Financial health check

Saving, investing, and managing debt are important parts of managing your personal finances, but there are other things to consider:

Estate planning
Make sure your estate plan (such as a will and personal trust documents) is in order for the sake of your family and dependents. Estate planning is not just for the wealthy. Planning poorly or failing to plan can cause unnecessary expenses and delays in the settlement of even modest estates. Your property may go to someone you really do not want to benefit. Worse still, your beneficiaries may suffer financial hardship as a result.

Healthcare
Healthcare should really be given priority. Failure to obtain cover for unforeseen medical emergencies could result in severe financial burden.

Assurance
You need only to assure against losses that you or your family cannot afford. For example, single people may not require life assurance, but married people – if they are breadwinners or family caretakers – almost certainly do. And do not underestimate the importance of disability assurance; you're more likely to be disabled and out of work for some period than you are to die before age 65.

Everyone has their 'ideal' amount of cover, but often the expense simply makes it uneconomical to establish. Therefore you should prioritise your cover to ensure that the most important risks are covered first.

Did you know that the savings portion of your life policy premium is not paid out upon a claim? The insurance company keeps this portion. What this effectively means is that you would have to surrender your policy should you need to make use of this money. Life/disability cover should therefore be separate from investments.

Speak to us for a policy consolidation exercise. Silke Financial Services has the skill and knowledge to provide expert advice on how you can save considerable premium and get better benefits to best fit your needs.

If you need it, plan it
If you don't need it, don't keep it

If you have any queries regarding the above commentary please contact us on 021 683 3380 or info@silke.co.za.