Hi everyone, this is the first episode of our Mental Health in Life Insurance week. This week we are taking a deep dive into how mental health and insurance mix, why someone might need insurance, how they can get it, why insurers make certain decisions and what happens if you need to make a claim.

We have a lot of industry experts joining us this week and we start today with Lynn Beattie aka Mrs Mummypenny. Lynn is a finance expert and is always looking for the best ways to manage money, to protect her financial future and also make sure that anything she is paying for is worth it.

The key takeaways:

• Applying for insurance is complicated, even for someone that works within finances, the wording is confusing and knowing where to turn to for help is hard. 
• It can be worrying to know how much mental health will and won’t affect insurance applications and how insurers will view your health.
• The relief from knowing that you have insurance in place to protect your income and to protect your family if you die, is priceless.

This episode is part of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries Mental Health Working Group’s efforts to improve access to insurance for people living with mental health conditions. Next time we are going to be discussing different ways you access insurance with Phil Jeynes (Reassured), Alan Knowles (Cura Financial Services) and Neal Cross (Money Supermarket).

Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.

If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my Protection Insurance in Practice course here.