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Table of contents

Your insurance options

3

Building a protection strategy

4

How much cover should you have?

5

Inside or outside of super?

7

Medicals and questionnaires

8

Why Optimise for insurance

9

How Optimise can help

10

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3

Your insurance options

‘Reducing the impact of events you cannot control’

There are many potential risks that can affect your finances and family.

Some risks or life events can be reduced or avoided but other personal events can occur without warning.

Some of those events can include premature death, disablement, loss of income due to sickness or injury, or other traumatic events such as car accidents or personal injury. These events, or personal risks, often come with severe or debilitating financial consequences.

Insurance is a way of transferring the financial risk of those potential events to an insurer, in exchange for a regular payment or premium which should be less than the benefit you would hope to receive.

Over time insurance companies have developed different types of products designed to manage the financial effects of different events.

Life Insurance

Pays a lump sum in the event of death or terminal illness. This can be used to clear debt and provide for your family when you’re gone.

Trauma Cover

Pays a lump sum for certain specific and defined events that may not be considered a permanent disablement. Included events are cancer, multiple sclerosis, heart attack, stroke, by-pass surgery, and many more. The funds can be used for medical expenses and home modifications.

Income

Protection

Or Temporary Salary Continuance pays regular income support in the event of an injury or illness that prevents you from undertaking your usual occupation.

Income protection generally pays regular income of up to 75% of your pre-disability income. Care needs to be taken with the structure of this policy to ensure it meets your needs.

Total &

Permanent

Disablement

Pays a lump sum in the event of total and

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Most well thought out insurance strategies include a combination of different polices to cover the most common events

When you look at the events covered in some types of policies you may notice those events are also covered in another type of policy. An example of this could be blindness which is a common event covered in Total & Permanent Disablement cover as well as Trauma. Alternatively you may also notice that events specifically covered in Trauma, for example, are not covered under Total & Permanent Disablement.

This is why most well thought out insurance strategies include a combination of different policies to cater for different life events.

Death Cover

Total and permanent disablement Income

protection insuranceTrauma

Building a protection strategy

Did you know that 1 in 5

Australians (20%) of the total

population, report a disability?

(Source ABS)

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Insurance is generally only required to cover a gap in funding that may occur as a result of an insurable event.

If you have sufficient assets to provide financially for yourself or family if an insurable event were to occur then you may not need insurance at all! However, this is very rarely the case for most Australians.

Insurance needs can vary dramatically from one person to the next

The most common form of personal insurance people obtain is life insurance which pays a lump sum in the event of death. In this case most people obtain enough cover to pay any outstanding debts such as their home loan or business loan.

This is a good start but most people have needs well beyond simply paying off a loan.

Some of the financial considerations you should consider when taking out

insurance include:

How much cover should you have?

Debt reduction

Making sure you have sufficient cover to pay off outstanding debts that can’t be cleared from the sale of other assets. Or not working to sell.

Replacement

income

You can insure yourself for larger amounts that can be invested to provide replacement income for yourself or family in the event of death or disablement.

Funeral costs

Funeral costs can be more significant than many

people imagine and can be provided for in a life insurance policy.

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Education

funding

You may wish to provide an education fund for your children.

Medical

rehabilitation

Some events require ongoing or specialised medical treatment that can come at a significant cost.

Home and

vehicle

modification

It may be necessary to move house or modify your own home to cater for a severe injury or disability.

Specialised

treatment

Many medical conditions are treatable – at a cost. While some expensive drug treatments are subsidised under the Federal Governments’ Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme you may be still required to contribute toward the cost of the treatment. Of course, not all treatments are available under the scheme. Lump sum payments received from an insurance policy can be used to fund medical treatments that are not subsidised.

“No matter what you are

experiencing in life, Optimise

offers professional advice and

the products you need. Contact

us today to discover more

about our unique approach”

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Inside or outside of super?

Many people have their first experience with personal insurance with their superannuation fund, mainly due to their super fund providing some form of automatic cover as part of an employer sponsored super plan.

The automatic cover, if offered, can vary from fund to fund and can also vary according to the number of employees within the employer scheme, your age, your occupation or role, the nature of the company, and many more considerations.

Automatic cover generally includes a limited amount of death and disability cover but can sometimes also include income protection or what is more often referred to as salary continuance.

For most people superannuation is an effective way to pay for insurance premiums. It is important to note, however, that insurance held inside superannuation can have some limitations when compared to cover held outside of superannuation and

care needs to be taken to ensure your needs are adequately met.

Advantages of insurance inside super

There are many benefits of having your cover inside of super. Some of these benefits include: - The ability to have your premiums paid from your accumulated superannuation

fund balance, freeing up cash flow for other purposes

- The ability to make pre-tax super contributions to cover the cost of the insurance premiums, as opposed to paying premiums out of pocket and after tax

Disadvantages of insurance inside super

There are also disadvantages of having your insurance as part of your superannuation. Some of these disadvantages includes:

- Your superannuation balance will be lower than it would due to the premium deductions - Death benefits paid from a superannuation fund (including benefits from insurance

in super) can be taxed at up to 31.5% if paid to a non-dependant

- Total and Permanent Disablement benefits paid from a superannuation fund can be taxable, resulting in a reduced benefit being received

- Insurance policies written as part of a superannuation plan do not necessarily contain the same benefits as non-superannuation insurance policies. This is particularly evident with income protection style policies but can also be true with total and permanent disablement cover.

The table below give a general overview of what insurance can be held inside of super. INSURANCE TYPE PAYMENT TYPE INSIDE OR OUTSIDE

SUPER OPTIONS?

Life Insurance Lump sum Either Total and Permanent Disablement Lump sum Either Income protection Regular income support Either

Trauma Lump sum Outside super only

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Medicals and questionnaires –

don’t be fooled!

The process of assessing an insurance application is referred to as underwriting. Many people are turned off on the idea of applying for insurance due to the underwriting process which normally starts with some form of questionnaire but can also include blood tests and medical examinations.

The personal questions and medical requirements can feel invasive and as a result some people are attracted to the types of insurance policies that offer limited or no questionnaires, blood tests or medical examinations.

Offers for insurance without underwriting come with strings attached Some of the ‘strings’ include:

Higher

Premiums

If an insurer offers a policy without some form of assessment they are taking on a higher risk than an insurer who does not. A way to compensate or pay for that risk is through higher premiums.

Policy

Exclusions

Another way insurers reduce the risk of not assessing a policy is by excluding pre-existing medical conditions or dangerous pastimes in your policy. You may find it difficult to disprove your death or disability resulted from a pre-existing condition when you are disabled or dead!

When an insurer does complete an assessment and is aware of any pre-existing condition or dangerous pastime they may still offer a policy so you can receive a benefit. You may have to pay a higher premium because of that condition or pastime but that may be a better than paying a lower premium but not receiving a payment on a claim.

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Optimise is different from some of the other advice providers for a number of very important reasons:

1. We put strategy first. The most critical part of your financial success is having the right strategy in place. Your insurance needs are important, buying insurance without a well thought out strategy may leave you underinsured in critical areas and over insured in the wrong areas.

Optimise starts with strategy first, understanding your individual insurance needs 2. We can, and do, offer insurance from a range of insurance providers. Typically we

choose insurers based on:

- The features and definitions within a policy - Costs and premium structures available

- The processing and claims history of the insurers

3. We know super and insurance. This means we know what types of cover can and should be held inside of super. This is particularly important when it comes to trying to manage your cash flow to afford insurances.

4. We un-sell insurance! That’s right, we actively tell people when they don’t need insurance or when they should cancel an insurance plan. We do this because we never lose sight of the fact insurance is meant to cover a financial gap and when that gap no longer exists, insurance is no longer required.

Why Optimise for insurance

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How Optimise can help

Optimise Wealth Management has a comprehensive superannuation and insurance offer. At Optimise we can help you with an initial strategy to:

- Recommend the right insurance types - Recommend the level of cover

- Recommend whether it is beneficial to place your insurance inside or outside of superannuation

- Help you with the application process

- review your insurence as and when required

Additionally we can help with the implementation of your insurance strategy, provide ongoing support for when your needs change and identify opportunities that may benefit you with your strategy.

Having adequate insurance cover is one of the most important aspects of successful wealth management. It’s about protecting you and your family against misfortune. As part of our strategic advice, Optimise reviews your insurance needs and advises on solutions that will ensure your family and life goals are protected, now and into the future. Protect yourself and your loved ones with complete peace of mind.

‘Protect yourself & your loved ones with complete peace of mind’

10

IMP LEM EN TA TIO N ST RATE GIC A DVICE ON

GOING SUPPORT Ongoing support as your needs change or to keep you

Ongoing Support

on track.

Implementation

Helping you to implement your strategies.

Strategic Advice

Strategies to help you grow, protect and enjoy your wealth. Comprehensive or specific advice depending on your needs.

Advice Areas

+ Superannuation + Investments and wealth creation

+ Retirement + Cash flow management and budgeting

+ Home loans and dept management + Estate planning

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General advice only. Your objectives, financial situation or needs are not considered here. Please consider them before making any decision. Optimise Wealth Management Pty Limited & Michael Flanagan are authorised representatives of AMP Financial Planning Pty Limited (Australian Financial Services License No. 232706)

References

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