Group and Employer-Provided Insurance Benefits
Employer benefit packages commonly include several insurance products that employees never examine, which leads both to duplication and to gaps discovered at the worst moment.
What is commonly provided
Death in service cover, typically a multiple of salary paid to nominated beneficiaries. This is frequently the largest life cover a household holds.
Income protection or permanent health insurance, paying a proportion of salary after a deferred period if you cannot work through illness or injury.
Private medical insurance, sometimes extending to family at additional cost.
Critical illness cover, employee assistance programmes, dental and optical benefits, and travel insurance for business trips that sometimes extends to leisure travel.
Death in service specifics
It is usually paid through a trust, which means it falls outside the estate and is paid quickly without waiting for probate.
The trustees decide who receives it, guided by your expression of wish form. That form is not binding but is followed in almost all cases.
Completing and updating it matters. An out-of-date nomination naming a former partner is a common and entirely avoidable problem, and it is worth checking after any change in circumstances.
The problem with relying on it
Cover ends when employment ends. Redundancy, resignation or retirement removes it, usually immediately or shortly afterwards.
That is precisely when personal cover is hardest to obtain, because health may have changed and age has increased.
Some schemes offer a continuation option allowing conversion to a personal policy without medical underwriting, within a short window after leaving. Where it exists it is valuable and the window is easy to miss.
Avoiding duplication
Check what the employer provides before buying personal cover. Households routinely pay for private medical insurance, personal accident cover or travel insurance that duplicates an existing benefit.
Equally, do not assume the employer benefit is sufficient. A death in service benefit of a few times salary may fall well short of clearing a mortgage and supporting a family.
Practical steps
Request the scheme booklets and read what is actually covered, including the definitions of incapacity in any income protection scheme.
Complete the expression of wish form and review it annually.
Note the deferred period on any income protection benefit, since that determines how long you must fund yourself before it pays.
Treat employer cover as a supplement to personal arrangements rather than a replacement, particularly for anything your household depends on.
This article is general information and not financial advice.
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