Unum Executive Income Protection Insurance

Introduction

Unum are one of the UK’s leading providers of income protection insurance.

Founded in 1970, it’s a group that brings together different companies, offering life insurance, critical illness cover, group income protection and dental insurance amongst other services.

As a business overall, if offers a very wide range of insurance products to both corporates and individuals alike.

In the UK in 2018, Unum had 1.4 million customers and paid out claims of £314 million.  However, they do not publish their claims statistics for each product.

How Financially Strong is Unum?

In a few words, this is a resilient business that has seen considerable growth.

Unum paid out  more than £5.5 million per week in benefits to their customers in 2018.  It has a Standard and Poor’s rating of A-.

Unum Income Protection Insurance.  Your At-A-Glance Guide

Unum offers personal protection cover and group protection cover.  Its policies are flexible enough to be offered by employers to employees, indeed they are designed to be bought through your company.

Therefore, you cannot purchase IP cover from Unum as a stand-alone product.

Unum income protection provides cover on 80% of your earnings.  From our calculations, this is one of the highest levels of cover in the UK.  However, you should be aware that you will pay tax and NI on your monthly benefit as this cover is provided by your employer.

The maximum you will receive in benefits is £300,000 per year.

Unum always uses own occupation as a definition of incapacity.  This means that you will be able to claim benefits should you be unable to carry out your own occupation, rather than any job role.  In all cases, Black Lion Insurance would endorse this definition.

Unum income protection involves an assessment of the risk of your occupation in order to decide on the best policy for you and importantly, the cost of your policy.  If you are in a more hazardous profession, you will pay more.

You can limit your claim duration if you wish, in order to save money on premiums.  For example, you may stipulate that you wish only to claim for a maximum of 5 years; however, a this is one of the longer limitations on claims duration, this option may be worth considering.

As with all income protection insurance providers, there are exceptions and caveats, so read through the following carefully and refer to the experts at Black Lion Insurance for further information.

Remember, we are whole of market insurance advisers, and will be able to offer an unbiased view on all policies, not just Unum.

Unum Income Protection:  Overview of Key Policy Details 

More Jargon-Free Information About Unum Income Protection from Black Lion Insurance

We’re highly qualified and fully insured to offer you advice on income protection insurance.  The team here at Black Lion helps to secure income protection for many busy people during the course of one day. How may we help you?

In general, income protection insurance from Unum is designed to protect high earning professionals who are mostly office-based. We think they’re great.

Is this your profile?  Great.  However, although Unum may seem ideal, there may be a better policy “out there” that you’ve not found yet.

It can be a bit confusing, can’t it? You’re very good at what you do for a living, but if you’re new to insurance products, the choice is a bit overwhelming.

Don’t worry.  We’re here for you and happy to help. Lion Insurance has in depth knowledge of all the insurance products that our partners provide.  As we said, we do this every day.

We prefer to educate our clients, not sell.  In fact, we don’t sell.  Our focus is on offering you all the relevant options to your circumstances for you to be able to make the best choice.

Our team will never overwhelm you with technical terms – hence this easy-to-understand comparison guide. Give us a call on 0203 011 00 22 if you need further information from us.

Key Points about Unum Income Protection

• Just to re-iterate, this policy can only be obtained by an employer.
• It’s worth re-iterating Unum’s own occupation definition of incapacity, too. Again, this is important.
• You’ll be able to claim if you live or work abroad. However, Unum stipulates a specific list of countries, so check with Black Lion Insurance if you’d like to find out more.  Also, be aware that any payments made into your UK bank account (from a foreign currency) will be subject to the prevailing exchange rate.
• Unum’s deferred period is quite flexible. For example, they may consider working part time or doing less work in your current role as counting towards this.
• If you increase your salary, this can be included in your guaranteed benefits and you can boost your premiums. Moreover, you will not need to re-submit any medical information.
• Indexation. Deflation is not included (or the RPI stays the same). However, Unum will base an increase of your premium based on their premium rate tables.

What Else Does Unum Offer?

Rehabilitation Services. Unum offers rehabilitation experts who will be on hand to offer support and guidance to help claimants get back to full health.  This factors in important aspects such as your emotional health, as well as your physical progress.

Assistant Programme – LifeWorks.  Access Unum’s lifestyle support service, including legal advice and counselling sessions.  Even online CBT sessions.

Death Benefit.  If you die during the first 12 months of your claim, Unum will pay out a lump sum to your dependents equal to 12 months of benefits payments, minus the amounts they have already paid out during this time.

Career Break.  You will be offered a waiver of your premium payments for up to 12 months if you decide to take a career break.  However, you won’t be able to claim during this time.

Do YOU need advice from Black Lion?

Do you have people in your household who rely on you to pay the mortgage and the bills?  What would happen if you became ill or had an accident.  Could you manage?

Income protection is designed to keep you financially secure in times of trouble like the above.  In our opinion, it’s an essential.  It’s not just worth considering, we think that you should have it.  Especially, if you’re of working age.  Extra especially if people depend on your salary.

Life is expensive.  But your income protection insurance doesn’t have to be.

Our aim is to educate our clients as much as we can; we work daily with our income protection partners, including Unum, and we’re completely up to speed with what they provide and the sort of person to suit each type of cover.

Here at Black Lion Insurance, we’re here to support you every step of the way.  We can help you to go from zero to hero in the insurance knowledge stakes.  Don’t waste time trying to find the perfect income protection insurance.  Let us do it for you.

We have the negotiation power, the knowledge you need, and the in-depth understanding of this highly important type of insurance to keep you and your family financially secure.

And, don’t forget…