Edinburgh · Scotland · UK-wide
A mortgage is usually the largest commitment a household ever takes on, and protection is what keeps it in the family if something goes wrong. There are four core products: life cover pays out on death, critical illness cover pays a lump sum on diagnosis of a specified serious condition, income protection replaces a proportion of your income if illness or injury stops you working, and family income benefit pays a monthly income to your dependants rather than a lump sum. Prime Mortgages arranges all four across the whole of market, and the advice costs you nothing.
| Cover | Pays out when | Typically used for |
|---|---|---|
| Level term life | You die within the term | Clearing a mortgage or leaving a lump sum |
| Decreasing term life | You die within the term | A repayment mortgage — cover falls as the debt does, so it costs less |
| Critical illness | You are diagnosed with a specified condition | Clearing debt or funding time off and adaptations |
| Income protection | Illness or injury stops you working | Replacing 50%–70% of income until you return or retire |
| Family income benefit | You die within the term | A monthly income to dependants — cheaper than an equivalent lump sum |
Most households buy life cover and stop there. Statistically you are considerably more likely to be off work long-term through illness or injury than to die during your mortgage term — but income protection is the least-bought of the four products.
Statutory Sick Pay is a fixed weekly amount for up to 28 weeks. If your employer offers nothing beyond it, that is the entire safety net between an accident and your mortgage payment. Income protection is the product that fills that gap, and for most people it should be arranged before critical illness cover, not after.
If you own a business, the same logic applies to it. Key person cover protects the business against the loss of someone it depends on; shareholder protection funds the purchase of a deceased shareholder's stake so the remaining owners keep control; and relevant life cover provides individual death-in-service benefit paid for by the company, usually as an allowable business expense.
These are frequently more tax-efficient than personal cover for company directors, and are worth reviewing alongside any commercial borrowing.
No fee for the initial conversation, and no obligation. We usually reply the same working day.
Common questions
No. It is not a legal or regulatory requirement for a residential mortgage in the UK, and no lender can make a mortgage conditional on buying insurance through them. Buildings insurance is required. Most people take life cover because losing an income and keeping a mortgage is a difficult combination, not because they must.
Life insurance pays out when you die. Critical illness cover pays a lump sum while you are alive, on diagnosis of a condition specified in the policy — commonly cancer, heart attack and stroke, though good policies cover far more. They are often bought together, and critical illness typically costs several times more than life cover for the same sum.
For most people, income protection. You are statistically more likely to be off work long-term through illness or injury than to be diagnosed with a listed critical illness, and income protection pays out on any incapacity rather than only on a defined list of conditions. Critical illness is a valuable addition once income protection is in place.
It places the policy outside your estate, so the payout goes directly to the beneficiaries you name rather than waiting for confirmation or probate. It is free to do at the point of application, usually keeps the payout free of inheritance tax, and can cut the time to payment from months to weeks. We set trusts up as standard.
It depends on your age, health, whether you smoke, the amount of cover and the term. A healthy non-smoker in their thirties can often cover a typical mortgage for a modest monthly premium; smoking and existing conditions raise it significantly. We quote across the whole market rather than one insurer, and there is no fee for our protection advice.
Possibly not. Non-disclosure is the single most common reason claims fail. Insurers will price for almost any disclosed condition — a policy that costs more but pays is worth far more than a cheap one that does not. Always answer the medical questions in full.
A twenty-minute conversation will tell you what you can realistically borrow, what it will cost and whether it is worth doing. It is free, and we will tell you honestly if the answer is no.