The most-skipped coverage
You are far likelier to lose income to a long illness than to die during your working years, yet disability cover is the policy most households never buy.
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Insurance & Risk
Insurance exists to transfer losses you cannot absorb. Every dollar spent on anything else is a bad trade dressed as prudence. This desk sizes each coverage against the loss it is actually protecting you from — written by a former underwriter who reads the policy documents.
4In-depth guides
1Coverage calculator
~55 minFull desk reading time
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How to use this desk
Insure the catastrophic, self-insure the annoying
The single most reliable way to cut premiums without increasing real risk is to stop insuring things you could pay for out of savings.
- Rank risks by severity, not by likelihood. A 2% chance of a $900,000 loss deserves far more attention than a 40% chance of a $600 one.
- Raise deductibles to the limit of your emergency fund. This is the cheapest premium reduction available and it changes nothing about your real exposure.
- Buy the boring version. Riders, return-of-premium features and bundled extras are where margin hides.
- Match the term to the obligation. Coverage should end when the thing it protects ends — not on a round number.
- Re-shop every two to three years. Loyalty is systematically priced against you in most personal lines.
Definitions decide claims
"Own occupation" versus "any occupation" is a handful of words that changes whether a policy pays at all. Read the definitions section first.
Health is priced at purchase
Underwriting locks your rate. Every year of delay and every new diagnosis raises the price permanently — this is the one product where waiting always costs.
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