Group protection insurance, what is it and why should I have it?

Group protection insurance is often overlooked or misunderstood, but we think it can be a great solution to many peoples issues when it comes to accessing insurance.

Accessing insurance isn’t the easiest thing in the world, it can be a bit of a minefield! Health conditions, hazardous pastimes or occupations and extensive travel can make it that little bit trickier. Not always, but probably more often than you think.

This is where group protection can sometimes come in as an alternative to personal protection insurance. By personal protection insurance, we mean an insurance that is arranged and paid for by you. Group is an often unknown gem of the insurance world and we are going to show you why.

What is group protection?

Group protection comes in a number of different forms: group life insurance, group critical illness cover or group income protection. These policies are arranged by a Limited company for some or all of its employees.

We always think it’s a good idea to be covered by group protection insurance when given the opportunity, as you will see from this blog that there are a number of benefits of doing so.

As mentioned briefly, group protection can come in handy for people who might usually find it difficult to find protection insurance. That’s because there are many situations where medical underwriting isn’t needed. These policies often have what is known as a ‘free medical underwriting limit’. This means that up to a certain amount, your health and many other lifestyle factors will have no bearing upon you being accepted for the cover.

For life insurance this can often be a minimum of £250,000 and for income protection a minimum of £75,000 per year.

We often think about insurance as money and for a long time this has been the case. Money for you and your loved ones in the event that something bad happens. But things have been changing in the insurance world. You might not believe it but insurers are no longer just focusing on the money that you might get at the end, they are looking at ways to look after you straight away.

Added benefits

On top of providing valuable protection and peace of mind, many group protection policies come with things known as value added benefits. These are often available to the employee of the company and their immediate family too.

These are a range of different things and the ones available will depend on the insurer used and can include:

• 24/7 online GP – access to a GP 24 hours of the day, 7 days a week. This can hugely benefit those who work 9-5 or have other commitments which don’t allow for a regular appointment. These can often be by phone call or video call. We have access to this through our employment at Cura and it was so amazing to have during the pandemic.
  
  
• Best Doctors – a second opinion on your diagnosis or medical case, who can also recommend suitable treatments. A leading expert in your health condition will look through your medical reports and tests, and double check that everything has been thoroughly assessed for you.
  
  
• Mental health support – support staff are available to provide support and treatment. They will assess your situation and provide you with some guidance and most importantly listen to you. It’s really important to be aware though that this support does not usually cover access to mental health diagnoses.
  
  
• Rehabilitation services – support in returning to work at a pace that suits you. This means that you don’t rush back into work before you are truly ready to.
  
  
• Wellbeing services – access to nutritional plans, fitness programmes and online health checks.
  
  

If you’re a business owner unsure if to take out a group insurance policy for your employees, or you have access to group insurance but aren’t quite sure where you stand, it’s always worth speaking with a protection insurance adviser to see exactly what you are covered for and if you’re getting all of the cover that you need.

Related blogs

Value added benefits

Group Protection Insurance: An A-Z of key terms

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