Case Studies

Stories from the front line

and how we’ve helped

One problem led to the real problem

I sat down with a chap who wanted to provide staff benefits. But ignoring this initial opener, I found out that he had a mortgage that was going to be getting bigger due to a house move and a business he had been running in partnership for five year with two other partners.

When I asked him about protection for the business in case one of them died, he said they had nothing. I also asked if he was aware of what the financial implications to the business would be if one of them died?

I said to him “I know this is a nice thing to do for your staff but from what you have told me, you have some more pressing issues… protecting your business. Get that in place, then we will look at what else you can do. He just hadn’t thought about these issues but soon made good by buying six policies; three shareholder protection and three Relevant Life policies.

A quick chat lowered his premiums

I have often assisted clients just through chatting and being aware that changes to a person’s circumstances can affect premiums. One chap had declared his smoking when he took out his original insurance policy but now, he is a non-smoker. I provided him with his cover for less and got his wife another £100,000 cover. To give you an idea what a difference it can make, AIG load their policies by 45% if you are a smoker.

Re-apportioning shareholder cover

I had a similar situation helping with a shareholder protection case. They had £1.5m cover spread across three shareholders with £500,000 each. When I probed, I found the actual shareholding was split 50%, 40% and 10% so the amounts were not correct. When I looked at the business valuation, it was nearer £2m. The split should have been £1m, £800,000 and £200,00. I priced it and without any prompting, they said “we need to do that”.

The best advice…

Provision for university daughter

I have a client I know well who had had a few questions about a claim his daughter was making. She was 21 and at university. We sorted it out and then I asked him about what provision he had in place for her if he died.
“Oh,” he said, “the business will be sold, and she’ll get the proceeds of that and the house will be paid off because I have life cover for that”.
To which I replied, “Okay, but what if…. no one wants to buy your business and although there will be no mortgage debt how will she cover the council tax (not cheap, nice house), the utility bills, the Insurances? How will she run her car, support her university living and eat! I put some options together and chose some amounts of cover with the premiums One email later and his cover was in place and he had no more nagging doubts.

Giving policy holder timely access to GP during Coronavirus

During the COVID-19 pandemic I was dealing with the renewal of an existing policy. During the discussion, the client informed me that she had found a lump in her breast and that she had called the GP who said they couldn’t offer an appointment but that it would probably be OK! This was obviously of concern, so we discussed this as she was at the point of renewal of her policy. In the end I made changes to the benefits and added a private GP to the policy which allowed £500 a year to cover the cost of GP services. She made an appointment with a private GP and visited the following day.