Income Protection (or Salary Continuance) insurance is an important part of most Australians’ protection plan. We insure our car, our home, our possessions – but what about our most important asset: our ability to earn an income?
Salary Continuance can generally be held within your super fund – but you should be aware of big differences in the features and benefits of policies offered. One key aspect of policies is the Benefit Period. In many industry funds, the maximum benefit is 2 years. Many clients that we talk to opt for cover up to age 65. If you are 30 years old and suffer a long term illness, would you prefer to have 2 years of your income covered, or up to 35 years? There’s a big difference.
If you have accepted the ‘default’ cover in your industry super fund, you will probably only have a 2 year benefit. For many industry funds, there’s no way to extend this to age 65. Some of these funds include Australian Super, Cbus, GESB, Health Super, HostPlus and UniSuper (Accumulation 1) (Source: RiceWarner Actuaries, Sep 2010).
Contact us to talk further about protection your income against accident or illness – up to age 65.
