Grandma by Rob Boudon (CC BY 2.0)
A health insurer in the UK has launched a ‘multi-family’ product which allows one person to buy insurance for multiple family members. WPA say their Multi-Family Healthcare Plan is designed for grandparents to use their accumulated wealth to buy insurance for their family.
Baby-boomer grandparents currently give €3.5 billion a year to their grandchildren, fund one in four private school children, and are responsible for up to 35% of all childcare for families with working mothers.
The cost of the plans depends on where you live and your age, but WPA claims that by grouping family members’ insurance together, the final cost is much cheaper than traditional cover. The policy can be extended to any family member as long as they are related by blood, marriage, adoption, civil partnership, fostering, or are a co-habiting couple.
According to UK tax rules payments made out of net income which don’t affect standards of living, are normally exempt from inheritance tax – WPA says this means Multi-Family premiums could also be exempt.
Rod Bramston, managing director of WPA’s private client business, told Moneywise, “This is about structuring family finances effectively. Grandparents now play a crucial role underlining a growing shift in family funding with potential tax advantages.”
Graeme Godfrey, director at bestgoprivate.co.uk – an independent PMI specialist – said the product was “innovative” and will attract people who had never previously considered private medical insurance.
Brokers working to find private medical insurance for a family typically use several insurers for different family members depending on their age, pre-existing conditions and so on. This plan is the first to offer coverage for the whole, extended family under one plan.
“In a competitive marketplace more choice for the consumer can only be a good thing,” Godfrey added.