By Adam Surtees, Founder, Affinity Advice
The most common thing I hear from doctors and dentists when income protection comes up is some version of the same sentence.
“It won’t happen to me.”
And my response is always the same.
But what if it does?
Not as a scare tactic. Not to make anyone feel anxious. Just as a genuine question worth sitting with for a moment.
Because the people I’ve seen claim on income protection weren’t reckless. They weren’t unhealthy. They weren’t doing anything unusual. They were normal people, in their 30s, with mortgages and young kids and careers they’d worked hard to build.
And their whole life changed in an instant.
The story I keep coming back to
A few years ago we had a client. Mid-30s. Self-employed. Dad of two young kids. Fit, healthy, sensible.
On a Saturday morning he went out for a leisurely cycle along the seafront with a friend. Helmet on. Going about 5mph. Not on a road. Not racing. Just a gentle weekend ride.
His tyre caught in something on the path. The bike tipped. His elbow took the impact.
It shattered.
Two operations. Steel put into his arm. Eight months off work completely, followed by a phased return over several more months. Even now, years later, he doesn’t have full range of motion back.
This wasn’t an adrenaline junkie. This wasn’t someone taking risks. This was a regular person doing one of the most ordinary things imaginable on a weekend morning.
His income protection paid out over £38,000 in monthly payments, starting from week four of him being off. It meant he could genuinely take the time he needed to recover without worrying about providing for his wife and kids. He had savings. He had investments. But those were his long-term assets, his future. Because of his cover, he never had to touch them.
He didn’t have to sell his future to survive his present.
It’s never what people imagine
When most people picture being too ill to work, they picture something dramatic. A serious diagnosis. Something that makes the need for protection feel obvious.
The reality is almost always more ordinary than that.
A male client in his mid-30s, two young kids, noticed a lump. Testicular cancer. Thankfully he’s now in remission. His sick pay ran out after a few months. His income protection covered him throughout treatment and recovery.
A female client, similar age, mother of two, noticed a mole had changed. Skin cancer. Her policy paid out while she had the financial breathing room to cope with the mental side of things as well as the treatment itself. That matters more than people realise.
None of these people thought it would happen to them. Most had been putting off sorting their cover for months, sometimes years.
The ones who had cover got through it. The ones who didn’t had a very different experience.
Being healthy is not the same as being protected
Here’s something that surprises almost everyone when I tell them.
The people who claim on income protection are, by and large, healthy people.
That’s not a paradox. That’s how insurance works.
To get income protection in the first place, you generally need to be fit and well. If you have a pre-existing condition, a recent diagnosis, or a significant health history, your options become limited very quickly. Some people can’t get cover at all.
Every week we take calls from people who have just found a lump, had an accident, or received a diagnosis, and want to get cover sorted. And we have to tell them we can’t help. Not now. The window has closed.
Being young, fit, and healthy isn’t a reason to wait. It’s the reason to act now.
The window doesn’t stay open forever
Every year you wait, your options narrow and your costs increase.
When you’re in your late 20s or early 30s, fit and well, you have access to the widest range of products available. Premiums are at their lowest. Many policies allow you to fix your premium for your entire working life at that lower rate.
In your 40s the picture changes. Premiums are higher. Some products are no longer available. And if anything has changed with your health in the intervening years, your options may be significantly more limited than you’d expect.
By your 50s, for many people, proper income protection becomes unaffordable altogether.
The best time to sort this was in your 20s. The second best time is today.
What “sorting it tomorrow” actually means
I understand why people put this off. Life is busy. There are always more urgent things.
But tomorrow has a habit of never arriving.
Sorting this doesn’t require weeks of research or hours of your time. It requires one conversation with a specialist who understands exactly how doctors and dentists earn and what cover genuinely makes sense for their situation.
That conversation takes about thirty minutes. It’s completely free. At the end of it you’ll have total clarity: whether you need cover, what kind, what it would cost, and whether it’s right for you. No obligation. No pressure. We are advisers, not salespeople, and we take genuine pride in giving good advice. Sometimes that means telling someone they don’t need cover. We tell them that too.
Accidents don’t wait for a convenient time. Illness doesn’t wait for a gap in your rota.
Don’t let “I’ll sort it tomorrow” be the most expensive decision you ever make.
About the author
Adam Surtees is the founder of Affinity Advice, a UK protection advisory firm specialising exclusively in income protection, life cover, and critical illness insurance for doctors and dentists.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
