Protect your tomorrow, today.
Get in touch with us now.

Life Insurance.

Protect tomorrow for your family.

If something happened to you would your loved ones have enough income to keep going? Could they make the mortgage payments, pay for school, sports, camp, university?

None of us want to leave our family with both grief at our loss and financial hardship.

Life insurance cover protects the people you love who depend on you.  If you die, Life Insurance can be used for a number of things including paying off a mortgage, or providing an ongoing income to cover living costs for your dependants, and to cover funeral expenses.

The risk of not having life insurance? In the worst cases family would be forced to move out of the family home as they could not afford to meet mortgage repayments. More often than not family left without any insurance pay out not only have the emotional heartache, but are faced with financial difficulty also.

The amount of life insurance you need can increase or decrease with the changes in your life, such as getting married, buying a home, starting a family or getting a raise at your job. That’s why we think it’s important for us to have a yearly review with you.

How much will it cost? It depends on the amount of cover you need, your age, gender, health and whether or not you smoke. Other risk factors can also impact the cost of your cover. We check these factors against all the major providers’ policy wordings and structures as they can have different subjectivities to the variety of risk types. This means we can ensure we’re getting the best value for you.

Trauma Insurance.

No one can ever be sure what life has in store for them. Trauma can strike us whether we are young or old and have a devastating impact on our life including on our career and our ability to earn an income.

Trauma might come in all sorts of ways – but Trauma Cover can really help. 

While a standard life insurance policy pays out on the death of the person covered, Trauma cover will pay out lump sum benefits on diagnosis of a list of specified critical illnesses. 

Some examples of how we’ve seen a Trauma claim used are:  

• covering debt or debt repayments such as a mortgage.

• adapting your home to better suit you if you’re incapacitated.

• taking time off work to recover or having your partner take time off to assist you.

• paying costs involved with medical treatments and ongoing care, particularly useful when some leading. edge drugs and treatments you may require may not be fully funded through Pharmac.

However you use it, Trauma cover provides you with more choices and can make an enormous difference to you and your family to recover and adapt if needed.

When considering how to cover your risk from Trauma we will also consider Income Protection insurance with you. That can provide an ongoing monthly benefit if the person who is covered is unable to return to work.

Total & Permanent Disability.

Life insurance protects your loved ones in the case of your death but there are other circumstances that can have a devastating impact on your ability to provide for them. We have previously talked about Trauma Cover which pays out on the diagnosis of a list of specified critical illnesses. However it typically does not include major disabilities.

Total and Permanent Disability cover pays a lump sum if you become totally and permanently disabled through an accident, sickness or illness.

The nature of Total and Permanent Disability is generally defined as being unable to work for three months AND unlikely to ever return to work. This ideally applies to returning to work in your own occupation as it was at the time of the disablement, as opposed to referring to any occupation – this is something that should always be checked in your policy wording.

A TPD payment can help to pay off existing debt as well as help to pay additional costs related to the injury or health condition. 

Some examples of how we’ve seen a TPD claim used are:  

• paying down debt such as a mortgage.

• adapting your home with things like better access-ways and bathrooms.

• having your partner take time off to assist you in the early days.

• paying costs involved ongoing care.

In considering covering your risk from Total and Permanent Disability we will also consider Income Protection insurance with you. A TPD payment is only a lump sum, and many people would also require an ongoing income to replace the income that was lost.

Income Protection.

For most people their income is their biggest asset and the loss of it would have an enormous impact on their quality of life and that of their family. 

It is more important that your income be protected than your boat or your car – although you certainly should insure these as well.

Income Protection is a monthly benefit paid if you are unable to work in your current occupation due to illness or injury. It will pay out in addition to a lump sum policy like Trauma or Total and Permanent Disability Cover if you have these.

One way of viewing the difference between these policies is to consider the lump sum policies as a resource to make major changes and cover large bills in the short term brought about by illness or disability, while Income Protection is the means to continue your way of life longer term without your current income.

Income Protection policies vary in two main ways. The ‘Wait Period’ (how long before it pays a benefit) and the Benefit Period’ (how long it pays you if you remain off work). 

We often recommend a longer wait period which will help keep the cost of cover affordable but at the same time ensure you select a suitably long ‘benefit period’ – meaning that you have long term and not short term protection of your greatest asset.

Health Insurance.

While we have a public health system in New Zealand we also have long wait lists. There are also some specialist services, newer drugs and other medical costs that are not covered by the public system. Having private health insurance offers you the option to choose your own specialist or private hospital for procedures, avoid wait lists or (depending on the policy) pay for newer drugs.

Health insurance covers the cost (or part cost) of a list of specified healthcare costs. There are a variety of levels of insurance you can access to get the best value for your situation. Most medical insurance will cover the costs (or part cost) of hospitalisation, some extend to specialists and tests. A higher level of health insurance will likely cover costs (or part costs) of visits to general practitioners and prescriptions.

One way to reduce health insurance premiums is to choose a lower level of cover (e.g. hospital and specialist only). Another way is to add an excess to the policy. This means you pay the excess i.e. the first $250, $500, $1000 etc of a claim. By agreeing to do this the monthly premium reduces. 

When considering covering yourself and your family for medical costs we will also discuss whether you need Income Protection or an addition to your Life Insurance policy to cover events like Trauma or Total and Permanent Disability.