Silver Surfer; pushing the boundaries on cheap insurance?

For those of you who may have given up hope, getting a good deal on a financial product, once in your golden years is not as far from your grasp as you might imagine.

The financial industry is awakening and "smelling the coffee", as highlighted by the fact that many insurance companies are starting to cater more extensively for the over 65's.

This may just be due to the fact that over 50's are thought to possess 60% of Britons wealth, according to a recent report by Abbey. Further to this the combined household wealth of this age group is thought to now stand at £5 Trillion. As you can imagine this is an immensely profitable market for insurance companies to corner. As a result of this you should expect to be able to clinch a good deal on policies such as car insurance, here your experience will count for something and secure you a cheaper policy (although this may not be the case once into your 70's). For a while now though, one of the biggest bugbears for people of this age group has been finding holiday insurance at a price less than astronomical.

As I wrote in a previous article on the topic of holiday insurance; the most important thing is to be as honest as possible with the insurance company. You should be careful not to omit even the smallest detail, as it may make a difference to the policy. Travelling for those who have retired is a commonly shared dream/past time and it can be almost prohibitive for some due to high premium prices. You can expect your travel insurance to double once over the age of 65 and you may even see a price hike of up to 3 times the original; especially once into your 70's.

The charity age concern has in fact just launched its own personal insurance tailored to the over 65's. This further reinforces the fact that in an ever changing market there is hope that premium prices will start to drop for the over 65's as companies begin to realise the "grey" pound can be quite lucrative.

For those of you who consider yourselves to be internet savvy and "silver surfers" a good deal can be found if you're willing to do a bit of research. Try to find comparison sites as these will allow you to enter your details and have a search done for you with many insurance companies/policies cross referenced. Remember to ring the company once you have found a good quote, as you will need to inform them of any details which may alter the premium price and possibly invalidate your insurance.

It is good to see that a market that has remained predominantly conservative for many years is now starting to evolve and cater for more niches in society. This can be seen as good news for those of us in all walks of life.