Darren from Dental and Medical Financial services asks
Catastrophe Risk – What Is Your Contingency Plan?
You can contact Darren for a no obligation review of your finances via Medics’ Money here
Safeguard your future with protection
Protection might not be the most positive of topics. It pertains to the necessity of guarding your future from the risk of disease, injury, illness and death. You need protection in place to safeguard yours and your family’s future.
It’s imperative that you have cover in place for your medical practice
It’s not just your family that needs protection. As a successful medical professional, if something goes drastically wrong, and you can’t work, or you die, your practice may struggle to run without you. So, while it may not be a topic you feel like discussing anytime soon, the risk hiding in an unknown future could be much worse if you are financially unprepared.
Will your current cover help you survive a financial disaster?
Could you resolutely say that should something happen to you that you have fully functional plans in place for your loved ones to survive the catastrophe?
Ask yourself:
- Would your family be looked after financially?
- Who would make the fundamental decisions for your business?
- Do you have savings set up ready to use in the event of something happening to you?
- Could your family get government help with bills and the cost of living?
- If you were unable to work for a prolonged period, do you have plans for your finances for both your family and your medical practice?
“I am writing to say thank you for your good advice 11 years ago regarding critical illness cover, as this has reduced my worries about our home being taken away if I could not afford to pay off the mortgage.”
Valued DMFS medical client
One size doesn’t fit all when talking about protection
Opening up a conversation with your adviser about setting up a wealth protection plan could be one of the best decisions you make for the rest of this year.
A specialist financial adviser, with extensive experience in assisting medical professionals, will help you look at a variety of options for wealth protection, such as:
- private medical insurance,
- how to assign a power of attorney,
- the need for a will, and
- even how to create a long-term care plan.
However, perhaps the three most important protection plans to consider talking to your adviser about are life insurance, income protection, and critical illness cover.
Preparation is a key attribute when taking out insurance
Advisers cannot predict the future, but they can help you form a contingency plan to cover all bases should you die or become unable to work for a while. The result of needing to make a claim can be devastating, both emotionally and financially – for you and your loved ones.
The problem is that you never really know whether the cover you have is enough for what you need it for, until after you have to make a claim. This is one of the main reasons why it is vital to sit down with an independent financial adviser. They can help to review your financial assets to ascertain what cover you need, be it one of the three key plans or a combination.
A financial adviser the with experience and knowledge of your industry will already have a good idea of how to work out what cover you need.
Advisers are there for all scenarios
There will more than likely be a few times in your life when you’re not sure what to do with your money, or how to make meaningful decisions for your financial future. If you are slightly daunted by the prospect, then the best decision you’ll make will be calling to book an appointment with your adviser.
“I set up an Income Protection Policy with Dental and Medical Financial Services’ help. They first looked at my overall situation and provided me with all the advice I required. I felt listened to and was kept informed about the progress.”
Valued DMFS medical client
Your financial adviser can help you plan for retirement, talk through investing money versus saving money, discuss what to do with a lump sum of money (a redundancy payment or inheritance) and much more. Your adviser is there to limit the worry of future risk.
Knowing you have a plan in place should you need it can give you peace of mind so you can live each day as it comes and focus on the things that matter most to you.
Protection should be included in every conversation about wealth planning.
The perfect comprehensive financial plan is one created to increase your wealth, while at the same time achieving targets you originally set for your medical practice.
To support your goals and keep your financial wealth flowing, you need to keep communicating with your adviser. Your adviser can review your plan regularly and tweak it depending on any changes to your circumstances or business ambitions, and they’ll take into account the ever-changing economy.
No financial strategy is fully comprehensive without a contingency plan for when things go catastrophically wrong.
Why you need a contingency plan for a catastrophe risk
A contingency plan is ideally a course of action formulated to help your practice respond quickly and efficiently to a momentous event that may or may not happen in the future. Your ‘Plan B’ as it were. Contingency planning is part of your business continuity, damage control and risk management.
Unfortunately, many business owners experience the devastating reality of a catastrophe. The type of disaster that can bring investments to a shuddering halt, as well as slowly destruct your wealth through taxation. And if a significant change like this occurs, it can mean extra costs for your practice, and could even force your family to desecrate any safety-funds you have saved up to keep the practice and themselves afloat. All this simply by not having addressed the risk of a catastrophe and planning appropriately for it.
Set up a plan B to secure your future from catastrophe risk
At Dental and Medical Financial Services, we have made the commitment to introduce a Catastrophe Risk Assessment when designing every financial plan. We’ll advise you of the best protection for you, based solely on your own circumstances. It might not be on the top of your to-do list, but we strongly advise that you choose right cover to protect yourself, your family and your medical practice from an unforeseen future.
This does not constitute advice and advice should be sought in all instances before acting on it. The Financial Conduct Authority does not regulate tax advice. Dental and Medical Financial Services is an appointed representative of Best Practice IFA Group Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
