What Is Personal Insurance?
Essentially, it’s a back up plan.
Most of us will never have our car written off in an accident or lose our home & possessions due to fire or flooding. But we can easily visualise the consequences so we put in place a back up plan of an insurance policy. Personal insurances are simply a back up plan to financially protect your family and families assets if something happens to your health or the health of a loved one.
Personal insurances provides your family with security, protection and peace of mind in case one of the events you don’t want to think about actually happens.
Why Should I Consider Personal Insurance Advice?
Ask yourself some of these questions:
How would our home mortgage get paid if I wasn’t here to earn an income?
How would I focus on earning an income if my spouse isn’t here taking care of everything else?
I’m a sole trader tradie with a young family. In last nights Over 35s soccer game my knee buckled, I now need a reconstruction and won’t work for the next 9 months. How are we going to survive?
My partner is facing a long battle with chemotherapy and will need me by their side. But how do I do that when one of us needs to be working to pay the rent, school fees, kids sport?
My partner has had a significant stroke. We going to need to modify our lives, the house, probably the car. But how do we afford that?
Do you have the answers to these questions and know what you’d do? If not, you should at least consider personal insurance advice.
The Solutions.
Personal insurances are made up of four different components - or options; income protection, life insurance, total & permanent disability and trauma cover. Each of these caters for different aspects of sickness, accidents or potential medical events.
How much will I need? Unfortunately, without a crystal ball we don’t know what may go wrong or when. We don’t know what debts, assets or savings you have or how much leave you might have at work. That’s why the advice part is so important. We will work with you to understand your situation, ask questions and then look at possible solutions to fill the gaps.
How much do I want? Some clients will proceed with our full recommendations. Occasionally someone wants more cover than we think they need. Often clients want protection to fit their allocated budget. When that happens we will tailor our advice to address the main priorities or concerns.
How do I pay? I’ve cringed when I’ve heard an advisor say ‘don’t worry about the cost, we’ll just put it through your super and nothing will come out of your savings’. Yes, you can pay for some insurances through your superannuation and yes, 30yr old you might think that’s excellent. But there’s a good chance 55yr old you, who has one eye on retirement, will be questioning that decision.
I’m not suggesting that personal insurances should or shouldn’t be held by and paid for by superannuation. There are a lot of factors to consider and ways that personal insurances can be constructed. I’m just saying this is another major reason why the right advice is such an important part of personal insurances.
