Protection & Insurance
Comprehensive protection planning designed to safeguard your family, your income, and your legacy, ensuring financial security when life takes an unexpected turn.
Overview...
Protecting your wealth is just as important as building it. A well-structured protection plan provides financial security when life takes an unexpected turn, helping to safeguard your income, your family, and the legacy you’ve worked hard to create.
Our role is to help you identify the areas of financial vulnerability that could affect your long-term goals, whether that’s a loss of income, serious illness, or premature death, and to put suitable cover in place. We assess your existing arrangements, identify any shortfalls, and design a tailored protection strategy that complements your wider financial plan.
We advise across all key areas of protection, including Life Assurance, Critical Illness Cover, Income Protection, and Family or Business Protection, ensuring your policies are cost-effective, tax-efficient, and aligned with your personal or corporate needs.
At Sterling Ridge Wealth, our goal is to give you peace of mind, knowing that if the unexpected happens, the people and plans you care about most will always be protected.
Why it matters
Financial planning isn’t just about growing wealth, it’s about protecting it. No matter how well you invest or plan for the future, unexpected events such as illness, injury, or death can disrupt even the most carefully built financial strategy. Protection planning ensures your loved ones, lifestyle, and long-term goals remain secure no matter what life brings.
Many people underestimate how vital protection is until it’s too late. Without the right cover, dependants may face financial strain, businesses can be left exposed, and long-term plans, from mortgages to children’s education, can be put at risk.
Effective protection isn’t one-size-fits-all. It’s about selecting the right blend of cover for your needs: life assurance to protect your family, critical illness cover to secure recovery time, and income protection to maintain financial stability if you’re unable to work.
By integrating protection within your broader financial plan, we help ensure that your wealth, your family, and your future remain safeguarded, giving you clarity, confidence, and peace of mind.
The Planning Opportunity
Protection planning offers the chance to turn uncertainty into confidence. With the right structure, you can safeguard your family, your income, and your business, ensuring that, should the unexpected happen, life can continue with financial stability and dignity.
At Sterling Ridge Wealth, we begin by gaining a clear understanding of your personal circumstances, financial commitments, and long-term objectives. From there, we review any existing cover, analyse shortfalls, and identify opportunities to improve cost efficiency and policy performance.
Our advice considers all major forms of protection:
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Life Assurance to provide financial support for loved ones or repay outstanding liabilities.
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Critical Illness Cover to provide a lump sum on diagnosis of serious illness, easing financial pressure during recovery.
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Income Protection to replace lost earnings if you’re unable to work due to illness or injury.
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Family Income Benefit for regular, tax-efficient income replacement for dependants.
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Business & Shareholder Protection to secure company continuity and safeguard ownership structures.
We also consider trust planning and tax efficiency, ensuring proceeds are paid swiftly and outside of your estate where appropriate. Through regular reviews, we ensure your cover remains relevant as your circumstances, income, and liabilities evolve.
Our aim is simple: to create a protection framework that underpins your financial plan, offering long-term security, peace of mind, and resilience against life’s uncertainties.
Key Considerations:
Selecting the right protection strategy involves more than choosing a policy, it’s about aligning cover with your financial goals, lifestyle, and family needs.
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Level of Cover: Ensuring the benefit amount reflects your current income, debts, dependants, and lifestyle.
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Term Length: Matching policy duration to key financial milestones such as mortgage repayment, retirement age, or children’s independence.
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Premium Structure: Choosing between guaranteed, reviewable, or age-related premiums depending on flexibility and long-term affordability.
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Ownership & Trusts: Considering who owns the policy and whether it should be written in trust to ensure quick payment and potential IHT advantages.
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Tax Treatment: Understanding how different policies and pay-outs are treated for income and inheritance tax purposes.
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Existing Cover Integration: Reviewing employer or personal policies to avoid duplication and ensure value for money.
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Regular Reviews: Revisiting protection every few years, or after major life changes, to ensure cover keeps pace with your circumstances.
What we do
Life Assurance
Life assurance forms the foundation of most protection plans, offering financial security to loved ones in the event of death. Whether used to repay debts, replace lost income, or protect family wealth, life cover ensures your dependants are financially supported when it matters most.
Key benefits include:
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Flexible Cover Types: Choose between level, decreasing, or family income benefit policies depending on your needs.
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Debt & Income Replacement: Ensure mortgages, living costs, or education fees can continue to be met.
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Estate Planning Integration: Policies can be written in trust to ensure a swift, tax-efficient payout outside your estate.
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Tailored to You: Premiums and cover levels designed around your income, liabilities, and long-term goals.
At Sterling Ridge Wealth, we help you structure life assurance to protect both your loved ones and your financial legacy in the most tax-efficient way possible.
Critical Illness Cover
Critical illness cover provides a tax-free lump sum upon diagnosis of a serious medical condition. This allows you to focus on recovery without worrying about day-to-day finances or lifestyle disruption.
Key features include:
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Comprehensive Cover: Protection against a wide range of major illnesses such as cancer, stroke, or heart disease.
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Financial Flexibility: Use proceeds to clear debts, fund treatment, or support your family during recovery.
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Customised Protection: Policies can be arranged as standalone or combined with life cover for greater value.
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Children’s Cover Options: Many plans include optional cover for dependent children at no additional cost.
We review the market to identify providers offering broad cover definitions, high-quality underwriting, and competitive premiums, ensuring your policy delivers genuine protection when you need it most.
Income &
Business Protection
A temporary loss of income, whether due to illness, injury, or incapacity, can significantly impact your financial stability. Income and business protection provide an essential safety net to keep your personal and professional life on track.
Strategic advantages include:
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Income Protection: Replaces a portion of your earnings if you’re unable to work, maintaining your lifestyle and covering key expenses.
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Business Protection: Secures company ownership, profit continuity, and succession planning through Key Person and Shareholder Cover.
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Relevant Life Policies: Provide tax-efficient life cover for directors and employees as part of a business’s overall remuneration strategy.
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Flexible Terms: Benefit periods and deferral options tailored to your employment, budget, and recovery outlook.
At Sterling Ridge Wealth, we align personal and business protection with your wider financial plan, ensuring both your family and enterprise remain secure through every stage of life.
***Risk Warnings: These plans have no cash in value at any time and will cease at the end of the term. If premiums are not maintained, then cover will lapse. Plans may not cover all the definitions of a critical illness. The definitions vary between product providers and will be described in the key features and policy document if you go ahead with the plan. Taxation Planning is not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Want to find out more about protection planning?
A well-designed protection plan can make all the difference between uncertainty and security. Whether you’re safeguarding your family, protecting your income, or securing your business, the right cover ensures your financial plans stay on track, no matter what life brings.
Complimentary meeting with personalised advice to help you make confident financial decisions.
1 hr 30 min
Free
30 min