We’re at that time of year again when many Health Insurance customers are poring over their Health Insurance renewal documents. Many will simply renew without really thinking about it to any great extent – often an expensive mistake.

There are a few specific factors to consider this year. First of all, the prices of many health insurance plans are increasing. It’s more important than ever to ensure that you have the right plan to suit your family circumstances and that it is the best value plan available in the market for that level of benefits. On top of this Covid-19 has changed the landscape too in terms of how people are availing of health services – it’s important that you are paying for benefits that you potentially will avail of, and not paying for a plan that offers benefits that really will never be used by you.

Health insurance remains a really important product for families. According to the Health Insurance Authority, there were 2,340,000 people insured with inpatient health insurance plans at the end of June 2021. This represents an increase in the number of insured people of 51,000 over the past 12 months and well up from a low of just over 2 million people in December 2014. The market peaked at almost 2.3 million people at the end of 2008, so the market is approaching that peak again. Based on Central Statistics Office (CSO) population estimates, the percentage of the population with inpatient health insurance plans stands at 46.5% at end June 2021.

More and more people are aware of the potential to find a better deal and are shopping around. Some ring around all of the providers and get quotes themselves. However in this instance, they are only really getting visibility of a relatively small number of the policies available. Other customers are ringing their health insurance adviser, such as Lyons Financial Services. And they get the biggest savings of all, as we know all of the policies on offer in the market. This includes the lesser-advertised policies that may have better benefits or lower premiums.

We know that some people are a bit overwhelmed by the huge choice of different policies with all sorts of features and benefits. As a result, some people reckon it’s easier then to just stay where they are. We don’t see it this way. We know the savings that are there to be gained, and having established ourselves as one of the leading Health Insurance advisors in the Irish market, we know that we will be able to find the right plan for you and your family.

 We pride ourselves on understanding your requirements, making clear recommendations, and helping you to get the best plan for you in place without any fuss. It is our job to understand the ins and outs of all of the different plans. This enables us to make sure you can get the right cover in place.

 We also do this work for companies and other organisations who operate health insurance schemes on behalf of their employees or members. We operate highly efficient salary deduction schemes, which make it easier for employers and employees alike to manage the payment of their health insurance contributions and to claim their tax relief on these payments. Our aim is to provide you with expert advice, find the right plan for you and then quickly get your plan up and running. 

So whether you are new to the Health Insurance market, are looking to renew your existing plan or indeed want to make sure you have the very best plan for your own circumstances, give us a call at Lyons  on 01 8015808 and we’ll make sure you’re on the right track. 

We spend our days helping clients to plan their financial futures. What we see is that people face similar challenges depending on their stage of life. At the same time of course, each and every one of us has a unique set of circumstances, has our own specific financial objectives and needs bespoke advice to help us reach our goals. 

You see, financial planning is not an exact science. It depends completely on those unique circumstances; your current and potential earnings, your family situation and your assets and liabilities to name but a few factors. And it also depends on what it is you are trying to achieve. For you, is it all about comfort in retirement or are you seeking to maximise your wealth in the shorter term? Is the security of your family your primary concern?

While we clearly acknowledge that everyone is unique, we thought it might be useful to give you a sense of the type of issues that many of our clients see as the big financial challenges at various stages in their lives, and the typical solutions they seek out from us.

The carefree years: Age 20 – 35

Ah the carefree years! At least that’s how they start out for this age group before they start placing one eye on the future. For most of our clients in their late teens and early twenties, there are really just a small number of areas that they come to us looking for help with. The first area of focus is savings, often with one eye on building a deposit for that eventual house purchase.

As our clients move through their twenties and into their thirties, mortgages tend to dominate as people seek to get loan approval for that first home. As many of our clients also get married at this time and start their families, they tend to focus on getting protection (health insurance, life assurance, income protection etc.) in place to safeguard their families financially. The very forward-thinking of our clients also turn their attention to building education funds for their children and also their retirement funding. These smart people realise that the earlier they start their funding, the more they are likely to have available at retirement!  

The growth years: Age 35 – 50

Hopefully now the mortgage is not hurting quite as much and there is a little spare cash available for other purposes. At this stage in our clients’ lives, we see a real commitment to pension funding – making sure that they can maximise the tax breaks available and finding the best pension vehicle for them. We also find at this stage that our clients become a little more aware of their infallibility (remember how indestructible we all felt when younger?), and want to ensure that they have the right protection in place to protect themselves and/or their families against the financial consequences of ill-health or death. 

For those who are in the fortunate position of having some spare money, they also seek help in building an investment portfolio, particularly in the current low deposit rate environment.

The consolidation years: Age 50 – 65

As the state pension age is likely to be extended over the next few decades, this consolidation period is going to expand. We see our clients at this stage furiously continuing to build up their pension funds. 

Another area that we get asked a lot about among this group is in relation to the whole area of wealth transfer. Our clients have seen the pretty low Capital Gains Tax thresholds and the penal 33% CGT rate, and seek out ways to avoid leaving their families with big tax bills. These tax bills can often result in families being forced to sell an inherited family home, just to pay the tax bill. So we help them plan the transfer of wealth in a tax efficient way. To achieve this, gifting becomes an important element of wealth transfer for many families.

The Drawdown years – age 65+

And now the spending years – hopefully! This is where hopefully you get to enjoy the fruits of your labour and your careful financial planning over the years. Usually our clients no longer have a salary coming in at this stage, but of course we hope that we’ve been able to help them accumulate a good pension for themselves.  Our work with clients who are in the latter stages of their lives tends to be around helping them manage their spending wisely. The risk these clients want to avoid is running out of money, so we help them to manage their assets carefully.

What we also see among this group is the amount of time they spend thinking about others and how important their legacy is to them. They are thinking a lot about their families in particular and how they can leave a lasting legacy (financial and otherwise) with them. Again we help them with their wealth transfer strategy to ensure their financial legacy is valuable and accessible for their families.

We hope this article gives you a sense of the types of challenges our clients face. If you would like to discuss your own particular situation with us, we would of course be delighted to hear from you. 

OK we admit – this may not sound like the most exciting topic in the world, but it just might make a significant difference to your financial future…

There is a surprisingly large amount of money sitting unclaimed in pension schemes in Ireland, the estimated amount of this ranges anywhere between €500million and €1billion. This money is owned by the beneficiaries – most likely ex-employees. An important point to remember about this is that all of this money is held in trust and completely separate to the assets of the employer. So even if the company is no longer in existence, the money is still sitting there, somewhere, waiting to be claimed by its owner – the ex-employee.

Some people dismiss this as not worth the hassle. However time and compound interest do wonderful things to pensions funds. Let’s assume for a minute that you left your first employer at age 30 and left behind your pension fund with €10,000 in it. The company is gone, you’ve no idea where to start looking for the money and don’t think it’s worth the hassle. However if the fund grows on average by 5% p.a. and you retire at age 68, it will then be worth almost €64,000. Now that is definitely worth chasing! The benefits may be even more valuable if they were built up in a Defined Benefit pension scheme.

A frustration for many people is that it is not always easy to find and claim old pension scheme benefits. Your old employer from 20/30 years ago may no longer be in existence, and you may not know who the pension scheme administrators were. Quite often, people have simply binned any correspondence that they got over the years. This can turn out to be an expensive mistake. 

Unlike other countries, unfortunately in Ireland there is no central register of old pension schemes that you can access and find the necessary information. For example, the UK has a pension tracing service for the £20bn in unclaimed pensions there. This lack of a central service has been raised in the Dáil over the years, but to no avail. So what should you do if your old employer is no longer in existence?

Keep paperwork

This is a really important step. Retain any scheme benefit statements that you get for your pension scheme and retain contact details of the scheme administrators. Remember when you move house etc. to keep them updated of your changed contact details. Also if you change your name when you get married, it makes sense to get them to update their records.

Talk to old colleagues

Very often you will find that a slightly older ex-colleague may well have faced this exact same situation themselves in the recent past. Reach out to them – they just might be able to save you a whole heap of work by passing on the details of the pensions scheme administrator.  

Contact The Pensions Authority

If all else fails, contact The Pensions Authority who regulate most of the pension schemes in Ireland. They just might be able to help you track down the administrators of your old scheme.

As mentioned earlier it is usually well worth the hassle of looking. These funds often have been sitting invested for a very long period of time, growing over the years. As Albert Einstein once said, “Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world”. This could be the catalyst for adding very nicely to your available funds when you reach retirement.