Insurance is increasingly important to older clients

Martin Hawes, a respected commentator on trusts, was a recent proponent of this view. Of course, he’s not alone. In fact, even some clued-up insurance advisers adopt a similar tactic: acknowledging that insurance is unpopular they market reviews with the catch-phrase “Do you have too much insurance?”

But are they right?

If your financial life has become so simple that it entails no debt, and no responsibilities to those that you might leave behind, and you have sufficient resources available for final expenses then perhaps that is success of a sort – but a fairly limited sort, and not one which is actually that common these days prior to the age of 70.

Increasing numbers of people over the age of 65 are working. When you work you tend to have responsibilities that others will still want met even if you can’t work – hence life insurance, income protection, trauma cover and TPD. In fact, because of this one fact – a demographic shift caused by better and better life expectancy and quality of life – more and more insurers offer to age 70 benefits for IP, Trauma, and TPD.