Hi Malc
As Jenny says, Critical Illness policy gives you a lump sum on diagnosis (watch out cos loads of illnesses are not covered).
Income Protection or Permanent Health Insurance is what insures your salary and you choose at what stage you wish it to kick in, i.e. defer the payment until after 4 weeks of being unable to work, or 8 weeks, or 12 or 16. The longer you defer the payment the cheaper the premium. YOu should check your employers policy on how long they pay you for (if at all), and tie this insurance in with that - unless of course you're looking to insure your income from your Private Detective Agency work rather than the place you work most of the time!
Also, be very careful about the wording on the policy. Some policies refer to your not being able to do 'your current job', which means they could default on the payout because they'd say you were well enough to go work in Woollies for instance. The best policy to have is one that says 'unable to do your current or any job'.
Re: Critical Illness - some policies are for whole of life and some not. Meaning if you claimed on the policy, you would get your lump sum and then the policy is cancelled. So if you wanted to reinsure yourself for any other eventuality after that, the premium would a) be much higher cos you're that much older than when you took the first policy out, and b) you'd have a pre-existing condition on file to take into account.
PM me if you want more info - though I'm not an expert.
Have you not hijacked the Forum Meet topic?
Like the new avatar Malc - very appropriate.
Edited by Jill
Critical illness cover
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Malc London wrote:
I knew I could count on you Baggles! 
