UK Insurance News

If you are a homeowner and aged 50 or over, chances are you’ve got your head around how important it is to have home insurance. However, after years of making sure you have the basics covered, you may have stopped examining your policy in detail to see just what you have under financial protection. It may also be possible that you’ve started to neglect to check if you could get a better deal elsewhere when your insurance comes up for renewal.

Making sure you have the correct home insurance for your property is just, if not more, vital in your later years. You may be able to afford to pay more for your policy compared to when you set your first step on the property ladder as a first time buyer, but at the same time you are likely to have more to protect.

Taking out home insurance with a company such as Castle Cover who tailor their policies to the needs of individuals like you, could help your more adequately protect both the possessions you have amassed and the time and effort you have put into your home. Specialist insurers recognise that mature homeowners are often more careful than their younger counterparts and as such they offer competitive pricing as a reward. They also able to provide a high level of cover for both your contents and buildings insurance in recognition of all the hard work you have put into establishing your home and developing its value.

When you are taking out insurance be sure to account for possessions old and new.  Alongside new treasures like in-house technology such as laptops, flat screen TVs and PCs, make sure you account for any family heirlooms, antiques or collectables and have them valued if necessary.

Always ensure your home insurance policy covers all the basics such as flood, storm damage, water leaks and theft and consider any policy extras you might require too. If you spend a lot of time and money in your garden relaxing and gardening you may want to consider adding extras to your policy to protect the external parts of your home such as plants, shrubs and garden shed. After all – they all work together to make up the life you live in your home.

Those who fit the remit of high net worth insurance are not just Lords, actresses, and millionaires – they include a vast number “ordinary” people, many of whom do not realise that high net worth insurance would benefit them because they underestimate the total value of their assets.

Whether your most valuable asset is a house and its furnishings; an inheritance of family jewellery; a painstakingly assembled collection of art or antiques; or simply a sheer volume of clothes, electronics, and furniture, if the total worth of your valuables exceeds £40,000 then it may be prudent to consider high net worth insurance.

The inheritance
Inherited items are easily undervalued since they may go entirely unused in an attic or cellar, being either considered sentimental in value or too good for daily use, yet worth a significant amount of money. Sometimes it is not until an inherited item is lost or damaged that its true worth is revealed: for example, consider a piece of furniture or art that becomes damaged and requires professional restoration.

When it is taken to the professionals, it is accurately valued far beyond what you had anticipated. At this stage you discover that your regular insurance plan does not cover replacement or restoration of an item of this value, and you are left either to foot the bill yourself or go home with a damaged item. If you have goods in your home that may fit into this category, it is possible that high net worth insurance will best fit your needs.

The collection
The time and energy involved in amassing a collection of fine art or antiques is invaluable, but the art and antiques themselves can be valued at a price that regular insurance generally will not cover. No insurance payout could ease the blow of losing any portion of a collection through theft, flood, fire, or accident, but the injury could easily be exacerbated by the insult of going without the funds to begin again. High net worth insurance is designed for those with specialist items in their homes and can often include an agreement tailored to the individual’s collection.

The home itself
For most of us, the most valuable thing we own is the house that we live in. If the cost of rebuilding your home is around £200,000 or more then, again, high net worth insurance may protect your assets better than another insurance plan. Equally if your home has some unique feature like a thatched roof, damage and maintenance associated with that may not be covered by traditional home insurance.

We have all placed our faith in medicine at one time or another and where professional advice is given may not always consider questioning a final decision.  But if the wrong illness or treatment is diagnosed then medical negligence and personal injuries can render devastating effects.

Whereas the majority of solicitors have a legal team dedicated to personal injury claims and services, far fewer firms specialise in specific areas.

Unless you have regular dealings with a firm of solicitors or a recommendation from a reliable source, choosing the right solicitor is a very important part of the decision-making process when making any personal claim.

A good solicitors website should offer free advice on a variety of questions that may well be central to your considering starting a claim procedure – who will pay your legal fees, how to choose the right solicitor and how long do you have to decide whether to start a claim.

In times like these it’s fair to say that businesses in all sectors look to branch out and offer other services that they may not have the necessary experience or expertise.  Like I.T companies, solicitors can offer a wide range of services but a company website can sometimes offer a clue as to where their core expertise lies.

I see many I.T company websites that promote themselves as offering I.T support, networking, server management, computer repairs and right at the bottom of the list, lost in comparison with the other services… and website design.  If this doesn’t prove they are I.T experts rather than web designers then their own website and portfolio generally underlines more initial thoughts; and solicitors’ websites can be read in much the same way.

It will either list absolutely every conceivable service a firm of solicitors can offer, in which case you will want to the reassurance that this company is large enough to have an experienced department in every field or you want the reassurance that the solicitors you choose are suited to requirements.  In the case of medical negligence, it is vital that the solicitors you choose to represent you, is a company that specialise in this niche field.

Medical negligence claims can be very time-consuming and involved.  It is therefore crucial for you to have full confidence in the experience and expertise of the lawyer or lawyers that are in charge of your claim.

Goodmans Law are a firm of solicitors that specialise in medical negligence and personal injury claims. Their website clearly highlights their areas of expertise and as such should give you peace of mind.

Every day, every one of us is faced with the possibility of being involved in a personal accident or a life-changing injury.  Either way, it can be very painful and in worst cases, escaping death, can leave you with a lifetime disability and unfit to work.

Some accidents and injuries can be avoided by following the correct procedures and applying common sense, but that’s not always the case; and when the accident or injury is caused by a third party then the whole incident can be completely out of your hands.

There are various accident and injury types.  The most common include motoring accidents, accidents at work, accidents and injury caused by lifting, slips, trips and falls, and injury and illness caused by industrial diseases.

In the UK our roads are so busy nowadays that it is commonplace to witness a car accident.  If you are involved in a car accident you may be fortunate enough to escape personal injury and only suffer vehicle damage, but though we don’t always want to consider the worst, accidents are a major cause of death and disability in the UK. The fact that we all go about our daily lives with an ‘it will never happen to me’ attitude allows us to concentrate on living our lives, but we cannot escape the fact that death from accidents is probably more common than we would like to believe.

One person dies every hour from accidents in England alone.  That’s a staggering statistic.  Another is that the NHS spends £1.2 billion each year on the treatment of injuries.  Accidents can happen to us all, but accidents are the greatest threat to life to children and young people.

Many motoring accidents and personal injury can be avoided if the right measures and procedures are followed and thought is given to your own actions and due consideration is placed on the actions others may take.  But accidents and injuries happen to the most health and safety conscious among us; and for that professional accident and injury lawyers such as Johnson Law, who specialise in the field of accident claims and injuries, are qualified to offer individuals the best advice and service.

Being involved in an accident can be a very stressful time, not just for the person involved but also to immediate family and their livelihood.  But rest assured, if you are involved in an accident or befall a personal injury, there is professional help at hand.

In these times of cuts and rising household bills, I don’t know anyone who isn’t looking to tighten up their spending and reduce their monthly outgoings, partly due to the cost of living but also future uncertainties such as the real threat of unemployment. But with cost-cutting measures there also needs to be a healthy consideration for planning for a worst case scenario.

The British are known to be pet lovers.  Millions of pounds are spent each year buying, feeding and looking after our pets.  I fondly remember having two dogs that were very much part of my childhood.  Unlike most family pet dogs today, they lived outside in a home-built kennel that was large enough for me to climb into whenever I was in trouble or looking for a comforting cuddle of my best friend in the world!

Since leaving home and starting my own family, we have at different times had cats, dogs, hamsters, a rabbit and too many fish to count. My two boys are used to having animals around and more importantly caring for pets that show them love and trust in return for food and friendship.

Much has changed since I was a child and the cost of vet fees has increased dramatically along with the expectations we have for both the health of ourselves and our pets.  It is therefore worth serious consideration as to what money you have set aside in case of a pet emergency.

What worse situation would there be for a pet owner to be unable to pay for veterinary treatment if something was to happen to a beloved pet or even worse the family pet? Imagine the stress and heartache of a guilty conscience if money hasn’t been put aside for life-saving treatment for a long-standing family dog or cat.  Objectively it might not sound too hard a decision to make but generally speaking, when it comes to pets, people don’t think objectively.

The worst case scenario would be if you are currently struggling to survive on a wage when you get hit by a £500 + vet bill.  What then?

There has been a rise in pet insurance in recent years, which goes hand-in-hand with the price of veterinary charges and the rising level of treatment expectancy owners now have for their animals, and many insurers now have a wide range of pet insurance policies to cover dogs, cats, rabbits and other common domestic pets.

Commonly pet insurance for dogs and cats comes in various levels of cover and includes veterinary fees, third party liability, accidental damage, death from injury, death from illness, cremation or burial costs, theft or straying, boarding fees, quarantine fees, and in some cases even advertising and reward costs for lost pets.
The first thing to consider when looking to save money is to look at your outgoings, but also look ahead and plan for the future.

One word of advice, when taking out a pet insurance policy, ensure that your pet has received the required vaccinations, as failure to comply with this will jeopardise your claim or cover.

For more information visit Pet Insurance from Pets At Home.