Mortgages by Design: Episode Seven - Eliminating risk when taking out a mortgage, with Chris Cocksedge

Buying a home is exciting — but are you only focusing on the ‘Mona Lisa’? In this episode, Jon and Chris draw a clever comparison between the world’s most famous painting and the often-overlooked importance of protecting your home and income.

In the same way people admire the Mona Lisa without ever noticing the background, many buyers focus entirely on securing their dream home, without thinking about what would happen if life suddenly changed. The excitement of moving in, getting the keys, and starting a new chapter often overshadows the quieter, more important conversation around protection.

That’s where life insurance comes in. It’s not the headline-grabbing part of the journey, but it plays a vital role in making sure everything else holds together. Whether it’s covering the mortgage, protecting your family’s lifestyle, or giving you peace of mind, life insurance is the safety net that sits quietly in the background — until it’s needed most.

Jon and Chris break down why life insurance is so often overlooked, despite being one of the most important financial decisions you can make alongside a mortgage. They also explore how the right protection can turn uncertainty into confidence, helping homeowners feel secure not just in the present, but in whatever the future may bring.

If you’ve ever focused purely on getting the deal done without considering the bigger picture, this episode will give you a fresh perspective — and a simple way to think differently about protecting what matters most.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome to another episode of Mortgages by Design. And my guest today, Chris Cox Edge, welcome back, Chris. Good morning. So today's topic, we're talking about all things protection, life insurance. I have an interesting introduction to this for you, Chris.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

When you see the Mona Lisa painting, what do you see?

SPEAKER_01 0:29

Yeah, yeah. I I think um, I mean I haven't seen it in quite some time.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

You may Google it after this now.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

But from memory, a very bored-looking lady.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Yeah, that's what and that's what everyone answers. In in the background, there's an incredible landscape and and a winding road and a lake and like mountains, and no one sees it.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

And I can't even picture that background. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

I asked I asked five people the same question, and no one mentioned the background. And I and I had this analogy between that and our and today's topic, which is that I think when you go through the home buying process, you see the mortgage and the mortgage only, and that's the Mona Lisa. And it's the excite it's the excitement. It's almost like selective attention. People don't even think about the protection. Um why do you think it's overlooked?

SPEAKER_01 1:37

Well, you know, getting a mortgage and or buying a house or moving house is a massive deal for people. Um, you know, it's a moving house is one of the most stressful things that someone can do in their life, right? So it become they become very focused on that and not necessarily around the other areas, such as after I've moved in, if something goes wrong, you know, what can I do to protect myself and hopefully keep my house if something goes wrong? So that tends not to get thought about because there's bigger, more important things going on in their lives.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

Yeah, it's uh I moved last year, and there's I know what you mean about the stress. There's a lot to do, there's a lot of paperwork, there's a lot to do. The last thing on your mind almost is oh, I'm gonna think about eliminating risk now. Yeah, exactly. But why is that so important?

SPEAKER_01 2:38

Well, it it is really important because that risk does exist, and most people know someone or is aware of someone that things have happened in their lives, you know, that have caused bad, you know, bad things to happen. And in those scenarios, people can lose their homes, you know, and that that's the last thing you want after you've put all that effort and gone through all that stress to buy a property and potentially borrow a large sum of money and then not protect against losing that. You know, it's really it's really important to at least consider it.

SPEAKER_00 3:16

I'd say it's definitely not the client's responsibility to take it out, but it's definitely our responsibility at Bright Advice to introduce it.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

Absolutely. I mean, you know, just to a higher level, consumer duty, we are duty bound to inform people of those risks. Yeah, you know, it's a responsibility. Um, I often say that it, you know, I'm I'm helping people to borrow a large amount of money and get into serious debt, and we're really good at that. We're really good at helping people get into debt. But by doing that, they get what they want, right? Which is their new house. Um but if we're helping people to get into debt, we really have to tell them about the risks of what happens if they can't pay that back.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

Yeah, it's a really good way of putting it. You're you're helping people to get the biggest debt they'll ever get in their life.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

Well, we are, yes.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

And the idea is that if anything goes wrong, it's protected. It's protected. Yeah. Okay, what did you think to the analogy with um Mona Lisa?

SPEAKER_01 4:26

Yeah, I mean that's interesting. Um I was sort of thinking along different a different avenue, really, is that that we look at something and don't really take it all in.

SPEAKER_00 4:37

And just one more quick question moving away from protection before I um let you go. So Friday, the 8th of May, it is today. The market has been quite. I I'd describe it as incredible, but at the start of the year I wrote an article which said it'll be a pretty uneventful year. How wrong I was.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

Everything was rosy for a change. Um, we knew really what interest rates were going to do, they were already, you know, uh under four percent. It all looked great, but it doesn't take much in this crazy world of ours to um turn that on its head very quickly. Um although it has been a crazy time and crazy markets, it doesn't feel that crazy to us because we've been going through five years of this. Yeah. Yeah, so um it it's it was unexpected, but things are just going to happen in the world that we live in, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

Yeah, it's been since 2020. I sort of I know what you mean. It's just been a roller coaster ride since then, and just when you think it stopped, it hasn't.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

The good news is, by the way, is that um this week banks have started to reduce fixed rates on mortgages. So that's a good sign that things are getting better as long as nothing else bad happens.

SPEAKER_00 5:59

There we go, everyone. Good news. That's what that's why I chose you today, Chris. I knew you'd bring the good news. Yeah, no worries. Right, see you on the next episode. Thanks, Chris.

SPEAKER_01 6:10

No worries, see you, John. Bye.