By Adam Surtees, Founder, Affinity Advice
When the subject of income protection comes up with doctors and dentists, there’s a response I hear regularly.
“I’d rather invest that money than spend it on insurance.”
It’s a completely understandable position. Doctors are smart, financially curious, and they’ve heard about compound interest. The idea that £60 a month invested over a career could grow into something meaningful is true. It’s also missing the point entirely.
This article isn’t about telling anyone not to invest. Investing is important. Building long term wealth matters.
It’s about the order. And why getting the order wrong is one of the most common and costly financial mistakes doctors make in their 30s.
The maths that changes the conversation
Let’s use a real example. A 35-year-old doctor earning £70,000 a year. Working through to 68. That’s 33 years of earnings ahead of them.
Total career income: £2,310,000. And that’s with no pay progression at all.
Now let’s look at the income protection premium for exactly that profile. Male, non-smoker, NHS doctor, £70,000 salary. A top quality own occupation policy with guaranteed level premiums, inflation protection built in, and a monthly benefit of £3,625 tax-free designed to dovetail with NHS sick pay.
Quote run today: £59.96 per month.
That’s the cost of protecting £2,310,000 in career earnings.
Now let’s run the alternative. Take that same £59.96 and invest it every month for 33 years at an optimistic 8% annual return.
The result: approximately £105,000.
So the choice is this: spend £59.96 a month to guarantee protection on £2,310,000 in earnings. Or invest it, hope for strong market returns over 33 years, and end up with £105,000, while that £2,310,000 sits completely unprotected.
And here’s the question that ends the argument: what happens to that £105,000 investment pot if your income stops in year three?
The investing stops. The contributions stop. The compounding stops. And you’re left trying to fund your mortgage, your family, and your life from whatever you’ve managed to save so far.
The investment argument assumes the income never stops. Income protection exists for the moment it does.
The cost of waiting
There’s another dimension to this that most doctors don’t consider until it’s too late.
The same quote for a 45-year-old doctor, same profile, same cover, costs £94.96 per month today. That’s £35 more every month for exactly the same policy.
But the premium is only part of the story.
At 45, that application also requires a nurse screening and a GP report. And in the ten years between 35 and 45, statistically, the likelihood of something having changed health-wise increases significantly. A previous diagnosis, a mental health episode, a musculoskeletal issue. Any of these can result in an exclusion, a loading on the premium, or in some cases no offer at all.
The guaranteed level premium at 35 means £59.96 today is £59.96 in 33 years. It never goes up. The cover never changes. And the application, at 35, is the cleanest it will ever be.
Every year you wait costs more. And every year you wait, the window quietly narrows.
Why investing before protecting is the wrong order
Most good financial advisers will tell you the same thing: protection is the foundation, not an addition.
Think of it like building a house. You don’t fit the roof before the foundations are in. You don’t build a pension on top of an income that has no protection underneath it.
A doctor in their 30s who is investing in an ISA, contributing to their NHS pension, and building long term wealth is doing the right things. But all of that financial activity rests on one thing: their ability to earn.
If that ability stops, everything built on top of it is at risk. The pension contributions stop. The ISA contributions stop. Savings get drawn down. Investments potentially need to be liquidated. Everything built over years can unravel in months.
Income protection doesn’t compete with investing. It’s what makes investing safely possible in the first place.
The honest conversation most doctors never have
The FCA’s own market study, published in January 2026, confirmed that income protection has the lowest uptake of any pure protection product in the UK. The industry itself describes it as a product that is sold, not bought. People don’t seek it out. They need someone to explain it properly.
Most doctors in their 30s are focused on their career, their mortgage, their family, and yes, their investments. Financial protection sits at the bottom of a long list. And because nothing has gone wrong yet, it stays there.
Until it does.
The doctors I’ve spoken to who have had to claim are not the ones who thought about this differently to everyone else. They’re the ones who happened to have the conversation at the right time.
What this means practically
If you’re a doctor in your 30s and you’ve been putting this off, or you’ve been telling yourself the premium is better invested, the numbers above are worth sitting with for a moment.
Less than £60 a month to protect over £2 million in earnings. A guaranteed premium that never rises. Cover for any illness or injury, including mental health and musculoskeletal conditions, right through to retirement.
That’s not a cost. That’s a foundation.
Ready to understand your options?
At Affinity Advice we specialise exclusively in income protection, life cover, and critical illness insurance for doctors and dentists. We do one thing and we do it properly. No pensions agenda, no cross-selling, no comparison site shortcuts. Just specialist advice from people who understand exactly how healthcare professionals earn and exactly what’s at risk if they can’t.
A conversation with one of our specialist advisers takes about thirty minutes and is completely free. At the end of it you’ll have total clarity on where you stand, what your options are, and what cover would actually cost for your specific situation.
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. Premium figures quoted are based on a specific illustrative profile and individual premiums will vary based on personal circumstances. Investment return figures used are illustrative only and are not guaranteed.
