Family protection

Are you and your family unprotected?

Check personal, family (including Family Income Benefit), business and home cover against common industry-style illustrations. See where illustrative gaps might sit, get rough cost ballparks, then talk it through if you want to. This does not say what you should buy, and it cannot judge suitability.

Illustrative figures only. This tool is not advice and not a personal recommendation. Underwriting, existing conditions, occupation, trust planning and personal circumstances change everything. Speaking to a regulated adviser is a separate step. Property Money Limited is not a regulated firm.

Why people look at protection

Population context only — not a personal prediction of what will happen to you.

  • Cancer Research UK: Nearly 1 in 2 people born in the UK in 1961 will be diagnosed with some form of cancer during their lifetime. Source: Cancer Research UK, lifetime cancer risk / cancer statistics.
  • ONS: Around 2.8 million working-age people in the UK are economically inactive due to long-term sickness. Source: Office for National Statistics labour market / inactivity due to long-term sickness (Commons Library reporting of ONS figures, Dec 2023–Feb 2024 period).
  • ABI (2024): Insurers paid out a record £8 billion in combined group and individual protection claims. Critical illness payouts totalled £1.3 billion; cancer accounted for 62% of CI claims paid; the average CI claim was about £67,600. Industry reporting of ABI figures also cites an 89.7% critical-illness claims paid rate. The proportion of new individual protection claims paid remained at or above 97.9%. Source: Association of British Insurers (ABI) / GRiD protection claims data for 2024 (published 2025); industry reporting of ABI CI paid-rate detail.
  • Scottish Widows (SME research, Aug 2026): 23% of SMEs could only continue for about one month if they lost a key person; 10% would cease trading immediately if the owner became incapacitated; 45% of SME owners never sought business protection advice. Source: Scottish Widows SME research, reported August 2026 (survey of UK business owners).

What each type of cover does

Plain-English summaries only — not advice, and not a recommendation to buy any product. Definitions, exclusions and claim criteria vary by insurer.

Personal

Life insurance (level or decreasing term)

Level term pays a fixed lump sum if you die (or terminal illness on many plans) during the term. Decreasing term pays a sum that falls over time — often used to track a repayment mortgage. Both are lump-sum life cover; which shape fits is a separate, advised conversation.

Family Income Benefit

A form of life cover that pays a regular monthly income to your family if you die during the term, until the policy end date — helps replace lost earnings for bills and childcare rather than one big cheque. Often cheaper than equivalent lump-sum life because the total payout reduces as the term runs down.

Critical illness cover

Pays a lump sum if you are diagnosed with a specified serious illness meeting the policy definition (cancer, heart attack and stroke are common claim reasons) — while you are still alive.

Income protection

Pays a monthly benefit if illness or injury stops you working, after a waiting period — salary replacement, not a death benefit.

Family

Children’s / family CIC riders

Often add-ons that can pay a smaller lump sum if a child is diagnosed with a specified critical illness (limits and definitions vary).

Partner cover

Separate life or critical illness cover on a spouse or partner so both incomes and mortgage sides are considered.

Business

Key person

Helps the business if a vital person dies or (with CIC) has a critical illness — cash to hire or replace them, or to steady the books.

Shareholder / share purchase

Helps remaining owners buy a deceased or ill owner’s share under an agreement (shareholder / partnership protection).

Relevant life

Employer-paid life cover for an employee or director with possible tax efficiencies (structure-dependent — not advice).

Business overheads / fixed costs

Helps meet fixed business costs or replace a key person’s contribution if they cannot work (sometimes structured as key-person income protection).

Home

Buildings and/or contents insurance

Protects the property structure and/or belongings against insured events such as fire, flood or theft. Not a life or illness product — still worth checking alongside mortgage protection. Soft checklist only; not a quote or suitability assessment.

1. Personal cover
£
Independent of the mortgage calculator — paste a figure if you have one.
£
£

Your existing personal cover

May be level term (fixed sum) or decreasing term (sum falls over time — often with a repayment mortgage).
£
£
£ / month
£
Default 10. Formula: mortgage balance + (N × gross annual income).
Personal illustrations (not advice)
Life: outstanding mortgage + N years of income (N is 10 unless you change it). Cover may be level or decreasing term.
Critical illness: the higher of the outstanding mortgage and four years of income.
Income protection: 55% of gross monthly income (a mid-point of the common 50–60% illustration), minus the monthly cover you already have.

Home insurance (soft check)

Not a life or illness product — a quick prompt only. No quote or calculation.

2. Family & children

Optional. These illustrations sit alongside personal cover — they do not replace a regulated conversation about trusts, guardianship or wills.

Common rider-style illustration; editable. Default £25,000.
£

Family CIC illustration = number of children under 18 × amount per child, less any family/children’s CIC already entered.

Often overlooked: Family Income Benefit

Instead of one lump sum, FIB pays a monthly income to your family if you die during the term — useful for day-to-day bills alongside lump-sum life for the mortgage. Illustrative only; not a recommendation.

Default: essentials if set, otherwise the higher of the mortgage payment and 50% of gross monthly income.
£ / month
Default: max(10, years until youngest child is 18) if you have children, else 20. Editable 5–40.
£ / month

Maximum total if a claim were paid from day one = monthly × term years × 12. Actual total depends on when a claim starts; later in the term means fewer months left.

3. Business protection
4. Illustrative cost factors

Illustrative market ballpark only — not a quote, not advice. Real premiums depend on full underwriting. Age, tobacco use and BMI adjust a transparent market ballpark table. This is lead-gen for Property Money Limited (not a regulated firm) and is never a personal recommendation.

Switching units converts your figures so nothing is lost (best effort).
BMI (live)—
WHO band—

Illustrative market ballpark only — not a quote, not advice. Real premiums depend on full underwriting.
Unticked medical history = estimates assume no significant disclosed medical history. Ticked = we show a base ballpark and a wide loaded band; we do not invent disease-specific loadings. Buildings/contents have no premium estimate. Business cover reuses life/CIC unit rates on key-person sums only and remains highly structure-specific.

Rate model (transparent): level-term life unit rates interpolated from published UK example mid-ranges (~£4.5–£26 per £100k/mo across ages 28–50); smoker ×2; decreasing ≈80% of level; CIC ≈2.25× life unit; FIB ≈0.6× life on day-one equivalent lump; IP scaled from office-class £1,500/mo benefit tables. BMI loadings applied as documented in the calculator code. Synthesised from 2025–2026 style published market examples — not ABI rates, not insurer quotes.