General Insurance

General insurance is important for your peace of mind. It enables you to minimise the effects of unexpected and often unwelcome future events, and helps you to organise your personal and business life with greater confidence.

Motor Insurance
All motorists must be insured against their liability for injuries to others (including passengers) and for damage to other people's property resulting from use of a vehicle on the road. It is an offence to drive your car or allow others to drive it without insurance.

Holiday Insurance
We all love our holidays, but what if you fall ill or have an accident; you could have money or luggage stolen; your holiday might be cancelled or cut short through injury or illness; you might have a road accident or have your car stolen. All these risks and more can be covered by a holiday insurance policy. If you take your car abroad you can extend your UK motor insurance policy.

Household Insurance
You need to consider two kinds of household insurance policy. Buildings insurance, which covers the structure of your home and any fixtures and fittings, and contents insurance, which covers all the furniture, furnishings and the like in your home. In fact, it covers anything you would take with you if you moved.

The sum insured under a buildings policy must be the full rebuilding cost of your home. As well as covering you against a long list of 'risks' (including fires, subsidence, theft, flood and storm) both types of policy include an important 'liability' section. This pays for compensation if you are successfully sued.

Marine Insurance
Insurance can be arranged according to the class of your boat

Business Insurance
There are many aspects of business insurance to consider, including: buildings and contents, employers liability, professional indemnity, book debts, loss of money, public/products liability, goods in transit, deterioration of stock, consequential loss, all of which could affect offices, factories, vehicles and staff. Legal expenses insurance may also be worth considering.


Health Insurance

It's when you need to make a claim that you realise just how wise investing in health and medical insurance can be.

Private Medical Insurance (PMI)
With NHS hospital queues still growing, private medical insurance is an appealing though often expensive buy.

And what you pay for is what you get. Premiums are worked out on the basis of age and the type of cover required. And there is a wide range of different insurances to choose from.

At the basic level PMI clicks in when you need specialist treatment or you need to go into hospital. Some policies cover you if the NHS cannot provide treatment within a certain period of time.

At the luxury end of the market there are policies that cover a wide range of medical services such as dentistry, eye care and even spectacles, although the more a policy covers the higher the premium will be.

PMI is complicated for those approaching it for the first time. In order to make sure the policy you choose is the right one to meet your needs it is worth speaking to an adviser who has specialist knowledge in medical policies and can guide you through the maze of different offerings on the market.

Critical Illness
Considering just how many lives are wrecked by critical illnesses such as heart disease, cancer and stroke, it is surprising that more people do not take out critical illness insurance.

The principle is straightforward; in the event of an illness being diagnosed, the insurance company will pay out a lump sum after a survival period. Often, critical illness cover is combined with other types of insurance and may even provide an investment element so that, for example, a given sum will be paid out on the death of the insured.

Permanent Health Insurance (PHI)
PHI provides cover in the event that the insured is unable to work, and therefore to earn, due to illness or injury.

The premium cost will depend on the occupation of the policyholder, their age and the period of time that elapses between when the insured becomes ill and when a claim is made.

There is considerable choice between different covers offered by different insurers. The key is to choose a balance between the cover you need versus the cost of premium. A financial adviser with knowledge of the permanent health market can help you select the appropriate policy for you. You may be fortunate enough never to have to make a claim under your policy, but many people have been very grateful indeed that amongst all the other worries they had when they became unable to work, they knew they did not have to think about how they were going to meet domestic bills and keep a roof over their head until they recovered.

Long-Term Care
We tend not to think about how to pay for long-term care until one of our relatives has to go into a residential or nursing home.

Average weekly nursing home costs could run into hundreds of pounds. By paying either a regular or single premium, the insured can add to the amount that may be available through state benefits to fund the cost of such care and this could mean having to deplete less or none of your assets to meet the cost.

This is why long-term care should form part of your discussion with Berkeley Consultants UK Ltd. There is no doubt that the need for care is likely to increase as life expectancy continues to rise and with only limited care facilities available, the costs are likely to rise.

Corporate insurance

Companies require specialist financial advice because of their importance to their staff and because of the corporate and tax laws which affect them.

Key Person Insurance
Directors and employees with specialist skills or knowledge are key employees of the companies they work for. To lose one through death or incapacity can be damaging to the business. That is why taking out a key-person insurance to protect the company is a wise move.

Key-person insurances can provide several benefits. These can include:

• Paying the costs of a temporary replacement

• Meeting the costs of recruiting a permanent replacement

• Covering the cost of death or incapacity of a key member of staff.

The full scope of cover will depend on the type of policy purchased, but companies ignore the risks of losing key staff at their peril. Shareholders, bank managers, suppliers and customers may not be so laid back…

Share Protection
Directors' or partners' share agreements may provide for the remaining directors to purchase the shares of other shareholding directors when they die. However, there is a risk that the remaining directors may not have sufficient funds to hand when a fellow director passes away unexpectedly.

One way round this is to take out life cover as a source of funding.

To arrange such cover requires the understanding and agreement of all concerned. It will also require some careful figure work to determine how much cover is required. But it will be a comfort to all directors or partners of a business to know that their own or a colleague's death will leave the other directors with sufficient support to carry out the terms of their shareholders' agreement.

Directors and partners may also wish to leverage their company pension scheme at some stage to raise funding for the business. This may be a tax- and cost-efficient way of funding the acquisition of commercial property.

In these circumstances, sound pensions advice will be invaluable.

Directors & Staff Benefits
Recruiting, motivating and retaining able staff is a key preoccupation of many businesses and getting the rewards mix right is an important ingredient. Remuneration menus made up of pensions, life insurance, tax efficient bonuses and benefits are common in well-managed businesses. But they require careful planning and selection depending on the type of business and the type of staff who are involved. What motivates and retains staff at an Internet start up business or a bioscience research operation may require a different balance than at a manufacturing business with a substantial production line workforce.

If staff are the keys to successful businesses, then well-founded and well-managed reward strategies are vital. Taking the right advice early on means that you can make the right moves sooner rather than later. The result should be contented and efficient staff who are confident that they are getting the best deal for their time and their labour.