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Types of family protection cover
Each type of cover protects against a different risk. Most families benefit from a combination. A regulated adviser will help you work out the right mix for your circumstances.
Life Insurance
Pays a tax-free lump sum to your family if you die during the policy term. Can be used to clear debts, replace income, or provide financial security. Available as level term, decreasing term or whole of life.
Ask us about life insurance →Mortgage Protection
A type of life insurance specifically designed to clear your outstanding mortgage balance if you die. Typically a decreasing term policy where the cover reduces in line with your mortgage balance.
Ask us about mortgage protection →Critical Illness Cover
Pays a tax-free lump sum if you are diagnosed with a specified serious illness, such as cancer, heart attack or stroke, while you are still alive. Can be used to clear debts, adapt your home, or replace lost income during recovery. Often combined with life insurance.
Ask us about critical illness cover →Income Protection
Pays a monthly benefit, typically a proportion of your gross income, if you are unable to work due to illness or injury. Continues until you return to work, retire, or the policy ends. Particularly important for the self-employed and those without employer sick pay.
Ask us about income protection →Family Income Benefit
A type of life insurance that pays a regular monthly income to your family if you die, rather than a lump sum. Designed to replace your earnings for the remainder of the policy term. Often more affordable than a standard life insurance policy for the same level of cover.
Ask us about family income benefit →Child Critical Illness Cover
Many life and critical illness policies include optional child cover, paying a lump sum if your child is diagnosed with a specified serious illness. Provides financial support to cover time off work, adaptations or additional care costs during a child's illness.
Ask us about child cover →Who needs family protection?
Family protection is relevant to most adults, but it's particularly important in these situations.
Parents with children
If you have children who depend on your income, life insurance and income protection are worth considering. Your family needs financial security if you die or can't work.
Homeowners with a mortgage
If you die without mortgage protection, your family may lose their home. Mortgage protection is designed to clear the debt if you die during the policy term.
Self-employed individuals
No employer sick pay, no death in service, no group income protection. Self-employed individuals carry all the financial risk themselves, making personal protection critical.
Single-income households
If your household relies on one income, the financial impact of losing it, through death, illness or injury, is immediate and severe.
Those with outdated cover
Life changes, new mortgage, new child, new job. Cover taken out years ago may no longer reflect your current needs. A review can identify gaps before they matter.
Those unsure what they have
Many people have some cover through work but don't know what it includes or whether it's enough. Understanding what you already have is the first step.
Family protection for the self-employed
If you're self-employed, a contractor or a freelancer, you carry financial risks that employed individuals don't. There's no employer sick pay if you're ill, no death in service benefit if you die, and no group income protection. Every financial risk falls on you, and by extension, on your family.
Income protection is arguably the most important cover for the self-employed, but life insurance and critical illness cover are also critical if you have a mortgage or dependants. An adviser can build a protection plan that fits your income structure and budget.
Life insurance & trusts, why it matters
Most people don't realise that a life insurance payout can be delayed by probate or reduced by inheritance tax if the policy isn't written in trust. Placing your life insurance in trust means the payout goes directly to your chosen beneficiaries, quickly, and outside your estate.
Avoids probate delays
Probate can take months. A trust means your family receives the payout quickly, without waiting for the estate to be settled.
Outside your estate
A payout written in trust does not form part of your estate, meaning it is not subject to inheritance tax, potentially saving your family thousands of pounds.
Goes to the right people
You choose your beneficiaries when you set up the trust. The money goes exactly where you intend, without ambiguity.
Providers we compare
Here are some of the providers we work with.
Family protection advice across the UK
That's Family Finance provides family protection advice to families and individuals across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Whether you're in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Bristol, Sheffield, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Glasgow, Liverpool, Nottingham, Leicester, Essex, Kent, Surrey or anywhere in between, we work with you remotely or in person.
We can arrange cover from a range of UK insurers.
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Ready to protect your family?
Send us an enquiry or message us on WhatsApp. We'll explain your options in plain English and connect you with an FCA-regulated adviser for personalised recommendations.
Frequently asked questions
Everything families ask us about protection insurance.
Statistics cited are for illustrative purposes. Always refer to official sources for the most current data.
We may be paid commission by the insurer if you take out a policy. Registered address: The Retreat, 406 Roding Lane South, Woodford Green, Essex, IG8 8EY.
Plain English protection guides
Protecting the mortgage is the part we advise on ourselves. Read how mortgage protection insurance works, including which type of cover suits which situation.
If you are protecting a young family
Most parents come to this with the same three questions: what happens to the mortgage, what happens to the children, and how much cover is enough. These are the guides that answer them, in the order most families need them.
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What happens to the mortgage if you die or cannot work
What happens to the mortgage if you die or cannot work, and which type of cover fits which situation. -
What critical illness cover pays out for
What critical illness cover pays out for, and how policies differ on the definitions that decide a claim. -
How to make sure children from a first marriage still inherit
How to make sure children from a first marriage still inherit, and where a will alone is not enough. -
How a Junior ISA works
How a Junior ISA works, who can pay in, and what happens when the child turns eighteen. -
How much to hold in cash before insurance becomes the right answer
How much to hold in cash before insurance becomes the right answer.
Guides on this
Questions families ask us
Talk it through with us
Tell us what you have in mind and we will come back to you, usually the same day. We are open Monday to Saturday, 9am to 8pm.