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9 Reasons to Use a Broker in 2024

9 Reasons to Use a Broker in 2024

Using a mortgage and protection broker can save you time and worry, handling everything from searching for a deal to applying and communicating with the lender on your behalf. In today’s busy world, we could all benefit from having a calmer, more stress-free life, so here are our top 8 reasons for using a broker in 2024…

Michael Coombes James Wright 9 reason to use a mortgage & protection broker Coombes & Wright Mortgage Solutions Hertfordshire

1. Access to Better Deals & Products

Banks and lenders can only access their own products. By contrast, brokers look at a broad range of mortgages and broker-exclusive deals. We have access to over 65 lenders to find suitable products to meet your needs whether you’re a first-time buyer, remortgaging, moving house or a buy-to-let investor.

2. Manage all the Admin and Legwork

The Coombes & Wright team look after the complete mortgage and protection process for you, including all application paperwork and admin, liaising with your lender, solicitors, estate agent or new home builders. This can be daunting and stressful if you’re unfamiliar with all the jargon and processes. Don’t worry. We do all the legwork so you can relax! With advisers across Hertfordshire in Brookmans Park, Potters Bar, St Albans, Hertford and Abbots Langley, plus London, and Dover and Canterbury, Kent. We offer appointments at a time and location to suit you and are available to answer questions and provide advice.

3. More Streamlined, Less Stressful

As brokers, we deal with lenders daily. We know the application process and background criteria for each to ensure you encounter minimal delays.

4. Benefit from Expert Knowledge

Mortgage brokers have expert knowledge of the mortgage and protection market and can recommend deals that suit your personal situation. We access software to search products faster and more thoroughly than you could. We have day-to-day experience with which lenders are most likely to accept you and help you avoid applying for deals you’re unlikely to get (which can negatively impact future applications).

5. You’re Fully Protected

Brokers have a duty of care to recommend suitable mortgage and protection products and must be able to justify our recommendations. You can complain and be compensated if our advice is not up to scratch.

6. Honest Peer-to-Peer 5-Star Reviews

As consumers in 2024, checking out a company’s customer reviews is second nature. We’re incredibly proud to have over 650 5-star reviews across Google, Trust Pilot and Facebook, reassuring you of our commitment to excellent customer service.

7. Industry Experience

We know the industry – Mortgage criteria have tightened massively over the last few years, with arguably the most comprehensive ranges of products on offer. Affordability tests and checking processes are in place to protect consumers but understandably increase application complexity and timescales. That’s why it’s so important to stay in the loop – and to have a broker on your side who understands it all.

8. On Your Side

Brokers are on your side and work for you! We search for the most favourable mortgages and protection products to meet your individual circumstances. We aren’t on the lender’s side. You get unbiased advice and can choose from a range of lenders and subsequent products rather than being restricted to a single range directly from a lender.

9. Fully Qualified

Brokers are qualified – There’s a lot to consider when choosing a mortgage or protection product such as life insurance or income protection. It’s not as simple as just opting for the cheapest deal. Mortgage & protection brokers must be qualified to give you advice.

So, there you have it, our top 8 reasons to use Coombes & Wright Mortgage Solutions for your next mortgage, remortgage or protection product.

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Are your Children Protected?

Are your Children Protected?

After a particularly difficult and bumpy few years and with uncertainty still on the horizon, now seems an appropriate time to review your financial situation.  This is particularly important for people with children to ensure that loved ones will be protected, no matter what life throws at them.  Having the right insurance in place is often key to making this happen.

Family life insurance protection cover Coombes & wright Hertfordshire Kent

The basics of life insurance

Life insurance comes in two main forms, whole life, and term.  Whole-life policies remain in effect indefinitely.  This means that, as long as the policyholder keeps making the payments, their heirs are guaranteed to receive a payout eventually.  Term policies are only valid for a specific period.

If the main purpose of your life insurance is to protect children in the event of your death, then term assurance may be the more practical option.  It will ensure that your children will be provided for until they are adults and hence can provide for themselves.

In addition to ensuring that you have a suitable level of insurance coverage, you may want to think about how the proceeds will be paid.  Putting the money into a trust would give you some level of control over how it is spent.  It would also separate the insurance payout from your main estate.  This reduces the taxable value of your estate and hence could reduce your inheritance tax bill.

Life insurance is for more than just the “breadwinner”

Both parents need life insurance, even if only one earns an income.  The homemaking parent provides childcare, which has an economic value.  It may even be appropriate to extend life insurance cover to the children themselves.  The death of a child can lead to expenses for the whole family (e.g. funeral expenses), and the cost of cover is likely to be minimal.

Last but not least, if you depend on relatives for childcare, e.g. grandparents, then it may be advisable to look at life insurance for them too.  This may be more expensive (due to their age), but you may only require a short-term policy e.g. until they go to school.

Renewing life insurance is a good opportunity to review legal documents

Ensuring your children are protected means more than just ensuring their financial well-being (although this is certainly a good place to start).  You’ll also need to think about who would care for them practically if you were no longer here.

It is highly advisable to document your wishes in your will so that they are both clear and legally enforceable.  If you do not, then your children may end up in the care system until there is a legally-binding agreement on their care.  This agreement may not be what you or your family would have wanted.

On a similar note, renewing life insurance is also a good time to look at powers of attorney (both financial and medical).  This can, indirectly, help to protect your children since it can make life a lot easier for anyone trying to juggle looking after you with looking after them.

Other forms of insurance

Your death isn’t the only issue that could impact your children.  In fact, anything which impacts you, your partner and your home can have a negative impact.  This means that, if at all possible, you should think through potential issues and take out insurance to protect against them. Types of cover you may wish to consider might include:

  • Family Income Benefit
  • Critical Illness Cover
  • Income Protection
  • Mortgage Protection
  • Private Medical Insurance
  • Rent Protection
  • Limited Company Relevant Life Insurance

Contact Coombes & Wright, we can help you source protection cover that meets your needs.

Book your free no-obligation initial consultation

The FCA does not regulate wills and power of attorney – For wills, power of attorney, and payment protection insurance, we act as introducers only.

 

 

Protection As Time Passes

Protection As Time Passes

We live and learn and as we learn we grow and change.  Some aspects of our life will remain the same all through the passing years, others will change completely and still more will need to be adapted to suit our current circumstances.  With this in mind, here are some pointers to look at, when considering what sort of protection you need for your current situation. 

What would happen if I lost my job?

If you are currently without debts (including a mortgage) and children, then your first answer might well be savings and/or benefits, but while having emergency savings is always good, by definition, once savings are used they are gone and you may well find you’d prefer to avoid having to deal with the benefits system.  Having the right insurance can help to protect and prolong your savings.  Some income-protection policies will pay out upon unemployment and hence could be well worth a look.    Once debts and/or children come along, then this situation needs to be looked at very seriously.

What would happen if I became unable to work through illness or accident?

Again, if you’re without debts or children, your immediate thought might be to move back with your parents and this can be a feasible solution in some cases.  What, however, would happen if your parents’ home needed adjustments made to it to accommodate you until you recovered, for example being made more wheelchair accessible?  What if you actually needed care at home?  How would your parents and family cope with that?  Once debts and children arrive, you really need to have a plan in place for dealing with this situation.  You may wish to add critical illness cover for really serious illnesses.  Even if you are in employment, it can be worthwhile to arrange your own cover, since you may discover that your benefits are insufficient for your particular situation.  The self-employed should make it a priority to check that their insurance cover is sufficient for their needs.

What would happen if I were to die?

If you are without dependents such as children, then life insurance may be irrelevant to you, however if you think that your parents might be in a position when they need help from you in later life, then you may still wish to look at life insurance so as to mitigate the financial impact of your death.  As soon as you do have dependents, particularly children, appropriate life insurance becomes of the highest importance, even if you are the home-maker.  In the event of your death, someone else will have to undertake all the practical tasks which are currently your responsibility.  Life insurance comes in two forms, term insurance (which is for a specific period of time) and whole-life insurance (which stays in place for as long as you pay the premiums).  Term insurance is often the best option when people want insurance for a specific purpose, such as to pay off a mortgage and/or to see children into adulthood, but there may be situations when whole-life insurance is a better choice.

Having the right level of cover is as important as having the right sort of cover

If you have too much insurance, your premiums will be higher than necessary, but if you have too little, you will have insufficient protection.  Striking the right balance can be tricky, which is why it can be very helpful to get professional financial advice.

For Accident, Sickness and Unemployment insurance we act as introducers only.

 

How to insure against the winter blues

How to insure against the winter blues

Summer, such as it was, is now very definitely over and autumn is starting to make itself felt.  Depending on your point of view, we’re now either coming into the season of hot chocolate and hygge or coming into the season of cold, wet weather and general misery.  Even if you love the cooler months, the fact still remains that they do bring their own challenges, but the good news is that you can protect yourself against them by “self-insuring” (following good practices) and taking out formal insurance cover.

Insuring your health

Even though minor illnesses and injuries and frankly part and parcel of autumn and winter seasons, you don’t just have to cave into them.  Just being sensible about what you eat and drink can go a long way to boosting your immunity and if you make time for exercise as well, especially outdoor exercise, then you will put your body in a much better place to ward off the cold-weather nasties.

At the same time, however, you have to be realistic about what life can bring and about what you can do to be prepared for it.  With that in mind, it could be a good idea to take out dental insurance, if not full medical insurance.  Autumn rains and leaves and winter ice are all serious tripping hazards, which can easily leave you with damaged teeth – and dental bills can be very expensive.  Thanks to the NHS other forms of treatment are often much more reasonably priced, in fact, they may be free, but there may be a lengthy wait for them and the treatments on offer may not be as extensive as you might have liked (e.g. they might not include physiotherapy after an accident or may only offer limited sessions).  This is why full health insurance can be a great investment.

Insuring your income

For most people, their income is dependent on their ability to get to work.  If your ability to get to work depends on you having your own transport of some sort, then it’s a good idea to give your vehicle a thorough check and take any necessary action before the cold really sets in.  You may also need to think about whether you should take any other precautions related to travel in cold weather, such as upgrading your insurance to include accidents and perhaps even a call-out service.

You may also want to think about what would happen if a long-term illness or injury left you unable to work for any length of time (or to function as a parent, a carer or in any other capacity).  Depending on your stage in life, you may be able to get by with a basic emergency fund, but if you have people depending on you in any way, such as for childcare, then you may want to look seriously at Critical Illness Cover for protection during long-term illness.

Insuring your property (and its contents)

Most people will probably already have insurance for their home and contents, however, you can reduce the chance of needing to make a claim on your buildings insurance by making sure that you have done everything possible to ensure that it can withstand everything the weather is going to throw at it.  Now is also a good time of year to review your contents cover to ensure that it is still an accurate reflection of what is inside your home and to think about any potential large purchases you may want to make, either at Christmas or in the January sales.

For motor insurance, mortgage payment protection insurance, building and content insurance and general insurance products we act as introducers only.