Your queries answered by DOMINIC COYLE

Do I need an accountant now I’m retired?

Q

I was self-employed most of my working life and used an accountant all the time. I am now retired but still use an accountant to feel safe. He is expensive. All my relations and friends state that now I’m retired a few years I shouldn’t need an accountant. Are they right? He has been a great help and friend over the years to me and my wife, who is also retired so I feel obliged.

– Mr JO, Louth

A

The answer depends on your circumstances. Understandably, as a self-employed person, you would have required an accountant to ensure your business affairs were in order. However, in retirement, your financial affairs are inevitably less complicated. You do not specify your circumstances but if you are simply in receipt of a pension and maybe have some investments, you should not need an accountant to manage your affairs. Paying for investment advice as required from time to time should prove less expensive.

It is important to remember that a relationship with your accountant is purely professional. You should not feel obliged to continue to pay for services unless you require them. The fact that he has been helpful over the years is what you paid for and friendship carries no obligations.

Can our insurers cancel our life cover?

Q

I just received a statement for our life and illness cover which we have been paying since getting a mortgage from PermanentTSB in 1993. We have paid €42,000 and it is now valued at €14,000 but is not a saving plan.

The benefits are €300,000 life cover for both of us and €150,000 critical illness each.

My problem is they are now saying that unless we increase our monthly payment from €300 to €650 per month, our plan will cease in 2017. Even with that, it will cease in 2023.

Is this legal? It seems like extortion and mismanagement of our plan. We are 52 and 48 and nowhere near retirement.

– Ms NB, email

A

Life and illness cover would normally be separate policies, each with their own terms.

It is common for life cover to be priced cheaply at the outset with regular reviews built in at which the price almost inevitably rises. As you are finding out, this generally reaches a point where the level of premiums becomes unsustainable.

However, at 52 and 48, it is possible that your life cover requirements will be different than they were when you first took out this policy. People should conduct regular reviews of life cover requirements. Issues that need to be taken into account are other life policies you hold – such as death in service benefit with your employer or life cover on your mortgage – as well as the level of other assets you hold and your family needs, such as whether there are children still at home or in education.

As to whether the company is within its rights to close the policy in 2023 – when you will be 64 and 60 respectively – that is purely a matter of what it says in the terms and conditions of the policy. It may be that the policy was only ever intended to run through the course of your working life – certainly on the critical illness side – with a presumption that you would retire at normal pensionable age. Check the policy.

This column is a reader service and is not intended to replace professional advice. No personal correspondence will be entered into.