Offering you peace of mind

When it comes to insurance, there is much to consider to ensure you get the appropriate level of cover for your situation. At Strategic Wealth, we work closely with you to understand your circumstances and engage insurance experts, where needed, for your peace of mind.

 

Business Owners

All partners in a small business should insure themselves as a business asset. This includes:

Ownership protection

Gives you or your estate the ‘fair value’ of the business share in the event of a serious health or life event.

Asset protection

Gives you and your business partners assurance that all loan guarantees are extinguished for all business related debts.

Revenue protection

Ensures revenue for business continuity in the event that a health or life related event occurs to the main revenue generator.

As part of the process, a binding legal agreement should be in place so that all related parties understand what will happen if one of the business partners suffers a trigger health event.

 

Executives, Professionals and their Spouses

We believe Executives should consider incorporating Life Insurance, Total and Permanent Disability (TPD), Income Protection and Trauma cover in their personal insurance strategy, while a non-working spouse should have Life/TPD and Trauma cover.

At Strategic Wealth, we advise that Life/TPD cover is best held via superannuation as it provides access to binding death nominations and reduces the real cost of insurance via superannuation contributions. Your superannuation fund cover should include:

 

Life Insurance

This should extinguish all debt so your family is left debt-free, and with a lump sum to invest to provide an ongoing income for at least 12 to 20 years, depending on the ages of your spouse and children. It should also include funding for the full educational needs of any children.

Total and Permanent Disability

This can be reduced where there is already an appropriate level of Income Protection to ensure debt-free living. In addition, it should leave an additional amount for future capital expenses, such as house and car modifications and is generally over $200,000.

Income Protection

Depending on your cashflow position, Strategic Wealth can arrange this cover via super or externally. Income Protection should include a long-term benefit payment period ‘till age 65’ to ensure the policy will pay for the maximum period in the case of a long-term claim. It must also include superannuation in the income benefit payable so that ongoing superannuation contributions may continue while on claim to ensure a comfortable retirement is available. Income Protection should also consider a ‘Level’ premium structure to ensure the insurance premium remains constant over time – the longer the time left to work, the more viable the Level premium structure. The waiting period should be appropriate (generally 30 or 90 days) and is dependent on the accrued sick leave, annual leave and savings available.

Critical Illness (Trauma)

This is the cover insurers are most likely to claim, with most claims relating to cancer. The level of cover should consider funding for specialist medical attention, for access to oft-expensive non Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme medications, for mortgage commitments over the next two to three years for a stress-free recovery period, and for short term loss of income while the income earner ceases work to aid their spouse’s recovery.

 

Expatriates

Australians are used to living in our ‘low risk’ country so when you live and work offshore, you take on an increased personal risk, as does your spouse and family. Gaining insurance for Expatriates is becoming increasingly difficult, with exclusions for ‘War and Terrorism’ and ‘Travel’ restrictions becoming more prevalent. This results in less than full cover for some Life Insurance policies, which can leave you and your loved ones exposed.

These types of exclusions and restrictions can take place with immediate effect to all ‘new’ policies. It is therefore critical to commence cover prior to them becoming mandatory. Insurance companies cannot ‘add’ an exclusion at a later date.

At Strategic Wealth, we aim to insure this personal risk by way of appropriate personal insurance that includes Life, TPD, Trauma and Income Protection cover. We always aim to obtain insurance at standard terms for you, but this is not necessarily always available.