worker (and then helpfully point out that their policy doesn't cover unemployment). (Would an insurance company do that? Perish the thought! :-)
Another issue is the amount of income for which one insures. If I insure for, say, £1K per month it seems they'll want to see accounts to show what I've been earning to date, and if they don't like it they'll pay out less (even if I've been paying the premiums for this amount). This seems completely out of order. It's a problem for me because I've only recently started this line of work and have so far only submitted one year's accounts which showed a net profit in the region of £0.
Anyone know of an income protection policy that does what it says on the tin?