Help with term life insurance + permanent disability

It doesnt sound like it. Who do you want to have the money if you die ?

My father (he is disabled and I won't be around to help). Also, of course I'd be the beneficiary the permanent disability insurance.

Probably not, if you are thinking of life only. What about critical illness cover? This would benefit you then.

You may well find that critical illness + life cover is cheaper than CI on its own.

You should do this through an advisor. The premiums probably won't be more - they may even be less. Plus if anything goes wrong with what you've bought you may have some recourse via the financial ombudsman. But you'll have none at all if you do it yourself. Don't automatically assume that the internet is the cheapest way of buying this.

Rob Graham

Thanks for the answer. As I said in my post, what I'm looking at is term life insurance plus permanent disability cover. Is this the same as critical illness cover? I have spoken with a financial planner who offers the insurance I mentioned. The "permanent disability" insurance pays in case one is no longer able to work.

Critical illness isn't the same as permanent disability. Criticial illness cover will pay out if you develop one of the critical illnesses specified in the policy - usually at least some types of cancer, need for heart bypass surgery, heart attack, kidney failure, need for a major organ transplant, MS, stroke, those kinds of thing. Check the wording of the policy carefully, as some illnesses are covered by some policies but not by others. With critical illness cover, your (in)ability to work after having contracted the illness is irrelevent - it pays out because you have contracted the illness.

AFAIU, permanent and total disability cover tends to only pay out if you are *severely* disabled - unable to dress / wash / feed yourself. You may well be sufficiently disabled that you're unable to work, but not disabled enough to claim under this benefit.

You might want to consider ASU (Accident, sickness and unemployment) cover, that will pay out if you can't work due to accident, sickness or redundancy. This type of cover has restrictions, for example you clearly can't take it out if you're already self employed, and the payments don't last for long, but it can be a way to get some cover.

You also might want to consider PHI (permanent health insurance) that would pay you a monthly income if you were unable to work due to sickness or disability. Typically, the benefit starts after you have been ill for some weeks, and continues up until retirement. These policies can vary widely in what they cover - some cover you if you can't do your *own* occupation, and some if you can't do your *own or any other suitable* occupation. (So if you are a builder and then need to use a wheelchair, own occupation cover would proabably pay out, but the other kind wouldn't).

I would stress that none of these policies are suitable for everybody. If you buy them without understanding what you've bought, then if you come to make a claim you might find that you can't actually claim what you thought you could.

HTH

Mouse

Mouse, thank you very much for your very informative post. Probably what I need most is PHI plus term assurance.

I failed to mention that I'm currently living in Spain and plan to be here for several years. When I first posted I thought I could take a UK insurance but it seems to be difficult, and unfortunately the offer in Spain seems to much more limited. I'm looking now into an insurer that markets term life assurance just in the UK and Spain, but the provisions are different in the two countries, and in Spain they don't offer critical illness but only permament disability.There are some insurers that offer something they call critical illness but it's much more restrictive than what you say (basically, terminal cancer and little more). I didn't find any PHI and ASU.

Do you know any insurer in the UK or in another EU country that deals with international term life insurance?

Friends Provident International, Canada Life International (although these may have stopped since I last looked). Why not speak to a local Spannish adviser, it may be a lot cheaper.