Beyond the Protection Perception

Carla (00:00.134)
Hello everybody and welcome to My Bumped Babies Expert podcast. Today I am delighted to be joined by the lovely Luke Parker, a mortgage and protection advisor from Crystal Clear in Derby. Hello Luke, how are you today? I am, I am today, yes, although the weather is pouring down, but you know, other than that…

Luke (00:17.019)
I am very well, thank you. Are you all right?

Luke (00:24.283)
Thank you.

Carla (00:25.894)
everything else is okay. I keep getting the same cold over and over again from my children but yeah otherwise okay. So today we’re going to be talking about protection aren’t we and yeah it’s really important because I think a lot of people, a lot of parents in particular, it’s something that we think oh we’ll get around to doing that, oh we’ll do that and sometimes unfortunately people leave it that bit too late and then you know unfortunately then we see families having to move out.

Luke (00:38.619)
Yeah.

Carla (00:55.302)
houses and people really struggling financially. So, so we’re going to talk about that today.

Luke (00:56.923)
Yeah, yeah, you’re dead right there People do leave it too late or even even just contracting, you know a mild Medical condition or anything like that can have negative effects against the prices or they could you know They could even place restrictions. So once again getting it as soon as possible while you’re young fit and healthy

Carla (01:17.062)
you

Luke (01:25.691)
is the best opportunity you’re going to get.

Carla (01:28.166)
Yeah, yeah, I love that. And also, we’re really passionate, my Bumptababy, about telling people not to go online either, because at the end of the day, we’ve got experts here, you know, that can check all that small print for you, because there’s too many people that go online thinking, oh, I’ll get a cheaper option, I’ll get this, I’ll get that. And a lot of the time, you might not actually be covered for what you think you’re covered for. So…

Luke (01:34.491)
you

Luke (01:50.875)
Yes, exactly. It’s very important to read the small print, your policy conditions, and that’s where we provide that value with knowing what we’re looking into for you, and so that you don’t have to worry about it.

Carla (01:58.63)
you

Carla (02:04.678)
Yeah, perfect. So Luke, what would you say the main benefits of protection insurance are for families?

Luke (02:13.915)
Well, it would depend on who I see and what life stage they’re at. Every person that I see, I tailor their needs towards their individual circumstances. So part of my responsibility is to make sure that their needs are met and that the income and livelihood is protected, giving you the peace of mind in the event of being ill or an immediate family member dying or anything awful like that. This is why I provide a free financial health check to make sure that these safety nets are in place.

Carla (02:32.166)
you

Luke (02:43.899)
as income protection would allow you and your family to continue meeting your everyday expenses plus still have the money to maintain your current lifestyle if you got ill and couldn’t work because nobody would want to downgrade their living. Not only this but protection from your debts. If anyone has a mortgage it needs to be shielded by life insurance and critical illness cover otherwise that debt would have been taken on by your next of kin if you passed away.

Carla (03:04.486)
Yeah, and it is I mean for children as well obviously if a parent becomes ill or even a child but if a parent For example becomes ill, you know, it’s bad enough that that child has to go through all of that and

But then as well as that, if they then have to kind of sacrifice their hobbies or maybe move house and a lot of things have to change in their life, it can have a really huge impact on their life. Not only, you know, the parent being ill, but everything else that goes with that as well.

Luke (03:40.347)
Yeah.

Luke (03:43.835)
Yeah, it creates a kind of knock -on effect like dominoes. It makes everything that much worse just having that money worry. Like you say, it just expands on the despair of something like that.

Carla (03:55.91)
It does and and also you know a lot of people say oh can’t afford it at the moment and stuff but I mean just for some people actually giving up that takeaway on a Friday once a month or you know just even saying right I’ll only have a bottle of wine on a Friday or you know instead of the Saturday as well those little things those little pockets you know are areas that you could

Luke (04:06.267)
Mm -hmm.

Luke (04:11.899)
Yeah.

Luke (04:17.755)
Mm -hmm.

Carla (04:24.422)
kind of think, right, well I’ll swap that for that because at the end of the day, when it comes to your family, there’s nothing more important, is there?

Luke (04:31.451)
Certainly not, no. And you know, it might, like you say, with the wine or the takeaway, that might even contribute to you being a little bit healthier.

Carla (04:39.494)
Yeah, and living longer. So yeah, yeah, I like that. Yeah, exactly. So are there any other advantages of these types of policies and products? I know obviously if you’ve got someone in business and things like that, how can protection help someone that way?

Luke (04:41.467)
Exactly.

Luke (04:53.115)
you

Well, modern protection products provide so much more than people perceive, with most providers offering additional features that are often free of charge or carry a very small additional premium. For example, one thing we learned during Covid is that the NHS is stretched and getting an appointment with a GP can sometimes be very difficult. This can be really worrying, particularly if you, your partner or your child needs medical attention. As a result of this,

needs to access medical advice at the earliest opportunity, many providers now offer virtual GP services to give you the peace of mind that no matter where you are you can get a consultation with a doctor quickly. Consistent virtual GP services are the most compared added value with insurers also confirming that these services are the most used by clients. Most insurers now offer access to virtual GPs.

as standard within their protection plans. However, there are differences in how these are offered and who can access them. Most providers who offer this additional benefit do not charge for it, so it’s a great additional benefit to have and one that many people don’t realise can be included. So aside from life insurance, it may be possible for their immediate family to also access this benefit. This provides

useful talking points and areas of interest for clients that have a family and the services could be used for their whole family and not just the plan holder. All of the providers who provide this benefit allow it to be used for the children of a plan holder whilst most apart from Royal London and HSBC allow it to be used for their spouse and partner as well. And like you say, just touching on business, people who own their own businesses or self -employed.

Luke (06:48.795)
They’re on their own back. They don’t have the sick pay that an employed person would, so they’re that much more need it. And there are specialist business protection policies that you can put in place. If you’re a limited company director, there are tax advantages to certain policies where you can actually deduct it from your tax bill. So it actually doesn’t cost you anything in the long run.

Carla (07:05.798)
Wow, right, okay, that’s really interesting and also something else to think about while while you’re talking there I just thought because a lot of our listeners are also small business owners, you know income protection, you know, if you are unable to work for any reason having to take a dip in your income could end up making a huge difference, couldn’t it?

Luke (07:21.723)
Yeah.

Luke (07:27.035)
Hmm.

Luke (07:32.699)
Yes it does, it massively affects your business especially if you’ve got business expenses that you need to meet. You getting ill and not having the right insurance in place could result in you in that business going down, like completely being shut down unfortunately. It can make that much of a difference sometimes.

Carla (07:52.87)
Yeah, and you can’t see what’s around the corner either, you know. No, you can’t and it would be nice to have a crystal ball sometimes. I don’t know actually, sometimes I’m pretty scared. I’d be terrified. But, yeah, no, don’t, yeah, don’t. So, going back to the virtual GP, that sounds really, really useful because on Facebook, my feed seems to be filled with people saying they can’t get into their local.

Luke (07:55.675)
No, you can’t guess.

Yeah, be careful what you wish for. Yeah.

Luke (08:14.779)
Yeah, I’m here all the time.

Carla (08:21.67)
doctors and yeah and then you think that obviously the chances of getting cancer unfortunately are on the rise and while people are waiting that’s time that you know is it almost wasted if you like so it’s really useful that you that you mentioned that so how many times would someone be able to use that GP service?

Luke (08:25.531)
Yeah

Luke (08:41.051)
Well, many providers offer an unlimited number of times that a client can use the service in a year, with only a couple of providers limiting it to the number of, say, three, four times a year at least.

Carla (08:56.07)
Wow, wow, right, okay, so that’s useful. And how would someone access the services? Is it all like an online consultation, is it?

Luke (09:08.059)
So all insurers allow clients to access either video or telephone appointments with a GP. The quality of the advice and the service shouldn’t differ for either method, so it doesn’t really matter, it’s based on your preference. But some clients may prefer to discuss sensitive health matters over the phone rather than actually seeing a GP on a screen. In other scenarios, a video may be preferable if the client needs to show the GP something physically.

They can also be generally assessed from anywhere in the world. So you could be on holiday and need doctor’s advice urgently. This feature allows you to get that advice whenever and wherever you may need it.

Carla (09:37.446)
Wow, so how would the treatment work overseas then?

Luke (09:54.491)
So.

Where clients need medication following a GP consultation, all insurers include a private prescription service. In all cases, there is of course a cost to use the private prescription, both for the medication itself and for the delivery offered. Such a service can be useful and sped up the time to get access to the medication. Clients should be aware that any prescriptions provided through these services will be private prescriptions.

Carla (10:07.462)
Mm -hmm.

Luke (10:27.067)
An NHS prescription will cost £9 .15, however a private prescription requires patients to pay the full cost of the medication, which depending on what is prescribed could be costly or could even be cheaper, it really just depends. The above is just one of the reasons why meeting a financial advisor on a regular basis can ensure that the protection products you hold are fit for purpose and meet the needs of not just for the plan holder.

Carla (10:45.414)
you

Luke (10:53.275)
but for the whole family. So I can’t emphasise enough to my clients just how important it is to have these regular meetings.

Carla (11:02.182)
Yeah, because circumstances change, don’t they? So, you know, and also you might have life insurance or protection, some kind of protection that you took out five years ago, but actually you’ve moved into a bigger house. It might not cover that. You’ve changed jobs and your circumstances has changed. So yeah, definitely regular meetings with your financial advisories is definitely worth doing, isn’t it?

Luke (11:04.603)
Yeah.

Luke (11:26.299)
Yeah, exactly. And you might not even know that you’ve got that need. You might not even know that there’s something missing there that you need to see. So when we contact you and we do a wellbeing check, we make sure that you’ve got what you need and we identify those gaps for you.

Carla (11:32.006)
you

Carla (11:39.832)
you

you

Carla (11:47.558)
Yeah, yeah and I imagine if someone doesn’t need something as well you’ll be able to tell them that because sometimes some people just think they need everything and then it might be well that actually includes that and that doesn’t and you know so I just think having a review can actually it’s not all about you know kind of taking out more and more sometimes it can really save you money as well.

Luke (11:52.987)
Yeah.

Luke (11:57.421)
Yeah.

Luke (12:03.899)
No. Yeah, it’s all about balancing the cost for cover and making sure you’ve got what you need, not any less and not any more. And so not only do I look at making sure they’ve got the best cover possible, but I also make sure that they’re saving as much money as possible on these products. So I always find the best ones that fit them.

Carla (12:31.558)
Yeah, that’s perfect. And that’s the benefit of seeing a local financial advisor really, is getting that tailored advice, not just clicking a button and being like, right, oh yeah, I’ve got that. Yeah, no, I love that. Luke, would you mind just sharing a little bit more about your fantastic company that you work for and all the different ways that you guys can help our listeners?

Luke (12:33.819)
Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Luke (12:53.755)
Yeah, sure. So we’re essentially a one -stop shop for all sorts of financial needs. So we’ve got crystal clear financial planning and that’s what I work under as a mortgage and protection advisor. So I am a whole of market so I can have access to any lender in the country in regards to mortgages.

Carla (13:07.526)
you

Luke (13:17.275)
And then also alongside this, I always package insurance products alongside this to make sure that the debt of the mortgage is protected, the income for your family is protected. So all these things are looked at. Not only that, we also have a wills referral. So we make sure that your estate is going where you want it to go when you do pass away your legacy. And then we also have a sister company called Chrysalis Wealth.

What they do is they provide investments and pension services. They also do the will referrals as well. And that basically puts everything in one place. So you don’t have to go elsewhere for these things. We can arrange every aspect if your financial needs for you. There’s another area that I touch on as well, which is home insurance. I provide home insurance to my clients. A lot of the time when you buy in a house or if you’re in the home buy.

Carla (14:08.902)
you

you

Luke (14:16.795)
process, anyone who’s gone through that, they know how stressful and time consuming it can be. So having me there to just provide that home insurance for you, know that what you’ve got in your house and the building itself is protected and I’ve arranged that all for you without you needing to do anything essentially, you just need to be happy with that price.

Carla (14:28.728)
That’s brilliant, that’s really good. So what we’ll do is we’ll pop the links underneath this episode of how you can get in touch with Luke directly and he’ll be able to, you know, what I’d encourage is, you know, if you have got life insurance or protection.

Luke (14:42.811)
.

Carla (14:53.894)
getting Luke to have a look over it and just review it and just see if you’re covered for what you think you’re covered for, which is the first step, isn’t it? And then if you haven’t got any insurance and you would like a quote and just a chat with Luke, then you can get in touch with him underneath this podcast.

Luke (14:57.997)
Mm -hmm.

Luke (15:13.467)
Yep, that sounds great.

Carla (15:13.83)
Is that okay, Luke?

That’s brilliant. Right. Okay. Well, Luke, thank you so much for being our guest today and covering all of that. It was really interesting.

Luke (15:25.211)
Yep, no, absolutely no problem.

Carla (15:27.558)
Thank you.