Personal Insurances
Our role in personal insurance is to help our clients ascertain what type and amount of cover to purchase. This involves calculations in relation to dependants, debt, living expenses and most importantly, personal attitudes to towards insurance, risk and cost.
Once we have worked with you to develop a plan to protect you effectively and affordably, our job is to go out and find the you best quality cover we can at the most competitive price. We have no alignment to any insurance company and have access to all regulated covers that are available in the Australian market.
Please find following a brief description of the common types of cover available.
Life Insurance
Life Insurance offers financial protection for dependents in the event of death. The cost of insurance varies significantly with the type of insurance cover selected. A balance must be reached between affordability and the best policy conditions available. Cover required is determined by several factors including your assets and liabilities and the income needed to maintain your family’s standard of living.
Total and Permanent Disability Insurance
TPD insurance is designed to provide a lump sum in the event of a serious illness or injury that totally and permanently incapacitates you, preventing you from working. TPD is used to repay debts, cover capital gains tax liabilities and to cover dependents from the loss of an income provider.
Income Protection INSURANCE
Income protection insurance pays you an income if you’re unable to work in the event of illness or injury. Income protection insurance can usually pay up to 75% of your income for a selected period of time.
Income protection insurance provides income and can also provide additional features that give added protection to help you return to work in the event of a claim. Income protection insurance is tax deductible and the income payments received under the policy are assessable for tax purposes.
Trauma & Critical Illness Insurance
Trauma insurance is paid in a lump sum to those who suffer a traumatic event such as the diagnosis of cancer or a coronary disease. Importantly, trauma insurance is paid on the confirmation of a diagnosis.
The treatment required to fight and recover from life threatening conditions often means working is not possible. Trauma insurance is targeted to pay for care, cover debts and living expenses and relieve stress on the household budget in a traumatic situation.
Why Choose Us?
Personal insurances require careful planning to ensure that cover is sufficient but not wasteful. Various policies work in harmony to create a cost effective safety net for you and your family, and the required policies vary greatly with individual circumstances.
Personal insurance is also something of a moving target. Many life events alter your insurance needs and planning ahead is important to ensure cost effective cover at the right time.
As a privately owned financial planning company, we have access to every regulated insurer in the Australian market, including specialist insurers that offer boutique cover to certain occupations and individuals. Insurers have vastly different 'risk appetites' and the ability to genuinely market a client's policy to all insurers in the marketplace enables us to offer better cover at reduced premiums.
When selecting insurance providers we always consider the following:
Strength and claims paying capacity of the provider
The provider’s history of efficient claims administration and paying claims
The policy wordings offered by the insurer
The premium charged
How we provide our Insurance Services
We are privately licensed so have no alignment with any particular insurer. In most cases we charge a fee per person to review current policies, discuss your health, circumstances and long term position, and select the best/most appropriate policies that we can find amongst regulated insurers that operate in Australia. Typically fees are $440 per person but can vary depending on the types of cover and the complexity of the scenario. All fees are quoted and agreed to before we commence any work for the client.
We consider price, features, administration and most importantly, claims experience when selecting your insurer.
If you then engage us to undertake applications, underwriting, health checks, administration and on-going reviews of the policy, we get paid a commission from the insurer for those services. In Australia, life insurance commissions are Government regulated with a current maximum of 66% of the first year’s premium at inception and 22% per year thereafter. Exact commissions are disclosed in our Statement of Advice prior to putting any policies in place.