Horizon Mortgages & Protection

16/10/2026

If you weren't here, who would pay for the school shoes in 2035?

It's an uncomfortable question, I know. But stay with me.

When parents think about life insurance, they often think about paying off the mortgage.

And that's important. Knowing your family could stay in their home if something happened to you is a huge weight off your mind.

But what about everything else?

The weekly food shop. The school uniforms. Birthday parties. The electricity bill. The car insurance when your eldest starts driving.

All those ordinary things that don't stop needing to be paid for just because life has changed.

This is where something called Family Income Benefit comes in.

Rather than one large lump sum, it can provide your family with a regular monthly income if you die during the policy term, for the remaining period of cover.

Think of it as helping to replace the income your family would be missing.

And the surprising thing? So many parents I speak to have never even heard of it.

It isn't about replacing the life insurance you already have. It's about understanding whether there's a gap between protecting your home and protecting the life your family lives inside it.

If you've got children at home, here's something worth asking yourself.

Would the cover you have today still pay for their everyday lives tomorrow?

If you're not sure, let's have a conversation.

[email protected]

14/10/2026

Today's office? The kitchen table, a cup of tea I made an hour ago and completely forgot about, and a notebook full of arrows that make perfect sense to me. Nobody else, just me.

Not quite as glamorous as the photo suggests!

But here's something you might not realise when you're sorting out your mortgage or protection.

By the time we sit down and talk through your options, there's often been a fair bit of work going on behind the scenes.

Reading the small print (sometimes three times), asking the awkward questions, chasing answers and checking another lender because the first option wasn't quite right.

Because when it's your home, your family or your financial future we're talking about, "that'll do" isn't really good enough, is it?

You shouldn't have to understand every bit of mortgage jargon or spend your evenings wondering whether you've made the right decision.

That's my job.

And if doing it properly means another cold cup of tea and a notebook that looks like a detective's evidence board, so be it.

I wouldn't have it any other way.

12/10/2026

The business loan doesn’t care who’s off sick.

Question two of four. What borrowing does the business need to repay?

The loan that funded the expansion. The overdraft that gets you through the quiet months.

If an owner or key person died or became seriously ill, the lender still expects to be paid. Some lenders can call the loan in. Where there’s a personal guarantee, that debt can land on the owner’s family too.

Business protection can be set up to repay what’s owed, so the business keeps going and nobody’s family inherits the bank’s problem.

You probably know exactly what the business owes. The question is who pays it back if you can’t.

Let’s have a look at yours.

[email protected]

09/10/2026

A proud day for Gunners Kids CIC

On 1 October, Tamsin and I met the Personal Choice Community Fund panel, and Personal Choice Funeral Directors presented us with £1,500.

It’s going towards a fully illustrated memory book for the children we support, in families across Cornwall where a parent or carer is facing a terminal illness. Schools will be able to have copies too.

Gunners Kids is run by volunteers who have lived through anticipatory grief and loss themselves. We hold activity days and workshops through the year, plus monthly drop-ins at St Austell Library and around Cornwall.

Thank you, Personal Choice Funeral Directors. This means a huge amount to us.

If you’d like to support Gunners Kids CIC, drop the page a message and we’ll point you in the right direction.

08/10/2026

07/10/2026

We were not pressured into signing up to any insurance we didn’t want.

Natassia and her husband came to me sceptical. They’d been mis-sold insurance in the past, and they weren’t in a rush to trust anyone selling it again.

Fair enough.

So we took our time. I explained everything, answered every question, and only recommended what fitted their circumstances. When we got to their Wills, we took the same care.

In her words: “We were not pressured into signing up to any insurance we didn’t want.”

That line means more to me than any star rating. Trust gets built one conversation at a time.

Thank you, Natassia.

[email protected]

Wills are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

02/10/2026

The three mortgage mistakes I watch happen every month. All three are avoidable.

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Your Home (or property) may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage or any other debts secured on it. A fee may be charged for mortgage advice, the exact amount will depend on your circumstances.

28/09/2026

School is back. Uniforms bought. Now the awkward question.

If you were not here this time next year, who pays for the school shoes?

Not the mortgage. Life insurance handles that.

The everyday, ongoing, boring, essential stuff. The food shop. The car. The trip to Center Parcs. The uniform that gets outgrown twice a year.

That is what family income benefit does. A monthly income paid to your family for the length of the policy if you die during the term. It behaves like your wage did.

Cheaper than most people expect. Sits alongside the life cover you already have, does the job the lump sum was never designed to do.

Two minutes to explain. Fifteen minutes to price it up.

[email protected]

25/09/2026

It's Income Protection Awareness Week. The theme this year is Moments that Matter.

The moment that changes everything is never on the calendar. That is exactly why this cover exists.

[email protected]

23/09/2026

"Kerry provided competitive options and was extremely helpful in working with us to find the right solutions."

Lynn and her family came to me looking at options around their mortgage and how to protect what they had built.

We worked to a monthly budget she was comfortable with. Not the theoretical maximum a lender would give. What actually fitted her family's life.

That is the bit that stayed with me from her review. "Worked within our monthly budget to find us the best protection policies to suit us should the inevitable happen, ensuring that we are financially secure."

Financially secure. That is what any of this is for.

Thank you, Lynn.

[email protected]

Your Home (or property) may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage or any other debts secured on it. A fee may be charged for mortgage advice, the exact amount will depend on your circumstances.