How To Get The Best Value Life Insurance In Australia

Life insurance refers to any financial means that help you continue your way of life or that of your family should something happen to you. This could include loss on employment, an accident, illness or death. The best type of insurance for you depends on what you want to cover. Should you want to insure against a serious accident, injury or loss of life, you will need term life insurance, total and permanent disability insurance and income protection insurance. Income protection insurance and trauma insurance will cover you against sickness or temporary disability. Here are three tips to help you get the best value life insurance.

Check Your Super Fund(s) – Could You Consolidate?

Most Australians have at least one super fund and this gives them automatic insurance cover. This is by far the best value life insurance available. Find out if you have cover through your super and how much you’ve got. Getting the best value life insurance may be as simple as topping up your super. This is cheaper than taking out a stand-alone policy and as the premiums are paid from your tax-free income, you will find this route the cheapest too. If you have multiple supers, check whether you could consolidate them. Although individually none of them may give you the same level of cover as a life insurance policy, when consolidated you may have sufficient care.

Ask Your Employer

 

Once you have a clear understanding of what, if any, supers you have and what level of life insurance, if any, they provide, you should investigate how much cover you need. Being under insured will mean that your family cannot continue their way of life should something happen to you, but being over insured is just a waste of money. An insurance broker can help you calculate how much coverage you need if this is confusing. You next check should be with your employer. Some employers give their staff life insurance through their super fund or a stand-along insurance scheme. If you already have this, then taking out another policy will be money down the drain. Check and see what you have. You may already have total and permanent disability insurance, income protection and even trauma insurance in addition to life insurance cover. Asking your employer whether you could top up your contributions is a good value route to the best life insurance coverage. 

Start Young On A Standard Premium Rate

If you have checked your supers and with your employer and decide that you need stand-alone coverage, the best way to get the best value life insurance is to begin when you are in good health. For most people this means starting when you are young as you are less likely to have had any serious conditions. The mistake that many Australians make is to keep their head in the sand until they are well into middle age. The smart money is on starting young as once you have life insurance, renewals are guaranteed regardless of what medical issues you suffer from. Start early and get the cheapest standard rate, start later and you’ll pay higher premiums for the same level of cover.

Miley Brooke, the author of this post, works for Donnellys for Insurance, providers of income protection insurance in Australia. In her spare time, she likes to paint and is passionate about collecting works of arts by Australian artists. You can connect to her team on Google+ and have a look at their profile on LinkedIn.

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