Life insurance expert LifeSearch, together with the HomeOwners Alliance, said 40% of homeowners have never reviewed or considered protection needs and most haven’t reviewed their household budget or emergency savings in the last year.
Debbie Kennedy, CEO of LifeSearch, said: “These figures point to more than a protection gap, they reveal a wider financial engagement gap”.
Kennedy continued: “Too many homeowners are going years without reviewing their cover, checking their savings position, or even understanding their mortgage balance – let alone having a proper conversation with their partner about what happens if one of them couldn’t work. Life changes fast, and financial resilience needs to keep pace.
“For me, the most important takeaway is how simple the starting point can be. One conversation with an adviser – someone who looks at the whole financial picture, not just one product – can begin to close many of these gaps.
“No one should be finding out what their financial safety net really looks like for the first time at the moment they really need it.”
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Protection considered only at point of purchase
The figures showed that almost a third of those with protection cover have never reassessed it.
The most common prompt for those who do is buying or remortgaging a home – cited by one in five (18%). Kennedy said this suggested that for many, protection decisions are made once and left untouched, rather than revisited as circumstances change.
A change in relationship or family situation (13%) or a significant shift in financial commitments (12%) – such as childcare costs or receiving a large sum of money – are other key triggers, rising to 25% and 27% respectively among the under-35s.
Paula Higgins, CEO of the HomeOwners Alliance, said: “Most homeowners are juggling busy lives, balancing work, family and rising bills, so it’s no surprise that reviewing finances slips down the list. But when you own a home, staying on top of your finances is vital.
“For many people, their home is their biggest asset, so the stakes are too high to simply hope you have the right cover in place if your income suddenly stops. Taking time to understand your safety net and what support you’d have in place isn’t just sensible, it’s essential to keeping your home secure in today’s uncertain economic climate.”
The study follows the partnership between HomeOwners Alliance and LifeSearch announced last year. The pair then released research showing that 46% of homeowners would struggle to pay their mortgage within six months if they lost their income.
No read-through of documents
The figures also showed that homeowners don’t check or make new vital documents. It found that 84% of homeowners have not read through their insurance policy documents to understand what they’re covered for, 94% have not checked what financial protection they have through their employer – such as sick pay, death in service or group income protection – and 89% have not checked the beneficiaries listed on their life insurance or pension.
Meanwhile, nine in 10 have not sought financial advice from a professional adviser, and a similar percentage have not made or updated a will.
Hope for the younger generation
While only 5% of all homeowners who have or previously considered protection cited advertising or media coverage as a prompt to review protection, this study showed this figure rising to 14% among younger homeowners – suggesting communications have greater cut-through with an audience that remains under-served.
