The expression “cost of living” has taken hold in recent years as inflation has forced up the price of goods and services. This includes the cost of certain insurances.
You would think insurance might be preserved to some extent, as the risk of your house burning down, death or suffering an illness is not obviously increased by inflation or higher interest rates.
However, if wages are rising, rents and borrowing costs go up, then an insurance company is going to have higher expenditure. That feeds into premiums.
Then, there is some evidence that as belts tighten and the average person struggles, claims can start to come in at faster levels. This may be down to a range of factors. Also more people may default on premiums.
Many of you may have faced a renewal quote for an insurance recently and found this effect. Insurance costs are rising as well.
There is another expression (from a quote attributed to Oscar Wilde) relating to knowing “the price of everything and the value of nothing” and this is apt in the context of insurance, as we tend to focus on cost, or premiums, and try to keep these low, so we compare from company to company to see which company is cheapest.
That makes sense providing you are comparing like for like. And you have the right cover!
For many households, they may have hundreds of pounds going out in various insurances each month, covering life assurance, sickness insurance of some sort, house and car insurance.
The cost of living situation is a great spur to pursue a comprehensive exercise of reviewing all your insurance, but not just the cost. It’s worth looking closely at the cover as well, as often costs are lower if there is some form of inadequacy, for example a significant, exclusion or excess, in the cover.
What we can do at Signpost is help you look at the entire portfolio of insurances you have, completing a total review.
And we can factor in everything, including, where suitable or relevant, how to get things cheaper. But never at the expense of the right cover.
Working it all out can be a time-consuming and complicated process, but we know how to do that, so let us help you by reviewing all your insurances and seeing what we can do to make your portfolio of insurances is more efficient.
