What is Life Insurance?
Life insurance pays your family or estate a lump sum amount when you die.
Benefits of having it
Your family can use this amount to pay off your mortgage, cover ongoing living expenses or invest it to pay for future expenses like your children’s education.
How Life Insurance works
Mark, a 55 year old builder, was diagnosed with heart disease after experiencing some chest pains, and was given less than 6 months to live.
Under his life insurance policy with us, he received a payment of $1,323,000, some of which he used to pay off his mortgage, add to his wife’s super fund and take a final trip overseas to visit his parents.
Mark also used it to pay for all his medical bills so his wife wouldn’t have anything outstanding when he died.
Illustration only, however key details in this case study are based on a real TAL claim.
What is TPD (total and permanent disability) ?
TPD insurance gives you a tax-free lump sum if you’re permanently unable to work due to accident or illness.
Benefits of having it
As you’re not able to work again, you can choose to use it as you wish. You can pay off debts and/or invest it to generate regular income.
How TPD works
Russell, a 34 year old executive, suffered a stroke at work. Under his TPD cover with us, he received $593,296 which he used to pay off his mortgage and modify his home.
He also invested some and used the income to cover his living expenses and pay for his ongoing rehabilitation.
Illustration only, however key details in this case study are based on a real TAL claim.
What is Income Protection Insurance?
Income Protection is a type of insurance designed to replace your income if you are unable to work through illness or injury. Its purpose is to enable you to maintain your ability to cover your living expenses (like your rent or mortgage, groceries, utility bills and children’s school fees) during your recovery period.
In broad terms, Income Protection will cover you for up to 75 percent of your normal income over the duration of the period you are unable to work – or until the end of the benefit period of your policy.
Types of Income Protection cover
TAL currently offers three types of Income Protection cover:
- Income Protection Plan Standard
- Pays a monthly benefit of up to 75% of your income if you can’t work due to illness or injury
- Comprehensive protection with a range of standard benefits
- Choose your waiting period – the length of time off work before you’re eligible to receive benefits
- Choose your Benefit Period – the length of time benefits are paid
- Income Protection Plan Premier
- Pays a monthly benefit of up to 75% of your income if you can’t work due to illness or injury
- Comprehensive protection with the full range of benefits
- Choose your waiting period – the length of time off work before you’re eligible to receive benefits
- Choose your Benefit Period – the length of time benefits are paid
- Income Protection Plan Optimal
- Pays a monthly benefit for a specified time frame depending on the cause of the disability
- Waiting Period and Benefit Period determined by the cause of disability
Australians are comparing insurance products online first
Our research1 has shown that the Internet is the most common source of information for people wishing to compare Life Insurance and Income Protection providers/policies. If you are unsure of what types of life insurance cover or amounts of cover you require, a good place to start is to – contact a financial adviser.
Sources of information consumers turn to when researching or changing a financial product
| Sources | Life insurance / income protection | |
| Men | Women | |
| The internet | 58% | 46% |
| Internet comparison sites | 46% | 37% |
| Friends and family | 36% | 25% |
| Current provider | 30% | 26% |
| Another provider they don’t currently use | 25% | 23% |
| Someone else who has an account with the provider you are looking at | 21% | 26% |
| A financial advisor or broker | 26% | 19% |
| Employer’s default super fund | n/a | n/a |
| None/Don’t know | 0% | 9% |
1. This survey was undertaken online by Galaxy Research with 1,260 Australians, from the ages of 18–69 years old. Age, gender and region quotas were applied to the same and the dataset was weighted to national proportions.
This information is of a general nature only and does not consider your objectives, financial situation or particular needs. Prior to making any decision to buy or hold Accelerated Protection, you should speak to an adviser and read the Accelerated Protection Product Disclosure Statement or Accelerated Protection for Investment Platforms Product Disclosure Statement available at TAL
What is Critical Illness Insurance?
Critical illness insurance pays you an agreed amount if you are diagnosed with a specified critical illness event, such as cancer or heart disease.
Benefits of having it
It’s designed so that you can stop work and concentrate on getting better. You can use this money to pay down debt and cover living expenses, along with your medical costs and any modifications needed to your home (such as rails or wheelchair access).
How Critical Illness Cover works
Sophie, a 52 year old bookkeeper, found she had thyroid cancer after her doctor ran some tests for some pain and swelling in her neck.
Under her Critical illness cover with us, Sophie received $781,385 which she used to pay off the last part of her mortgage, all her surgery bills and a short holiday to recuperate before going back to work.
Illustration only, however key details in this case study are based on a real TAL claim.
What is Business Expense Insurance?
If you’re a business owner, business expense insurance pays you a monthly benefit to cover business costs if an illness, injury or accident prevents you from working.
Benefits of having it
You can use it to pay the salaries of you and your employees, as well as ongoing business expenses like rent, utilities and finance costs.
How Business Expense Insurance works
Peter, 40, had been running his own marketing agency for five years, when he slipped down some stairs and broke his leg while moving house.
Having business expenses cover with us meant he received a monthly payment of $8,550, which he used to continue paying his two employees, as well as hiring a manager on a short-term contract to keep the business running until he could return to work
Illustration only, however key details in this case study are based on a real TAL claim
What happens to the family commitment, mortgages? What happens to your family if you die?
No one wants to give the matter too much thought, but there is something very reassuring about knowing that, if the worst were to happen, your family would be financially secure. The trouble is, reassurance comes at a price – and the longer you put off starting a policy the greater that price is likely to be.
Life insurance is designed to let people provide for their families financially when they die. Many people decide they need to take out a life insurance policy when they start a family, or when they buy their first property and want to make sure they would not leave significant debts behind for their loved ones to deal with.
We work for you. We use our professional knowledge and experience to help you properly assess your insurance needs, shop for the best value in insurance coverage and help you in the event of a claim.
There is no extra cost to you for all the services that a we provide. We get paid a commission through the insurance company that you place your business with, and believes in complete transparency in this regard.
Advantage with us
These days there are many different ways to buy insurance, but there are good reasons to consider using an insurance expertise to help you make the best-informed decisions.
Insurance expert act as your personal advisor on insurance matters. They work for you, not the insurance company, to make sure your family; your possessions and your business are properly protected. If you have the misfortune of a loss your insurance we’ll guide you through the claims process, helping to ensure a swift and fair settlement by your insurance company, to get you back to where you were before disaster struck.
Choice
Wide selection of some of the best insurers in the country with competitive price.
Advice
We’re here to guide you. Most important, we are free to make impartial recommendations. Our first responsibility is to serve your interests, so it’s advice you can trust.
Flexibility
Most people prefer to have a face-to-face conversation with a broker to discuss coverage, at least at the outset. For most of your dealings with a broker you can communicate in whatever way you are most comfortable with, or that fits into your busy life, such as telephone, email or face to face.
Trust
We work to a principle of utmost good faith. We put your interests first.
Advocacy
If you have to make a claim, we here to ensure that you receive fair and prompt payment, to get you back to normal. In the event of a dispute, we’ll act as your advocate with the insurance company. Experience has shown that a broker’s knowledge and contacts can often help settle a disputed claim. The disappointment of a refused claim lasts much longer than the satisfaction of having saved a few dollars.
Knowledge
We have wealth of knowledge on all aspects of insurance and other preparedness. We know how to ensure that you get all applicable discounts on the insurance you buy. We are experts at risk assessment and how to properly protect you and your family’s interests.
Transparency
It doesn’t cost you any extra to use our services. We are paid a commission by any insurance company we place your business with, there is no financial incentive for us to pick one over another.
Responsibility
We are part of the community and, we’ll do utmost to ensure our communities are safe and sound.
You can pay your premium through your superannuation. You can’t take your super money out until you retire, so why not make a great use of it.
Tax-effective to pay the premium through your superannuation.