Life Insurance

From your independent Australian Life Insurance Broker

What IS Life Insurance?

Life Insurance will pay a specified amount to the owner of the policy, upon your death by EITHER death by accident, and / or death by illness.

Accidental Life Insurance will pay a specified amount to the owner of the policy, ONLY upon your death by accident.

Do I need Life Insurance?

It depends on your individual circumstances, but if anyone depends upon your income in any way, then you should have Life Insurance to protect them and protect their financial well being. Everyone has varying needs. If you have dependants, ie. spouse, children, other beneficiaries, Life Insurance can provide a source of income in the event of your death. It can pay out your debt. Life Insurance can provide for Estate Planning, buying out of business partners shareholding in the event of that business partners death (See the life insurance & partnership insurance page for more information). Life Insurance can fund buy / sell agreements. Life Insurance can fund a Company with Key Person cover (See the life insurance & key person insurance page for more information).

To submit an online quote request form, go to the life insurance request quotation page.

Getting the right Life Insurance Policy for You!

The Insurance Industry is heavily regulated and therefore, most companies provide sound products and similar cost structures. The differences are to be found in their administrative qualities, processing procedures, company culture, policy review process, state or national underwriting, claims history, etc. These differences can really only be ascertained through discussion with an Independent Insurance Adviser.

It is important to understand that unrestricted or Independent life Insurance Advisers or Financial Advisers, can provide information and costs on all Life Insurance Companies policies. However, Life Insurance Advisers from within the banking industry, or mortgage originator industry normally have only one particular Insurance Company's policies from which to select. Those policies are quite often 'badged' with the particular bank or mortgage originators name. It is important that you reflect on how this impacts on the advice you receive.

To submit an online quote request form, go to the life insurance request quotation page.

Sum Insured: - How much Life Insurance Cover do you need?

The calculation of sum insured, is an individual issue and varies accordingly. It will depend on the stage you are at in life, whether you are single or married, whether you have debt and how much, whether you have a spouse and children who need financial provision made for them, whether you have a disabled child or other beneficiary who may need special needs and particular sums of money ongoing, etc., etc.

To assist you we have provided a guide to life insurance coverage / sum insured to help you establish how much life insurance cover you will need.

Who can OWN the Life Insurance Policy / Receive the proceeds from the Life Insurance Policy?

The Life Insured - is the person on which the insurance is placed.

The Owner of the policy can be:
a) Yourself - in which case the money will be paid to your Estate. And will be distributed as instructed in your Will or Estate Plan.
b) Yourself - and paid to specified Beneficiaries which are listed on the Policy Document. In this case the funds are paid directly to the beneficiaries not through your Will or Estate.
c) Any other person you wish to name as the Policy Owner - the funds will be paid directly to that person. Perhaps in the event of a debt owed. Perhaps in the event of a Partnership Buy Out.
d) Your superannuation fund - Where there are large sums insured, and therefore larger premiums incurred, it is sometimes prudent to put the policy in the name of the Superannuation Fund. The insurance money will then be paid to the Trustee of the Super fund rather than your Estate. There is a taxation deduction applicable if the insurance is structured this way. However please note, there can be negatives in doing it this way, depending on individual circumstances. Some of which may occur after your death, such as in a disputed Will. In short, it is the Trustee of the Super fund who will ultimately decide where the funds are distributed, and in the event of a Will dispute, it can be the case that the Trustee instructs differently to how you would have ultimately wished. You are not there to issue instructions of course!!! You have peacefully moved on!!!
In this case, if the Super fund is the Owner of the policy, it is the Trustee who has the power of those funds, not your Estate, or your spouse, partners children etc. In summary, if using your Super fund as Owner of your policy you need to consider issues such as tax consequences, reasonable benefit limits (RBL's) and Estate Planning issues.
e) A Company - In the event of a company insuring a Key Person. This is usually issued under 'Key Person Insurance' and will provide funding for the Company in the event of a Key Person's death. Usually this is designed to provide funding for the Company to replace any loss of production, earnings or potential earnings that may occur should a Key Person die. It can also be used to provide funding to secure the services of a replacement as quickly as possible and by having the funding available through insurance monies, relieves the cash flow of the Company which is already under stress because of the loss of that Key Person.
f) Cross owned with another individual - Means you own the policy and the Life Insured is the other person, and vice-versa. This could be required in the event of a partnership buy out or buy/sell. Should either partner die, there is funding to provide for the buy out of the deceased shareholding. This negates the remaining partner having to fund such a purchase by borrowing or using company capital. The funding is provided by the insurance proceeds.

Life Insurance Policy Premium Examples

The following tables give you examples of the low relative cost of Life Insurance. Please note that many factors effect your premium incuding the work you do, whether you smoker, your age and life insurance coverage / sum insured and should anly be taken as a guide.

Factor	Male	Female
Age	35	42
Employment	Management Consultant	Secretrarial / Administration / Office
Smoker	Non Smoker	Non Smoker
Annual Gross Income	$100,000	$80,000
Smoker	Non Smoker	Non Smoker
Sum Insured (Death Cover)	$1,000,000	$500,000
Monthly Premium	$53.22	$31.63

NOTE: All figures and estimates are not to be taken as advice in any way, but are for illustrative purposes only.

To submit an online quote request form, go to the life insurance request quotation page.

Further Inquiries

We welcome inquiries on our Life, Trauma, TPD & Income Protection Insurance products and broker services. Please feel free to send us an email, call us on 1300 766 467, use our contact us page to send us an online inquiry or submit a life insurance request quotation, income protection insurance request quotation, trauma insurance request quotation or tpd insurance request quotation form. We will contact you within 24 hours to answer your inquiry.

DISCLAIMER

This web site does not provide financial or investment advice. The information herein is general material and does not take into account your personal and particular insurance, personal, or investment data or objectives or relevant needs. If we can assist with specific advice please contact us.