Deadlines, budgets and a lot of people to please
Project managers carry responsibility for timelines, budgets and teams they often do not directly manage. You might run a software rollout from a laptop, oversee an office refit or co-ordinate contractors on a building project. The common thread is pressure from several directions at once.
That pressure is why mental health appears so often in project managers' sickness absence. Back and neck problems from long days at a desk or in a car are the next likely reason. Income protection can pay a monthly benefit while you recover from either.
Office-based or out on site
Insurers want to know what share of your time you spend in an office, travelling and on site. A project manager who walks construction sites in a hard hat each week may be placed in a different risk group from one who never leaves the office. Neither is wrong, but the description on your application must match reality.
If you drive long distances between client offices or sites, mention that too. Accurate answers protect your claim later, and a broker can find insurers who rate your mix of duties fairly.
- Estimate the share of your week spent on site
- Mention any manual work or use of tools
- Tell the insurer about regular overseas travel
Employed, contract or freelance
Employed project managers often get some sick pay and sometimes group income protection. Contract project managers paid by the day usually get nothing, and their limited company may be the best route to buying cover through executive income protection.
Insurers rate occupations by risk group, and that rating also affects the incapacity definition. For mainly office-based project managers, own occupation cover is usually on offer, so a claim is judged against your actual job.
Qualifications, travel and changing sectors
Project managers often move between sectors, from construction into IT or from the public sector into consultancy. Each move can change your sick pay and your occupation rating, so review your cover when you switch.
Regular overseas travel for programme work should go on the application too. Most business trips make no difference, but some destinations prompt extra questions.
Life cover and how we help project managers
A life policy can clear the mortgage and support your family if you die during the term. If you contract through your own company, relevant life cover lets the business pay for a personal life policy. Employees should check death in service, which ends when the job does.
We ask how your role really works before searching the insurers on our panel. That way the job description on your application is right, the definition suits you and the deferred period fits your sick pay or reserves.