Insurance for school fees

[igglepigglegingin]

Both DD's will be privately educated from 3 (one is already at the school). It's a long stretch paying school fees for 17yrs and I wanted to find out if anyone has any experience with insurance if the worst happens to one of us... and if it's worth investing in? In addition does any insurer cover redundancy etc? Obviously we will have savings for immediate issues but this is ensuring they can stay in the same environment for the duration of their education.

Income protection insurance you mean?

Yes, but also serious illness, death etc

Income Protection Insurance, and/or Permanent Health Insurance.

Surely it would be the level of life insurance you take out? Ie you need to work out how much the fees cost over the whole period for both and take out life insurance to reflect that?

I think that's my question. Do you take out a separate insurance as the schools suggest or just go for it within life insurance....

Most schools offer an insurance policy which covers the child being off sick for a period of time - you get a fee refund if there is a doctors note saying they need to be off for a week or more usually, but they don't pay out for odd days. Schools don't tend to offer insurance cover for the fees themselves and it is up to parents to put in place measures for covering difficulties.....or accept that they might have to move their child if a crisis occurs. Contingency could be savings, life insurance/redundancy insurance, grandparents etc.

Bear in mind too that if a genuine crisis occurs that most schools have a hardship or temporary bursary fund. I'm aware that a number of secondaries would support a child to the end of GCSE or A Level or the end of KS3 if a crisis such as a death or major drop in income occurred. I suspect Preps might be less keen to do so, but again know most have hardship funds.

We have been paying school fees for 7 years now and haven't taken any type of insurance.

I do worry about various scenarios but I try not to think about it too much. Maybe that's just naive as I still have 8 more years to go

The insurance from the school is only for a fee refund if a child is sick. I don't pay for that. You would need to take out income protection insurance or something similar. You won't get that from the school though. Some schools will let you buy credits that can be used towards the fees and you will also get a discount for the fees. So at any point you have a bit more money you could buy credits. If your school doesn't offer that, then you could talk to a school fees planner and see whether they sell a product that will mean that if you lose your income, you'll still be able to pay fees. And as WombatChocolate says, many schools will help if something terrible happens.