If you have insurances in place that are there to protect you and your family, it’s easy to become complacent and let yet another year slide by without reviewing it. So why should you review your Insurances?
The three predominant reasons are:
- Increased competition and premium reductions amongst life insurance companies
- Constant improvements to life insurance policies
- Your ever changing needs and objectives.
The life insurance market place in Australian is constantly changing – now, more than ever, it's an open market with fierce competition between all the players.
One leading Life Insurance Company has recently launched a new range with reduced Income Protection pricing of up to 30% for many occupations and ages. Coupled with the tax deductibility of income protection premiums, the affordability of this insurance makes it a ‘must have’ for many Australians.
In the past ten years circumstances under which a claim can be made on a trauma insurance policy have improved. Previously there were just ten conditions for which a policy holder could be diagnosed in order to claim – now there are almost 90 conditions with some policies.
The same Insurance range has new definitions of commonly used terms such as heart attack, which now includes ‘silent’ (minor heart attack) and they anticipate the successful claims for this condition will now double. And how many of us know someone that has been diagnosed with breast cancer. Claiming for breast cancer in this new range will be far easier regardless of the chosen treatment. The definitions of many trauma insurance policies means that the claim is only valid if the patient has a mastectomy and is not valid if the patient has surgery followed by radio therapy and/or chemotherapy.
Better policies in the life insurance market have a "guaranteed upgrade" clause, which states that all future improvements to the policy will also apply to existing policy holders. If you're looking to the long term when undertaking a policy, it's crucial to ensure that your policy has this clause, and if you are considering a replacement policy, it’s crucial you are not losing a benefit. Therefore, making a decision purely on the cost is not the answer but it's important to ensure that you are getting what you're paying for.
If you're not certain exactly what your policy covers read the product disclosure statement and speak to your insurer asking specific questions. If you need extra peace of mind, speak to us at CMA Financial Services. It's better to be safe now than sorry later.