Are you about to start a family? If you are an expecting a baby and planning to go back to work within 12 months of the birth of your child, there is a new income protection product available that could help to safeguard the future of your growing family. Income protection insurance is a valuable form of financial protection that can provide regular payments to you in the event of an illness or disability that prevents you from working. Having income protection insurance is useful for everyone but particularly if you are a working parent who has others relying on your wage. If you have a baby on the way and don’t currently have income protection insurance, now is a good time to start thinking [...]

MLC has recently announced a number of upgrades and enhancements to their life and income protection insurance products. With five attractive new features including a 12 month life insurance buy back option, these improvements are seen as the fulfilment of a commitment by MLC in October 2011 to regularly upgrade their offers. The new enhancements to MLC’s income protection and life insurance offers include double benefits which give customers the opportunity to restore their life insurance benefit after a Total and Permanent Disability (TPD) claim. They have also added type 1 diabetes cover and made available income protection platinum inside super as well as raising the limit for coverage to up to age 70. These improvements can benefit customers by allowing increased access to insurance [...]

Income protection insurance is essential for medical professionals to help them protect their family in the event that they contract an illness or injury which prevents them from working for a significant period of time. Having critical illness benefits on top of your standard income protection insurance could also mean a substantial increase in your level of protection. As a medical worker, you are at increased risk of contracting a blood borne illness such as Hepatitis B or C or HIV. Having critical illness cover designed specifically to take into account these risks could mean a lot less stress for you in the event that you contract a serious medical condition. TAL can provide this with their critical illness cover. Having critical illness cover means [...]

The death of a loved one or diagnosis of a terminal illness is an extremely difficult time and in recognition of the emotional stress families are under at this time, OnePath has introduced a grief care program to help support their clients through the grieving process. The grief care program provides face to face counselling support (up to 10 sessions per family) and phone counselling to those who have made a claim following the death of a relative or loved one. The grief care program can be accessed by anyone who is in the process of making a death or a terminal illness claim. The person making the claim is entitled to up to 6 hours of professional counselling. As life events such as these [...]

Although income protection insurance is highly advisable for working parents and anybody else who has others depending on their income, the cost of premiums can be off putting to some. Many people forgo valuable financial protection because they assume they can’t afford income protection insurance but there are products available that are designed with affordability in mind. One of these products, according to Money Magazine’s best of the best insurance awards 2012, is Asteron’s Income Shield policy. As well as having lower premiums, this product offers a range of attractive features including allowing up to 10 hours a week of work for policyholders without it affecting their benefits. Other competitive income protection insurance products include TAL’s Income Protection Standard and CommInsure’s Income Care products. If [...]

Life and TPD insurance are both designed to offer financial protection to dependents in the event of a policyholder’s death or permanent disability. When choosing a life or TPD policy, the array of products and features can be extremely confusing, so it is important to get professional advice when you are choosing a policy. Finding an insurance provider who offers quality and consistency is extremely important and that’s where doing your research can help. According to Money Magazine’s 2012 insurance awards, the best term life and TPD provider is AIA Australia with its Life Cover and TPD product. AXA’s Life Insurance Plan and TAL’s Life and TPD products came a close second. All of these companies were considered consistent performers in the category of life [...]

The importance of income protection insurance cannot be understated but it is a type of protection that many Australians overlook when they think about insurance. Income protection insurance is designed to pay up to 75% of your income for a set period of time in the event that you are unable to work due to an illness or injury. With new products being released that boast even more attractive features than previously, now is a great time to start thinking about income protection insurance. According to Money Magazine’s best of 2012 insurance awards, the best featured income protection insurance product of the year is TAL’s Accelerated Protection Premier Agreed Policy. TAL stood out from the competition due to its impressive range of features which include [...]

When it comes to income protection insurance, many people assume that the income protection provided by their super fund will be sufficient and they don’t need to take out an additional policy. Although industry super funds such as C Bus Super do offer income protection as part of their super, it is a good idea to carefully consider whether the cover provided by this and other super funds would be adequate if you were incapacitated and unable to work for a lengthy period of time. Income protection through C Bus may be cheaper but it does lack a number of valuable features that can be found in a retail insurance product. Benefits only last for 2 years which, if you suffer from a long term [...]

The majority of businesses will have at least one or two staff members without whom the business would suffer, and it is important to protect against their loss just like you would any other asset. Key person insurance is designed to do just that. Key person insurance is a type of insurance that compensates you financially should you lose one of your invaluable team members, or a business partner, through death or incapacitation. Consider your most valuable staff members and what would happen if they were unable to work in the business suddenly and without warning. Some of the ways your business might suffer could include loss of sales or clients, financial disruption, loss of technical expertise and partnership or ownership disruptions if the person [...]

If you have your own business you have probably protected yourself with income protection insurance and various aspects of your business with commercial insurance but have you considered Business Expenses insurance to protect your business in the event that you are rendered unable to work in it? Business Expenses insurance varies from  income protection insurance in that rather than replacing lost income if you have an accident or injury, business expenses insurance is designed to pay some or all of the ongoing costs of your business so that it can keep running in your absence. Unlike business interruption insurance which can help your business continue in the aftermath of an external disaster or event, business expenses is targeted solely at situations where the business owner [...]