What are your insurance priorities?

Research carried out for Bright Grey, the protection specialist arm of Royal London, has revealed that the top three things people in the UK believe most important to insure are: Life almost 40%, home contents 23% and mortgage payments 11%.

Whilst the figures self evidently show people expressing more concern about protecting against the loss of their TVs and DVDs than their homes, the puzzling numbers don't end there. Indeed, the research also revealed that more Brits spend their money on home contents insurance and travel insurance than on life cover. And almost as many insure their credit cards and have central heating breakdown cover, as protect their mortgage payments.

Breaking the numbers down, the priorities expressed are as follows 2005 figures are shown in brackets.: 74% insure their home contents 85%, 61% insure their trips abroad 53%, 53% insure their life 60%, 23% insure their mortgage payments and 20% insure their credit cards 28%.

Meanwhile, 20% have central heating breakdown cover, 15% have income protection 15%, 15% insure their white goods 22%, 15% insure their mobile phone 17%, 14% have critical illness cover and 10% insure loan repayments.

Roger Edwards, Product Director at Bright Grey, makes the point that for most, life insurance is key when it comes to planning properly for the future. It protects your dependents if you die and they lose your income.

And if you don't have dependents, and really don't need life cover, then what about critical illness cover or income protection - if you value yourself, you should be protecting yourself.

"Many people seem to have lost sight of their real priorities. Their financial savvy seems to have gone out the window when deciding what insurance to buy.

"All this points towards the need for consumers to seek advice when it comes to cover, to help them understand their priorities, the options they have and to get the right things insured," he adds.

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2006-11-16 10:34:00 © Moneyextra.com