Tips to remember

● Lump-sum disability cover can be taken out as an accelerated benefit on a life policy and this will cost less than stand-alone cover.

● An accelerated benefit pays out only once — so if you are disabled it will pay out then, and when you die there will either be no benefit or only the balance of the benefit.

The rationale for this is that if, for example, the benefit settles your home loan on disability, then you don’t need a benefit covering this debt when you die.

● Rebalance your insurance portfolio regularly and whenever there is an event like a new baby, a new house or a new job.

The need you have to replace your income generally reduces as you grow older and your children leave the home and become self-sufficient.

● Compare risk products between providers but understand that a cheaper premium may mean fewer benefits, exclusion clauses, different definitions of disability, different premium increases or a different term cover, to age 55 or 75 or for life.