We wanted to tell you about an exciting new benefit, Care Connect, now available to Irish Life Health members. This benefit aims to provide our members with access to specialist care programmes for a range of medical conditions.

Our first programme to launch under this new benefit is Heart Connect, with more programmes launching in 2023 and beyond. The programmes will be delivered by our partner provider Care-Connect.

About the Heart Care Programme

Around 90,000 people in Ireland are living with heart failure (HSE.ie). One of the most critical parts to successfully managing this condition is regular monitoring and prompt treatment.  This can be difficult with lengthy GP and hospital waiting times. The Heart Care programme will provide direct clinical support and remote monitoring for Irish Life Health customers with chronic heart failure. 

To find out more about the Heart Care Programme, click here.

This benefit is available to Irish Life Health members aged 18+ on all hospital plans. This benefit is provided by Care-Connect and will be made available wherever Care-Connect can provide the service and where the requirements can be met on hardware and connectivity by the Irish Life Health member. Access and eligibility for the programme is subject to Care-Connect’s terms and conditions. A GP or consultant must approve member suitability and the member must also meet Care-Connect’s specified clinical indicators as set out in the Schedule of Benefits. Terms and conditions apply. See Table of Cover and Membership Handbook for details.

Let's face it, Income Protection is somewhat of a grudge purchase. While it still enjoys the benefit of tax relief at your marginal (highest) rate, it’s another household expense that none of us enjoy paying. After all, you’re paying for a benefit that you hope you never collect... 

Income Protection is sometimes described as the glue in a financial portfolio. The most devastating impact on your financial situation is likely to be caused by a loss of your income, and the inability to replace it.

Unfortunately, people lose their jobs from time to time. However inevitably what tends to happen is that these people pick up new roles elsewhere or take a new path in their careers. As a result, their income may drop for a period of time, but will usually pick up again before too long. These people are in the fortunate position of being able to work.  

Being unable to work because of illness or injury is a whole other matter. Little or no costs are moved from your life, in fact new costs may emerge such as medical expenses, care fees etc. On the income side, there are social protection benefits available, but in reality these deliver no more than basic subsistence payments. So there is often a lot less money coming in, with sometimes more going out…

Income protection protects your most important asset in the event of illness or injury – your income. And yet at the same time, it still doesn’t find its way into everybody’s financial portfolio.  

Your most important asset?

We reviewed some very insightful research from a few years ago among Irish consumers that shines a light on this issue, with some very interesting findings. First of all, when asked to rank their financial assets in order of importance, the findings were,

1. Our home (67%)
2. Our savings (57%)
3. Our pensions (48%)
4. Our income (43%)

The findings are not surprising in that most people have an emotional attachment to their home. However without their income, these people will lose all of the other assets (maybe bar their pension). Your income is the enabler of all of the other assets, and therefore is the most critical one to maintain.

How long could you cope?

The research then went on to ask how long employees could cope without their income where they are reliant on social protection, using their savings and maybe selling some assets. The findings here were startling when compared to the reality of income protection claimants.

• 44% of people said they could cope for 3-6 months only.
• 30% said they could cope for between 6 months and a year
• Less than 8% said they could sustain themselves financially for 2 years or more.

However the average duration of an income protection claim is 6.5 years! And that’s an average, many last longer than that. So while having the foresight to maintain a nest egg to see you through a year or two of income loss is extremely laudable and wise, on its own it just might not be enough.

How much of your income do you need to protect?

This is a really important question. It is really important that we spend time together looking at your specific situation, your expenses and how they might be impacted by a loss of income. You want to have enough cover to meet your needs in the event of a loss of income, without paying too much along the way. You need to consider any sick pay schemes that you might have access to through your employer, as these might impact your cover needs and the cost of a policy to meet your needs.

When asked by the researchers, two thirds of respondents felt that they would require a replacement income of between 50% and 75% of their current income levels. Just over a quarter felt that they would need to protect between 25% and 50% of their income, while 7% felt they would need a replacement income of less than a quarter of their current income. It may be that this last group are approaching retirement and/or possibly their incomes are significantly in excess of their expenditure. Otherwise they may be a little unrealistic about the level of income they would need to replace. 

How much replacement income would you need?

We all have a range of financial challenges, particularly as inflation is high and energy costs are increasing sharply. These include making our money go further today, investing wisely, saving for retirement and protecting our main assets. In addressing this final one, never underestimate the value of your income – it is the one single asset that you really can’t live without.

A conversation that often arises with clients is around how much is enough. Everyone is different and has unique wants and needs in life, most of which come with a financial price tag. If someone could wave a magic wand and guarantee each of your wants and needs in life, would that be enough for you?

This all might sound a bit philosophical, but really that’s only because we’re not programmed to naturally think this way in relation to our finances and our investments. Instead, people fret about the size of their pension fund, whether their particular investment fund is going to deliver the very best possible outcomes or what they will do if their pension contributions bring them up to the €2m Standard Fund Threshold (yes, people lie awake thinking about this). We worry about growing our money as much as possible, about making use of every cent of available tax relief and working until our late 60’s to accumulate as much wealth as possible.

For what?

Because thankfully quite infrequently, we have other much more difficult conversations with clients. These are the conversations where a client is seriously ill, and their prognosis is poor. While these conversations with us of course are about money, the real focus of the conversation is about time. This is the most precious resource to these people, and one that money unfortunately cannot buy.

These are the conversations that jolt us back to considering both for ourselves and our clients the importance of recognising how much is enough. These conversations remind us that whether we have €500,000 or €600,000 in our investment fund or even whether we have €5million or €6 million is somewhat irrelevant. Target wealth levels to make one feel better don’t really matter, as once you achieve that number, you’ll likely just want to achieve a higher number. Instead, if you fully determine and articulate the life that you want to live and all of the things you want to do, surely if you have enough money to achieve these, that is enough? We read a piece recently that quoted an interview on CNBC with the billionaire Warren Buffett who said he would be very happy with €100,000 a year. That is enough to fulfil his wants and needs. Another legendary investor, Jack Bogle once said that enough is one dollar more than you need.

We’re not suggesting for one moment that achieving the best investment outcomes etc. is not important – of course it is. But it is only a means to an end, and the goal should be ensuring you have enough to live life on your terms. Once you realise that you have enough, this liberates you in so many ways. You don’t have to worry about money, maybe you don’t have to work anymore, even though you might choose to for other reasons. Now you can spend your time doing the things you want to do, safe in the knowledge that you have enough money to live your life. This is true financial freedom.

Going back to our difficult conversations with ill clients, they never wish they had worked longer, had made more money or had more money in the bank (beyond providing for their family after their death). Instead, any regrets tend to be around wishing they has worked less, had spent more time with the people they love and had more experiences in the memory bank.

By the way, these conversations with ill clients are not always regretful! While sad, they are often the most uplifting conversations that we have the honour of being privy to. We hear people who lived full lives surrounded by the people they love, did the things they wanted to do and who are leaving strong legacies after them. While they might be running out of time, they left it all out on the pitch and have no regrets. “Enough” instead of “More” was their guiding North Star and that was how they lived their life.

How much is enough for you?