Education Savings in Ireland: The Protection Side Nobody Talks About
Walk into any conversation about saving for college in Ireland and you will hear about monthly amounts, investment growth and the Small Gift Exemption. What you will rarely hear about is what happens to the plan when life goes wrong. That silence costs families dearly. Because over a 15 or 20 year saving journey, the odds of something going wrong — a death, a serious diagnosis, a long spell out of work — are far higher than most parents like to think. The good news: protecting an education plan is neither complicated nor expensive. Four covers do the job. Cover one: Life Insurance The simplest of the four. If a parent dies, the policy pays a lump sum that can complete the child’s fund in a single payment. Size it to the gap between what you have saved and your target. A healthy 35-year-old can buy €150,000 of term cover for roughly €10-€20 a month. Cover two: Serious Illness Cover Also called Specified Illness cover. On dia...