Financial Risk Assessment Tool

A financial risk assessment uses details about your income, household spending, savings, mortgage, dependants and existing protection to build a general picture of your financial resilience.

Our tool also considers personal information such as your age and smoking status before providing a provisional risk result.

Your result can help highlight how life protection, critical illness cover and income protection could support you and your family during an unexpected change in circumstances.

It provides a useful starting point rather than a detailed review of your existing policies, their potential payouts or whether the level of cover fully meets your needs.

Your result provides a general indication of how financially prepared you may be for an unexpected loss of income, serious illness or death.

It is based on the household finances, savings, dependants and types of protection cover included in your answers.

A positive result may suggest that you have taken useful steps towards protecting yourself and your family.

However, the assessment does not review your policy terms, exclusions or potential payout amounts, so it cannot confirm whether your existing cover is enough for your needs.

Your result can instead help you identify areas of protection that may be worth reviewing.

The assessment considers life protection, critical illness cover and income protection.

Life protection can provide financial support for your loved ones if you die, while critical illness cover can provide a lump sum if you are diagnosed with a condition covered by your policy.

Income protection can replace part of your regular income if illness or injury leaves you unable to work.

Each type of protection supports a different financial need.

The assessment records whether you have these policies in place, but it does not examine the amount of cover, policy terms, exclusions or potential payouts.

Your income, essential spending, non-essential spending and savings help build a picture of your current household finances.

These figures show how much of your monthly income is already committed and whether you have savings that could provide support during an unexpected change in circumstances.

Your mortgage and number of dependants are also considered because they can affect the financial responsibilities you need to maintain.

Together, this information helps the tool provide a more relevant provisional financial risk result based on the answers you enter.

A financial risk assessment can provide a helpful initial indication of your financial resilience based on the information you enter.

Using current figures for your income, spending, savings and existing protection will help produce a result that more closely reflects your circumstances.

The result is provisional because the tool uses a limited set of details.

A full protection review would also consider policy benefit amounts, terms, exclusions, workplace benefits and the specific financial needs of you and your dependants.

These details help establish whether your existing protection provides a suitable level of cover.

It is worth reviewing your financial protection regularly and whenever your circumstances change.

This could include taking out a mortgage, having a child, moving in with a partner, changing jobs or experiencing a significant change in your household income or spending.

You should also review your protection when an existing policy approaches its end date or your financial responsibilities change.

Retaking the financial risk assessment using your latest details can help you see whether your current arrangements still reflect the needs of you and your family.

A “Good” result suggests that your answers reflect a lower level of financial risk and that you may already have some helpful arrangements in place.

It does not confirm that your current protection would provide enough financial support if you needed to make a claim.

The assessment records whether you have life protection, critical illness cover and income protection, but it does not review benefit amounts, policy terms, exclusions or potential payouts.

A detailed protection review can establish how well your existing cover matches your mortgage, household spending and the needs of your dependants.

Your result can be affected by your household income, essential and non-essential spending, savings, mortgage and number of dependants.

The types of protection you already have in place, along with personal details such as your age and smoking status, may also shape the provisional result.

Changes to your finances, family or protection arrangements could therefore produce a different outcome.

Entering accurate and up-to-date information will help the assessment provide a result that more closely reflects your current circumstances.