Have you got the best income protection or trauma insurance policy?

They pay out while you are alive and help you protect your financial situation if you can't work because of ill-health or injury.

But there is no point having these policies if they aren't going to pay out when you need them.  There have been major changes in the conditions covered by income protection and in particular trauma insurance policies in the last 2 years.

If you have an old policy - it might not pay out when you need it, or when you think it will.  The Sunday Star Times has been running a series of articles on the quality of definitions under these types of insurance policies (check them out on the links below).

The most important points are:

1. Has your policy definitions kept up with medical science?

2. Are you actually covered for what you think you are covered for? - check out the heart attack claims that weren't paid because their policies didn't cover that medical situation, even though the claimants had severe events and time off work.

3. Do you have 'policy wording passback' on your policy?  This means that as policy definitions get better for you, they are automatically passed back to you, so you have the best policy available from that insurer at any time.  There are only TWO insurers that have this feature as a standard of their policies on trauma insurance policies.

4. Are you paying too much for your insurance cover?  Insurance premiums are continually reviewed, and it is important that you keep up to date with the options for you. Note though, that you can't move your insurance if your health has deteriorated since you first took the policy out.