Deciding to educate your child or children privately is, for most families, a huge financial decision.
The Best Schools website shows day fees for senior schools can now range from £12,000 to £25,000 a year, making your children’s education probably the most expensive outlay in your life after mortgage payments.
But what would happen if the main wage earner became ill and could not work or died prematurely? For most families this would make the school fees commitment very difficult or even impossible to maintain.
Imagine a child already having to deal with the upset of their mum or dad being ill or even worse, dying prematurely. How much worse would this be if they also had to deal with moving to a new school?
Often this move would be to a much bigger, less personal environment, losing the familiarity of their surroundings and also leaving behind their friends and teachers.
The same may apply to young adults studying at university. Again, should the worst happen, it may not be possible for a parent to support their son or daughter's living costs.
Family income benefit is an inexpensive solution that helps take a load off the client’s mind. It means that should the worst happen, their family would have a financial coping strategy.
Rather than paying out a lump sum on death, it pays out a regular tax-free income until the end of the term. Cover is also available for earlier diagnosis of a critical illness.
Menu plans allow clients to take several different FIB covers all under one policy to create bespoke cover for each child which can include different amounts and terms to suit their needs.
Not protecting the commitment of school fees is a risk. Why take that risk when FIB is a low-cost, easy way for a client to provide their family with an income rather than a lump sum if they die?
It can be especially attractive for clients with young families as they might want cover to run until their children are grown up. This income could be used to meet everyday expenses or to pay for specific on-going expenses such as school or university fees.
Shelley Read is senior intermediary development & technical manager at Royal London.
