Life Insurance for Event Planners UK
As an event planner, your world revolves around meticulous planning, managing expectations, and creating flawless experiences. From corporate conferences to dream weddings, you are the master of logistics, contingency plans, and risk mitigation for your clients. But have you applied the same level of foresight to protecting your own financial future and that of your loved ones?
The very nature of your profession—high-pressure, deadline-driven, and often physically demanding—exposes you to unique risks. A sudden illness, a serious injury, or an unexpected death could not only halt your career but also jeopardise your family's financial stability. This is where specialist financial protection, including life insurance, critical illness cover, and income protection, becomes not just a sensible option, but an essential part of your personal and business strategy.
This guide will walk you through everything you need to know about securing the right protection as a UK-based event planner, whether you're a freelancer, a self-employed professional, or the director of your own events company.
Tailored protection for professionals managing events
Event planning is far from a standard 9-to-5 job. The long hours leading up to an event, the physical exertion on the day, and the constant mental pressure to deliver perfection create a unique set of challenges. Standard, off-the-shelf insurance policies often fail to account for the specific nuances of your career.
Tailored protection means looking beyond a simple life insurance policy and building a comprehensive safety net that addresses the realities of your working life:
- Income Volatility: For freelancers, income can be a rollercoaster. The right protection plan provides a stable financial bedrock during periods when you're unable to work.
- High-Stress Environment: Chronic stress is a known contributor to serious health conditions. Your protection should be robust enough to cover these possibilities.
- Lack of Employee Benefits: As a self-employed individual or company director, you don't have access to the sick pay or death-in-service benefits that come with traditional employment. You need to create your own.
- Business Continuity: If you run an events agency, the loss of a key person—perhaps yourself—could be catastrophic. Specialist business protection is vital.
Understanding these unique factors is the first step towards building a financial protection plan that works as hard as you do.
Why Do Event Planners Need Specialist Protection?
Your role is dynamic and rewarding, but it carries inherent risks that can have significant financial consequences. Let's break down why specialist protection is so crucial for your profession.
The High-Stress Nature of the Job
Event planning consistently ranks as one of the most stressful jobs. The combination of tight deadlines, demanding clients, budget management, and the pressure of a 'live' event creates a high-stakes environment.
According to the Health and Safety Executive's 2023 report on work-related stress, depression, or anxiety, an estimated 875,000 workers in Great Britain are suffering from these conditions. The leading causes cited were tight deadlines and too much pressure. This sustained stress can take a toll on your physical and mental health, increasing the risk of conditions such as:
- Heart disease and stroke
- Burnout and chronic fatigue
- High blood pressure
- Weakened immune system
Critical Illness Cover and Income Protection are designed to provide financial support precisely when health issues like these force you to take a step back from work.
Irregular Income Streams and Financial Instability
For the many event planners who are self-employed or work on a freelance basis, income is not always predictable. You might have a few highly lucrative months followed by a quieter period. This "feast or famine" cycle can make it difficult to build substantial savings.
Now, imagine you're unable to work for six months due to an injury or illness. With no new projects coming in and no employer sick pay to fall back on, your financial situation could quickly become critical. Income Protection insurance is the solution, designed to replace a significant portion of your monthly earnings, ensuring you can still cover your mortgage, bills, and living expenses.
Physical Demands and Travel
The image of an event planner is often one of glamour, but the reality involves long days on your feet, lifting heavy boxes, climbing ladders, and coordinating logistics in all weather conditions. This physical aspect increases the risk of accidents and injuries, from a simple fall to more serious musculoskeletal problems.
Furthermore, your work may involve frequent travel across the UK or internationally. While this is an exciting part of the job, it adds another layer of risk that insurers will want to understand. A robust protection plan ensures you're covered no matter where your work takes you.
The Self-Employed Safety Net Deficit
When you work for yourself, you are the CEO, the finance department, and the entire workforce rolled into one. You are also solely responsible for your financial safety net.
| Benefit | Traditional Employee | Self-Employed Event Planner |
|---|---|---|
| Statutory Sick Pay | Yes, up to 28 weeks | No |
| Employer Sick Pay | Often, providing full or half pay | No |
| Death in Service | Common, providing a lump sum | No |
| Private Medical | Sometimes included in benefits | Must arrange personally |
| Pension | Auto-enrolment into a workplace pension | Must arrange personally |
This table starkly illustrates the gap. As an event planner, you must proactively build your own safety net using tools like Life Insurance, Critical Illness Cover, and Income Protection.
The Core Pillars of Protection for Event Planners
A comprehensive financial protection strategy is built on three key pillars. Let's explore each one and how it applies to your life as an event planner.
1. Life Insurance
Life insurance provides a tax-free payout to your beneficiaries if you pass away during the policy term. This money can be a lifeline for your family, helping them to maintain their lifestyle and financial security without you.
Key uses for a life insurance payout:
- Clear the mortgage: The most common reason for taking out life insurance.
- Pay off other debts: Car loans, personal loans, or credit card balances.
- Cover family living costs: Providing a lump sum to replace your lost income for several years.
- Pay for funeral expenses: The average cost of a basic funeral in the UK can be thousands of pounds.
- Leave an inheritance: Ensuring your children or other loved ones have a financial head start.
There are two main types of term life insurance to consider:
- Level Term Insurance: The payout amount remains the same throughout the policy term. This is ideal for providing a general family protection fund or covering an interest-only mortgage.
- Decreasing Term Insurance: The payout amount reduces over time, broadly in line with a repayment mortgage. This is a more affordable option specifically designed to cover a shrinking debt.
A popular and often overlooked alternative is Family Income Benefit. Instead of a single lump sum, this policy pays out a regular, tax-free monthly or annual income to your family until the end of the policy term. For event planners with young children, this can be a more manageable and practical way to replace your lost income, ensuring bills are paid month after month.
| Feature | Lump Sum (Term Insurance) | Regular Income (Family Income Benefit) |
|---|---|---|
| Payout | Single, large cash payment | Regular monthly/annual payments |
| Best For | Clearing large debts like a mortgage | Replacing lost monthly income for family costs |
| Management | Beneficiaries must manage and invest a large sum | Provides a structured, easy-to-manage income |
| Cost | Generally more expensive for the same total cover | Often more affordable |
2. Critical Illness Cover (CIC)
A serious illness could be financially devastating, especially in a career as demanding as event planning. Critical Illness Cover pays out a tax-free lump sum if you are diagnosed with one of a list of specified serious conditions.
The Association of British Insurers (ABI) reported that in 2022, insurers paid out over £1.2 billion in critical illness claims, with the vast majority of claims being successful. The most common reasons for claims remain cancer, heart attack, and stroke—illnesses that can be exacerbated by a high-stress lifestyle.
How could an event planner use a CIC payout?
- Cover income loss: Allowing you to take a year or more off work to recover fully without financial worry.
- Pay for private treatment: Accessing specialist care or therapies not available on the NHS.
- Adapt your home: Making necessary changes to your living space if you have a long-term disability.
- Reduce work-related stress: Clearing a mortgage or other debts can remove financial pressure, allowing you to return to work on your own terms, perhaps taking on fewer, less stressful projects.
CIC can be purchased as a standalone policy or, more commonly, combined with life insurance.
3. Income Protection Insurance
For any self-employed professional, Income Protection is arguably the most important policy you can own. It is designed to act as your personal sick pay scheme.
If you are unable to work due to any illness or injury (not just the 'critical' ones), an income protection policy will pay you a regular, tax-free monthly income until you can return to work, the policy term ends, or you retire.
Key features for event planners:
- The Deferment Period: This is the waiting period from when you stop working to when the policy starts paying out. You can choose a period from 1 day to 12 months. As a freelancer, you might align this with your business emergency fund—for example, if you have 3 months of savings, you could choose a 3-month deferment period to lower your premiums.
- The Definition of Incapacity: This is crucial. The best policies offer an 'Own Occupation' definition. This means the policy will pay out if you are unable to perform your specific job as an event planner. Less comprehensive definitions might only pay out if you are unable to do any job, which offers far less protection for a skilled professional.
- Short-Term vs. Full-Term: You can choose policies that pay out for a limited period (e.g., 1, 2, or 5 years per claim) or "full-term" policies that pay out right up to retirement age if necessary.
For those in more physically active roles or trades, a similar product called Personal Sick Pay is available. These policies often have shorter deferment periods (as little as one day) and are designed to cover you for shorter-term absences, typically up to 12 or 24 months. This can be a great entry-level option for event planners who need immediate cover for accidents and short-term illnesses.
Advanced Protection Strategies for Business-Owning Event Planners
If you've grown your passion for events into a limited company with partners or employees, your protection needs to evolve. Business protection insurance ensures your company can survive the loss of its most valuable assets: its key people.
At WeCovr, we often help directors of creative and service-based businesses, like event agencies, structure these essential protections.
Key Person Insurance
Who is the one person your events business couldn't function without? Is it you, the visionary founder with all the client contacts? Is it your lead creative designer? This individual is your 'key person'.
Key Person Insurance is a policy taken out by the business on the life of this crucial individual. If they die or are diagnosed with a critical illness, the policy pays a lump sum directly to the business. This money can be used to:
- Cover lost profits: Compensating for the downturn in business while you find a replacement.
- Recruit and train a successor: The cost of finding a high-calibre replacement can be significant.
- Reassure lenders and clients: Demonstrating that the business is stable and has a contingency plan.
- Clear business loans: Paying off any debts that the key person may have personally guaranteed.
Relevant Life Insurance
This is a highly tax-efficient way for a limited company to provide 'death-in-service' benefits for its directors and employees. A Relevant Life Policy is a life insurance plan paid for by the company, but the payout goes directly to the employee's family, tax-free.
The benefits are significant:
- For the Company: The premiums are typically treated as an allowable business expense, making them tax-deductible.
- For the Employee: The premiums are not considered a 'benefit in kind', so there is no extra income tax or National Insurance to pay. The payout also does not form part of their lifetime pension allowance.
This is a fantastic and cost-effective perk for directors of small event management companies.
Executive Income Protection
Similar to a Relevant Life Policy, Executive Income Protection allows your limited company to pay the premiums for your personal income protection policy. The premiums are a tax-deductible business expense, and it's not treated as a P11D benefit for you as the director. The benefit, when paid, is paid to the company, which then distributes it to you as salary, subject to PAYE. It’s a powerful tool for protecting both you and your business.
Underwriting for Event Planners: What Insurers Want to Know
When you apply for protection insurance, the insurer's underwriting team will assess your 'risk' to determine your premium. As an event planner, they will be interested in a few specific areas.
- Your Health and Lifestyle: This includes your age, whether you smoke or vape, your alcohol consumption, your height and weight (BMI), and your family medical history. Honesty is always the best policy here.
- Your Occupation: While 'Event Planner' is not considered a high-risk occupation in itself, underwriters will want details. Do you work at height on rigging? Do you operate any machinery? The answers will influence their decision.
- Financials: For Income Protection and high levels of life cover, you will need to provide evidence of your earnings. For the self-employed, this usually means 2-3 years of accounts or SA302 tax calculations. If you've recently started your business, some insurers offer special terms for new ventures.
- Travel: You'll be asked about your travel history and future plans. Most travel to Europe, North America, and other developed countries is fine. However, frequent or extended travel to countries with political instability or poor medical facilities may affect your cover or premiums.
- Hobbies and Pastimes: Do you de-stress by rock climbing, scuba diving, or flying light aircraft? You must declare any hazardous hobbies, as they may require special terms.
Navigating the underwriting process can be tricky, as each insurer has different criteria. This is where an expert broker can be invaluable, helping you present your application to the insurer most likely to offer you the best terms.
The Financial Cornerstone: How Much Cover Do You Really Need?
Calculating the right amount of cover can feel like a dark art, but it's a logical process. The goal is to ensure the money will be sufficient to achieve its purpose.
Calculating Your Cover Needs
| Type of Cover | How to Calculate Your Need | Example for an Event Planner |
|---|---|---|
| Life Insurance | (Mortgage + Debts) + (10 x Annual Family Spending) + Future Costs (e.g., University) - Existing Savings | (£250k mortgage) + (10 x £30k spending) + (£50k for kids' education) = £600k cover |
| Critical Illness | (1-2 years' Net Income) + (Mortgage Balance) + Home Adaptation Costs | (£40k net income) + (£250k mortgage) + (£10k buffer) = £300k cover |
| Income Protection | 50-65% of your Gross Annual Income | 60% of £50,000 gross income = £30,000 per year / £2,500 per month |
This is a starting point. A detailed financial review will help you pinpoint the exact figures for your unique situation.
Beyond Insurance: A Holistic Approach to Wellbeing for Event Planners
While insurance provides a financial safety net, the best strategy is to proactively manage your health and wellbeing to reduce the risk of ever needing to claim. For a busy event planner, this can be challenging, but it's vital.
Managing Stress
You can't eliminate stress from your job, but you can manage your response to it.
- Set Boundaries: Learn to say no to projects that aren't a good fit. Clearly define your working hours with clients to protect your personal time.
- Practice Mindfulness: Even 10 minutes of daily meditation or deep breathing exercises can significantly lower stress levels and improve focus.
- Digital Detox: Schedule time away from your phone and emails. Being 'always on' is a direct route to burnout.
Healthy Eating on the Go
Event days can mean grabbing whatever food is available. Planning ahead is key.
- Pack Smart Snacks: Nuts, fruit, and protein bars can keep your energy levels stable.
- Stay Hydrated: Dehydration can cause headaches and fatigue. Always have a water bottle with you.
- Track Your Intake: Understanding your calorie and nutrient intake is the first step to improving it. To support our clients in their health journey, WeCovr provides complimentary access to our AI-powered calorie and nutrition tracking app, CalorieHero. It’s a simple way to stay on top of your diet, even with a hectic schedule.
Prioritising Sleep and Activity
Lack of sleep impairs judgment, creativity, and decision-making—all critical skills for an event planner. Aim for 7-8 hours per night, especially in the week leading up to a major event. Likewise, try to incorporate physical activity into your routine. Even a brisk 30-minute walk during your lunch break can boost your mood and energy levels.
Special Case: Gift Inter Vivos Insurance for Inheritance Tax Planning
As a successful event planner, you may reach a point where you want to pass on some of your wealth to the next generation, perhaps helping a child with a house deposit. However, if you give away assets (a 'gift') and pass away within seven years, that gift may be subject to Inheritance Tax (IHT).
Gift Inter Vivos (GIV) insurance is a special type of life insurance policy designed to solve this problem. It's a whole-of-life or term policy that provides a lump sum to cover the potential IHT liability on the gift. This ensures your loved ones receive the full value of the gift you intended for them, without an unexpected tax bill.
Navigating the Market: How to Find the Right Policy
The UK insurance market is vast, with dozens of providers all offering slightly different products. Finding the right one for your specific needs as an event planner can be overwhelming.
- Don't Go Direct: Going directly to one insurer means you only see one price and one set of policy terms. You have no way of knowing if you're getting a good deal or if another insurer would offer better cover for your circumstances.
- Comparison Sites Are Not Enough: While useful for a quick price check, these sites don't offer advice. They can't tell you if a policy's 'definition of incapacity' is right for your job or if another insurer has more lenient underwriting for your travel schedule.
- Use a Specialist Broker: An independent protection broker works for you, not the insurance company. They understand the whole market and can guide you to the best solution.
At WeCovr, we specialise in helping self-employed professionals, freelancers, and company directors find the protection they need. We take the time to understand the unique demands of your role as an event planner, from your income structure to your stress levels, and compare plans from all the major UK insurers to find the perfect fit. We handle the paperwork and liaise with underwriters on your behalf, making the entire process smooth and stress-free—giving you one less thing to plan.
Your career is dedicated to creating security and success for your clients' most important moments. It's time to apply that same expert planning to your own financial future.
As a freelance event planner with a fluctuating income, is income protection affordable?
Do I need a medical exam to get life insurance?
Will my policy cover me if I'm working at an event abroad?
What is the main difference between Critical Illness Cover and Income Protection?
Can I get cover if I have a pre-existing medical condition like anxiety or a back problem?
Why life insurance and how does it work?
What is Life Insurance?
Life insurance is an insurance policy that can provide financial support for your loved ones when you or your joint policy holder passes away. It can help clear any outstanding debts, such as a mortgage, and cover your family's living and other expenses such costs of education, so your family can continue to pay bills and living expenses. In addition to life insurance, insurance providers offer related products such as income protection and critical illness, which we will touch upon below.How does it work?
Life insurance pays out if you die. The payout can be in the form of a lump sum payment or can be paid as a replacement for a regular income. It's your decision how much cover you'd like to take based on your financial resources and how much you'd like to leave to your family to help them deal with any outstanding debts and living expenses. Your premium depends on a number of factors, including your occupation, health and other criteria.The payout amount can change over time or can be fixed. A level term or whole of life policy offers a fixed payout. A decreasing term policy offers a payout that decreases over the term of the cover.
With critical illness policies, a payout is made if you’re diagnosed with a terminal illness with a remaining life expectancy of less than 12 months. While income protection policies ensure you can continue to meet your financial commitments if you are forced to take an extended break from work. If you can’t work because you’ve had an accident, fallen sick, or lost your job through no fault of your own, income protection insurance pays you an agreed portion of your salary each month.
Income protection is particularly helpful for people in dangerous occupations who want to be sure their mortgage will always be covered. Income protection only covers events beyond your control: you’re much less likely to be covered if you’re fired from your job or if you injure yourself deliberately.
Questions to ask yourself regarding life insurance
Just ask yourself:👉 Who would pay your mortgage or rent if you were to pass away or fall seriously ill?
👉 Who would pay for your family’s food, clothing, study fees or lifestyle?
👉 Who would provide for the costs of your funeral or clear your debts?
👉 Who would pay for your costs if you're unable to work due to serious illness or disability?
Many families don’t realise that life, income protection and critical illness insurance is one of the most effective ways to protect their finances. A great insurance policy can cover costs, protect a family from inheriting debts and even pay off a mortgage.
Many would think that the costs for all the benefits provided by life insurance, income protection insurance or critical illness insurance are too high, but the great news is in the current market policies are actually very inexpensive.
Benefits offered by income protection, life and critical illness insurance
Life insurance, income protection and critical illness insurance are indispensable for every family because a child loses a parent every 22 minutes in the UK, while every single day tragically 60 people suffer major injuries on the UK roads. Some people become unable to work because of sickness or disability.Life insurance cover pays out a lump sum to your family, loved ones or whomever you choose to get the money. This can be used to secure the financial future of your loved ones meaning they would not have to struggle financially in the event of your death.
If it's a critical illness cover, the payout happens sooner - upon diagnosis of a serious illness, disability or medical condition, easing the financial hardship such an event inevitably brings.
Income protection insurance can be very important for anyone who relies on a pay check to cover their living costs, but it's especially important if you’re self-employed or own a small business, where your employment and income is a bit less stable. It pays a regular income if you can't work because of sickness or disability and continues until you return to paid work or you retire.
In a world where 1 in 4 of us would struggle financially after just four weeks without work, the stark reality hits hard – a mere 7% of UK adults possess the vital shield of income protection. The urgency of safeguarding our financial well-being has never been more palpable.
Let's face it – relying on savings isn't a solution for everyone. Almost 25% of people have no savings at all, and a whopping 50% have £1,000 or less tucked away. Even more concerning, 51% of Brits – that's a huge 27 million people – wouldn't last more than one month living off their savings. That's a 10% increase from 2022.
And don't even think about state benefits being a safety net. The maximum you can expect from statutory sick pay is a mere £109.40 per week for up to 28 weeks. Not exactly a financial lifeline, right?
Now, let's tackle a common objection: "But I have critical illness insurance. I don't need income protection too." Here's the deal – the two policies apply to very different situations. In a nutshell:
- Critical illness insurance pays a single lump sum if you're diagnosed with or undergo surgery for a specified potentially life-threatening illness. It's great for handling big one-off expenses or debts.
- Income protection, on the other hand, pays a percentage of your salary as a regular payment if you can't work due to illness or injury. It's the superhero that tackles those relentless monthly bills.
Types of life insurance policies
Common reasons for getting a life insurance policy are to:✅ Leave behind an amount of money to keep your family comfortable
✅ Protect the family home and pay off the mortgage in full or in part
✅ Pay for funeral costs
Starting from as little as a couple of pounds per week, you can do all that with a Life Policy.
Level Term Life Insurance
One of the simplest forms of life insurance, level term life insurance works by selecting a length of time for which you would want to be covered and then deciding how much you would like your loved ones to receive should the worst happen. Should your life insurance policy pay out to your family, it would be in a lump sum amount that can be used in whatever way the beneficiary may wish.
Decreasing Term Life Insurance
Decreasing term life insurance works in the same way as level term, except the lump sum payment amount upon death decreases with time. The common use for decreasing term life cover is to protect against mortgage repayment as the lump sum decreases along with the principal of the mortgage itself.
Increasing Term Life Insurance
Increasing term life insurance aims to pay out a cash sum growing each year if the worst happens while covered by the policy. With increasing term life cover amount insured increases annually by a fixed amount for the length of the policy. This can protect your policy's value against inflation, which could be advantageous if you’re looking to maintain your loved ones’ living standards, continue paying off your mortgage in line with its repayment schedule and cover your children’s education fees.
Whole of Life Insurance
Whereas term life insurance policies only pay out if you pass away during their term, whole of life insurance pays out to your beneficiaries whenever this should happen. The most common uses for whole life insurance are to cover the costs of a funeral or as a vehicle for your family's inheritance tax planning.
Family Income Benefit
Family income benefit is a somewhat lesser-known product in the family of life insurance products. Paying out a set amount every month of year to your beneficiaries, it is the most cost-effective way of maintaining your family's living standards to an age where you'd expect them to be able to support themselves financially. The most common use would be for a family with children who are not working yet so are unable to take care of themselves financially.
Relevant Life Insurance
Relevant Life Insurance is a tax-efficient policy for a director or single employee. A simple level term life insurance product, it is placed in a specific trust to ensure its tax efficiency. The premiums are tax deductible and any benefit payable should a claim arise is also paid out tax free, which makes it an attractive product for entrepreneurs and their businesses.
Important Fact!
We can look at a more suitable option mid-term!
Why is it important to get life insurance early?
👉 Many people are very thankful that they had their life, income protection, and critical illness insurance cover in place before running into some serious issues. Critical illness and income protection insurance is as important as life insurance for protecting your family's finances.👉 We insure our cars, houses, bicycles and even bags! Yet our life and health are the most precious things we have.
Easily one of the most important insurance purchases an individual or family can make in their lifetime, the decision to buy life, income protection, critical illness and private medical health insurance can be made much simpler with the help of FCA-authorised advisers. They are the specialists who do the searching and analysis helping people choose between various types of life insurance policies available in the market, including income protection, critical illness and other types of policies most suitable to the client's individual circumstances.
It certainly won't do any harm if you speak with one of our experienced FCA-authorised insurance partner experts who are passionate about advising people on financial matters related to life insurance and are keen to provide you with a free consultation.
You can discuss with them in detail what affordable life, income protection, critical illness or private medical health insurance plan for the necessary peace of mind they would recommend! WeCovr works with some of the best advisers in the market.
By tapping the button below, you can book a free call with them in less than 30 seconds right now:
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WeCovr is an insurance specialist for people valuing their peace of mind and a great service.👍 WeCovr will help you get your private medical insurance, life insurance, critical illness insurance and others in no time thanks to our wonderful super-friendly experts ready to assist you every step of the way.
Just a quick and simple form and an easy conversation with one of our experts and your valuable insurance policy is in place for that needed peace of mind!