Life Insurance and Income Protection for Aircraft Maintenance Engineers
Income Protection for Aircraft Maintenance Engineers and Their Families
Hangar, line or avionics duties, how you’re paid, contracts or work overseas, and any cover through work and super all shape your cover. We help you apply for cover, review any cover you hold and lodge claims with you.
Financial Advice for Life Insurance and Income Protection
Who We Help
- Apprentices in aircraft maintenance training in mechanical, structures or avionics work
- Aircraft maintenance engineers (AMEs) doing hands-on work signed off by a licensed engineer
- Licensed engineers (LAMEs) certifying line or hangar maintenance
- Avionics and structures engineers on airline, regional, charter or rotary aircraft
- Engineers on rotating shifts or permanent nights in line or base maintenance
- Contractors and on-hire engineers filling short-term roles for airlines and maintenance organisations
- Engineers working overseas on contract with a foreign operator
- Technicians leaving the ADF for civil aircraft maintenance work
- LAMEs in supervising roles or in planning, quality and technical records
- Engineers changing employers from airline work to contract or overseas, with cover from an earlier job
We Can Help You
- List your hangar, line, avionics, structures or engine duties accurately when you apply for cover
- Describe certifying, supervising and any flying your work involves as it is, on each cover application
- Ask each insurer with you which pay counts for income protection: base, licence and type payments, shifts or overtime
- Explain how income protection definitions of disability treat planning, records or desk work you could still do
- Plan how long you could wait before income protection starts, using savings, any leave and, after a work injury, any accident pay
- Go through cover from your work and super with you, including its limits
- Look at cover before an overseas contract, asking each insurer how its terms treat work overseas
- Compare total and permanent disability (TPD) definitions with the planning, quality and training skills aircraft maintenance work builds
- Review your cover with you again if a new type rating, labour hire placement or overseas posting changes your work
- Lodge a claim with you, from the first call to the insurer or fund, with payslips showing how you’re paid
What we advise on
How Each Cover Works Around Aircraft Maintenance Work
Income Protection
Were illness or injury to keep you from aircraft maintenance work, what would keep the bills paid?
Part of your income can be paid by income protection after a waiting period, subject to the policy’s terms.
We can show you how each policy treats your duties and pay, then compare income protection with you.
An insurer usually looks at your job and duties when you apply, and this can affect whether cover is offered, the benefit periods and the amount. Exclusions can apply, including to occupations or activities. A benefit is usually based on your earnings in the 12 months before your illness or injury.
What we look at with you for income protection:
- Base pay and any licence, type rating, shift or overtime payments, and which of them a policy counts as income
- A type rating added or dropped in the 12 months before an illness or injury, and how the change could move that figure
- Savings, any accident pay and paid leave if you have it, totalled so a waiting period can be chosen to match
- Gaps between contracts planned with savings, kept separate from a waiting period, which only follows an illness or injury
- Accident pay under one award, for example, which tops up weekly workers compensation for up to a set time after a work injury
- Workers compensation and other payments, which under a policy’s terms may reduce a monthly benefit
- Desk-based or lighter duties you could still do, checked against each policy’s definition of disability
- Income protection premiums paid from take-home pay, with an accountant confirming whether they can be claimed
Life Insurance
What would anyone who relies on your pay need to keep going if you were no longer here?
Beneficiaries can receive a lump sum from life cover to put towards debts and day-to-day costs.
Together, we’ll work out a life cover amount with you from your debts and anyone relying on you.
A life policy can pay a lump sum to your beneficiaries if you pass away, and insurers usually ask about your age and job when you apply. Under one award, for example, an employer that requires maintenance staff to fly must either insure them or pay them a set benefit itself, against death or a totally incapacitating injury from that flying, unless a set benefit comes another way.
What we work through for life cover:
- What you owe today, from a mortgage to a car loan, if you carry them, as the first part of a life amount
- The flying term in one award, for example, alongside your own life cover, since it applies only to flying an employer requires
- Life cover in super accounts from earlier jobs, if you have more than one, found before any account is closed
- Who your super can be paid to if you pass away, from eligible people to your estate, named using each fund’s options
- Licence, type or shift payments, if your pay includes them, counted when the life amount is worked out
- Hangar, line or avionics duties described on a life application, since insurers ask about your job
- Each insurer asked how a life policy treats living overseas, before you leave, if an overseas contract is planned
- Life cover through an employer, if you might leave for contract work, compared with cover you would own
TPD Insurance
Which goals matter most to fund if you could never return to aircraft maintenance work, or any work?
Debts and plans can be met from a TPD lump sum if you can’t work again, as the policy defines it.
Together, we’ll look at TPD definitions against the skills your maintenance work has built.
Own occupation wording asks whether you could return to your usual job, while any occupation wording looks at other jobs suited to your education, training or experience. Own occupation cover is usually only available outside super. Each fund and insurer sets its own definition, so the wording is checked before anything changes.
What we compare with you for TPD:
- Own occupation TPD, usually held outside super, checked against hangar, line or avionics work as your usual job
- Any occupation wording, and how planning, quality, technical records or training experience may be counted
- The TPD definition in each fund you hold, looked at before you combine accounts or change funds
- A test based on daily living, if a policy uses one, which looks at caring for yourself rather than work, beside the work-based tests
- A TPD amount sized to the years of aircraft maintenance pay you’d be giving up, alongside any debts
- TPD cover through your employer, where a job includes this cover, checked before a move to contract work
- Stepping into supervising or planning, and whether a policy may then treat that new role as your usual job
- Premiums for TPD inside super coming off your balance, compared with cover held outside super and paid from take-home pay
Trauma Insurance
How would treatment costs and weeks away from work be met after a serious diagnosis?
For a listed condition that meets the policy’s definition and isn’t excluded, a trauma policy can pay a lump sum.
We’ll go over a trauma policy’s listed conditions with you, and where a lump sum fits beside your leave and income protection.
Each listed condition is checked against the policy’s own medical definition, which can differ between insurers. New trauma cover can’t be held inside super, which has been the rule for policies taken out since 1 July 2014. A payment can go towards whatever you choose, such as treatment or time away from the hangar.
What we go through with you in a trauma policy:
- The definition of each condition a trauma policy lists, read line by line so the wording is clear before you apply
- Partial payments for less severe conditions, if a policy includes them, and how they affect the full benefit
- A new trauma policy bought outside super, with premiums planned from your take-home pay
- A trauma lump sum, if one is paid, used to bridge the weeks before income protection could start
- Time off for treatment if you’re self-employed and, as Moneysmart notes, won’t have paid sick leave, and where a lump sum could help with that time
- Overseas work, if planned, and whether a trauma policy pays for a diagnosis made outside Australia, asked of the insurer
- A trauma policy you already hold, if any, its wording compared with newer definitions before you switch
- How trauma premiums and payments are taxed, which an accountant can work out for you
Cover in Super
Would the cover in your super, if you have some, still suit the aircraft maintenance work you do today?
Reading each fund’s cover beside your current duties shows what’s worth keeping before anything is combined.
We can trace any cover across your super funds with you before an account is changed or combined.
Default cover in super can usually be issued without medical checks, though it’s for a set amount that might not match your needs, and pre-existing condition rules in the fund’s product disclosure statement (PDS) may apply. Premiums are deducted from your super balance, so it’s worth asking your fund what a low balance would mean for your cover.
What we look at in your super with you:
- Funds from earlier jobs, if you have more than one, each listed with the life, TPD or income protection inside it
- How each fund records your job, compared with the hangar, line or avionics work you do now, and corrected by asking the fund
- A start with a new operator or maintenance organisation, where super generally keeps going to your existing fund and its cover
- Insurance a fund gives as a default, which is for a set amount, compared with your debts and household costs
- Death and invalidity cover from ADF service, which stops when you leave the ADF, alongside any civil fund’s cover
- Income protection in super, if a fund includes it, and how its benefit period compares with cover held outside super
- Two or more funds combined only once the insurance in each is checked, since combining them may mean losing that cover
- A first job before 25, where a new fund’s cover may not start until you ask, depending on your job and the fund
Hangar, Line and Avionics Work
How could describing your hangar, line or avionics work clearly help your cover fit what you do?
A full, accurate description of your duties lets an insurer assess the work you do.
Together, we’ll describe your duties for any application, and check how a policy or fund records them.
Jobs and Skills Australia lists tasks such as dismantling, inspecting, testing, repairing and reassembling aircraft engines, and the work can take in structures, avionics and mechanical systems. Since 5 October 2021, when you apply for life cover as a consumer, your duty is to take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation, which means answering the questions asked with reasonable care.
The parts of your work we describe with you:
- Line maintenance on the ramp, including the turnaround checks and defects you work on between flights
- Heavy maintenance in a hangar, from scheduled checks to major inspections and component changes
- Avionics work on aircraft systems and instruments, described in the same terms as your job description
- Structures work, such as repairs to airframes and sheet metal, described as it happens day to day
- Engines and components work, including dismantling, testing and reassembly, listed with where it’s done
- Certifying and supervising, and the share of your week each takes, described as it is
- Any flying your work involves, described on an application as a plain fact of the job
- A change in your mix of duties, such as from line to hangar work, and whether a fund or policy record still matches
Licence Pay, Contracts and Work Overseas
Thinking about a contract, labour hire or a job overseas, how might the move affect cover through work or super?
Checking before you sign shows what comes with you and what to compare.
Together, we’ll test any cover you hold against a contract or overseas move before you sign.
Any cover that comes through your employer may not continue once you leave, so it’s worth asking your employer or fund before your last day. If you become self-employed, Moneysmart suggests checking whether the change affects the insurance cover through your super.
What we check with you before the move:
- Any licence and type rating payments in the income an insurer counts, before a new contract changes what you’re paid
- Shift or overtime pay, if a new contract includes it, and how a policy’s income definition treats each
- A labour hire placement, with the labour hire business asked what cover, if any, comes with the job
- Self-employed contracting, and the income an insurer may use, such as figures from your tax returns or financial statements
- Contracting for yourself, where Safe Work Australia says workers compensation usually doesn’t apply, though each scheme sets who qualifies
- Cover through an employer you’re leaving, asked about with your employer or fund before your last day
- Work or living overseas, and how each insurer’s terms treat that time, asked of each insurer before you go
- A foreign-resident employer that doesn’t have to pay your super for work outside Australia, and how any cover in your fund is paid for
When to Review Your Cover
Has your cover, if you hold some, kept up with a new type, a new employer or a change at home?
Changes at work or at home can each be a good reason to look at your cover again.
Together, we’ll go through any cover you hold and compare it with the work you do now.
Aircraft maintenance work can move from an apprenticeship to a licence, from airline work to contract, or from the floor into planning and quality. How a fund or policy records your job is worth checking again when your work changes. If your work or home has changed, you can book a conversation, and we’ll talk through your options. New cover is the insurer’s decision.
Changes in aircraft maintenance work and at home worth raising with us:
- Your first licence after an apprenticeship, if you’re training now, and how much of the new pay you’d want protected
- A new type or category on your licence, and whether the extra pay changes the income protection amount you’d want
- Moving from airline work to contract or labour hire, and what cover through work you’d ask about before you go
- An overseas contract, and again on coming home, with each insurer asked how its terms treat that time away
- Changing from one airline or maintenance organisation to another, and what cover, if any, the new job includes
- Moving from ADF service into civil aircraft maintenance, and how a fund or policy records the new work
- A step off the floor into planning, quality or training, and whether a fund’s record of your job still matches
- A move closer to a new base for work, a baby or a separation, and how each could change your cover amounts
Making a Claim
Who would you want beside you for the forms and follow-up if a claim is ever needed?
Help with forms and follow-up can make a claim easier to manage at a hard time.
We can lodge a claim with you and follow each step while the insurer or fund assesses it.
Moneysmart suggests contacting whoever arranged the cover first, which for cover through work can be your employer. An insurer may ask about your duties, physical requirements and usual hours, with payslips or tax returns, or financial statements if you’re self-employed. If you disagree with a decision, the complaint goes to the insurer or fund first, then to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA).
How we help with a claim:
- Who to call first, from your employer for cover through work to the insurer or fund named on a policy
- Hangar, line or avionics duties, the physical side of the job and your usual hours, described for the insurer
- Payslips showing each part of your pay, such as any licence, type, shift or overtime payments, gathered to show what you earned
- The medical evidence an insurer may request from your doctors, explained with you before the claim forms are sent
- An injury at work, which the workers compensation scheme assesses on its own, apart from any personal cover claim
- Tax returns, invoices or financial statements from self-employed contract work, gathered with an accountant
- Coming back on reduced hours or lighter tasks, and what a policy says about paying part of a benefit, gone through with you
- Disagreeing with a claim decision: the insurer or fund hears the complaint first, and AFCA, which is free, after that
Health Conditions & Illnesses
Could a health condition change the cover an insurer offers you?
Our guides explain what insurers may ask about common conditions, and a health condition doesn’t necessarily rule out cover.
We can help you prepare an application when you have a health condition or a past illness.
Underwriting is how an insurer assesses an application and decides whether to offer cover, on what terms and at what price. Possible outcomes include standard terms, a higher premium, an exclusion, a request to apply again later, or a decline.
Guides by health condition:
- Cover with a health condition: where to start
- Autoimmune conditions
- Back or joint conditions
- Blood conditions
- Cancer history
- Diabetes
- Digestive conditions
- Eye or hearing conditions
- Heart conditions
- HIV or hepatitis
- Kidney conditions
- Mental health conditions
- Neurological conditions
- Respiratory or sleep conditions
- Weight, smoking or alcohol history
- Women’s health conditions
Your work and your cover
How Your Work Shapes Your Cover
What We’d Look At Together
- Hangar, line or avionics work: Insurers usually ask about your job when you apply. Line maintenance, hangar checks, avionics and structures work are different days on the job, so your day-to-day duties are part of describing your work accurately.
- Certifying and supervising: If you certify work or supervise other engineers, it’s worth describing how much of a usual week each takes, as it is, along with the hands-on work you do.
- Any flying your work involves: If your work involves flying, it’s a fact of the job to describe on an application. One award, for example, has its own term for maintenance staff an employer requires to fly.
- Base pay, licence and type payments: Each policy has its own definition of income, so it’s worth asking each insurer how it treats any licence allowances and type rating payments alongside your base pay.
- Shifts, nights and overtime: Income protection is usually based on your earnings in the 12 months before an illness or injury, so shift penalties and overtime in that time can be part of the figure, depending on the policy’s wording.
- Airline, labour hire or contract: Leave and super can differ between airline work, a labour hire placement and contracting. If you’re self-employed, Moneysmart notes you won’t have paid holidays or sick leave, and each workers compensation scheme sets who qualifies.
- Work overseas: How a policy treats work or living overseas is a question to ask each insurer before you go. An employer that isn’t an Australian resident isn’t required to pay your super while you work outside Australia.
- A move into planning, quality or training: TPD ‘any occupation’ wording looks at work suited to your education, training or experience, so a move into planning, quality or training may be taken into account when a claim is assessed.
This list isn’t complete, and nothing on it decides anything on its own. We start by learning about your situation, and any decision on cover is the insurer’s.
Your options
Why Work With a Financial Adviser for Your Personal Insurance?
| A Ryker financial adviser | Directly from an insurer | An online broker or comparison site | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type of advice | Personal advice Personal adviceAdvice tailored to you. Like most financial advice, it’s given under an Australian financial services licence.Personal, not general. General advice is a recommendation or opinion that doesn’t consider your circumstances. Personal advice is tailored to your objectives, financial situation and needs.In your best interests. When we give you personal advice, the law requires us to act in your best interests.In writing. You’ll usually receive a Statement of Advice that explains the strategies and cover recommended to you, and why.On the public register. Financial advisers who give personal advice on life insurance, super and investments must be on ASIC’s Financial Advisers Register. See our financial advisers on the register:Ray RegmiRicky (Rajiv) RegmiJack OinezaDean DesoukeyRyker’s financial advisers are authorised representatives of Synchron Advice Pty Ltd, AFSL 243313. | Usually general advice | Usually general advice |
| Advice that considers your health, family, work and goals | Yes, as part of your advice | Not with general advice | Not with general advice |
| Choice of insurers | A wide range | That insurer’s policies only | A panel of insurers, side by side |
| Help preparing your application | Yes, alongside you | The insurer’s own process | Varies |
| Advice on holding cover inside or outside super | Part of your advice | Not with general advice | Not with general advice |
| Support if you need to claim | Yes, we’re in your corner | The insurer’s claims team | Varies |
| Cost of advice | No cost for the initial conversation. Any advice after that is a paid service, with its scope and fee agreed with you in writing first. Choose: | No separate advice fee | No separate advice fee |
Type of advice
- Ryker financial adviser
- Personal advice Personal adviceAdvice tailored to you. Like most financial advice, it’s given under an Australian financial services licence.Personal, not general. General advice is a recommendation or opinion that doesn’t consider your circumstances. Personal advice is tailored to your objectives, financial situation and needs.In your best interests. When we give you personal advice, the law requires us to act in your best interests.In writing. You’ll usually receive a Statement of Advice that explains the strategies and cover recommended to you, and why.On the public register. Financial advisers who give personal advice on life insurance, super and investments must be on ASIC’s Financial Advisers Register. See our financial advisers on the register:Ray RegmiRicky (Rajiv) RegmiJack OinezaDean DesoukeyRyker’s financial advisers are authorised representatives of Synchron Advice Pty Ltd, AFSL 243313.
- Direct from an insurer
- Usually general advice
- Online broker or comparison site
- Usually general advice
Advice that considers your health, family, work and goals
- Ryker financial adviser
- Yes, as part of your advice
- Direct from an insurer
- Not with general advice
- Online broker or comparison site
- Not with general advice
Choice of insurers
- Ryker financial adviser
- A wide range
- Direct from an insurer
- That insurer’s policies only
- Online broker or comparison site
- A panel of insurers, side by side
Help preparing your application
- Ryker financial adviser
- Yes, alongside you
- Direct from an insurer
- The insurer’s own process
- Online broker or comparison site
- Varies
Advice on holding cover inside or outside super
- Ryker financial adviser
- Part of your advice
- Direct from an insurer
- Not with general advice
- Online broker or comparison site
- Not with general advice
Support if you need to claim
- Ryker financial adviser
- Yes, we’re in your corner
- Direct from an insurer
- The insurer’s claims team
- Online broker or comparison site
- Varies
Cost of advice
- Ryker financial adviser
- No cost for the initial conversation. Any advice after that is a paid service, with its scope and fee agreed with you in writing first. Choose:
- Direct from an insurer
- No separate advice fee
- Online broker or comparison site
- No separate advice fee
Your Cover for Aircraft Maintenance Work, Worked Through Together
Maintenance Duties Set Out
Hangar, line, avionics or structures duties described with you in full for an application.
Your Pay Matched to Each Policy
Base pay and any licence, type, shift or overtime payments compared with each policy’s income definition.
Award Terms Compared With Your Own Cover
One award’s accident pay and its death or incapacity term for required flying, for example, beside your own cover.
Waiting Period Chosen With You
A waiting period chosen with you around savings and any paid leave or accident pay.
Cover Looked at Before an Overseas Contract
Cover you hold checked with you before you leave, with each insurer asked about work overseas.
Each Fund’s Cover Checked
The insurance in each of your super funds listed and checked with you before anything is combined.
TPD Wording Checked for Planning and Quality Work
TPD definitions compared with you for a move into planning, quality or training roles.
A Claim Lodged With You
Forms and follow-up shared with you while the insurer or fund assesses a claim.
This has really changed our lives
Ray and his team has been incredible, they look after my entire family including my brother in law. Over the years he has helped us with investments, tax and other advice. This has really changed our lives.
Read moreDean Desoukey is changing lives!!
From the very beginning he was warm, patient, incredibly knowledgeable, and genuinely cared about helping us make the right decisions for our future. The positive impact they've had on our family financially and the peace of mind he's given us has been huge.
Read moreI felt heard, understood, and respected
I can't speak highly enough of the service I received from Dean Desoukey. Financial conversations can often feel overwhelming, but he created a space where I felt heard, understood, and respected. He took the time to really listen, explained things clearly, and never rushed me through decisions.
Read moreKnowledgeable, patient and caring
I cannot recommend Ray highly enough. He is an exceptional financial adviser: knowledgeable, patient and caring. From the very beginning, he took the time to truly understand my goals and helped me to create a clear structured financial plan. I never feel rushed or pressured.
Read moreThank you Ray for protecting me and my family
Ray has been my trusted financial adviser for over 12 years. He is highly knowledgeable and passionate about making sure his customers have the right insurance to secure them and their family. I was recently sick and Ray was there right away when needed most.
Read moreHe went above and beyond
I recently dealt with Ricky Regmi at Ryker Capital, and I couldn't be more satisfied with the service I received. Ricky was incredibly patient and supportive throughout the entire insurance process. He went above and beyond, coordinating with my accountant and doctor to ensure everything was in order.
Read moreIt never feels transactional
We've been working with Jack for the past two years, and it's been an incredibly positive experience. He takes the time to build genuine relationships and really gets to know his clients beyond just the numbers. It never feels transactional; it feels like he truly cares about our wellbeing.
Read moreImmensely professional and diligent
Ray has been immensely professional and diligent in my most recent SMSF restructure and insurance review. He not only tweaked it to make it work more for me and my future goals but recommended future strategies to help build my wealth. Cannot recommend him enough.
Read moreHolistic and Experienced Financial Advisers for Aircraft Maintenance Engineers
Aircraft maintenance takes years of training, logged experience and practice alongside people who know the work, and every task asks for care. It’s work where a signature matters. We’d like to bring that same care to your money. We’ll start by listening: to how your pay is made up, where you’d like your career to go and who matters most to you. Then we’ll help you shape a plan that fits the way you work.
A good run of work can do more than cover this month’s bills. It could go towards a home, trips with the people you love, a new type on your licence or more say over when you slow down. If anyone relies on your income, they can be part of the plan too. Whatever you’re working towards, we can review the plan with you each year, so it keeps pace with your goals as they change.
If illness or injury kept you from aircraft maintenance work, income protection can pay part of your income after a waiting period, subject to the policy’s definitions, exclusions and the insurer’s assessment. Personal cover can also include life, TPD and trauma cover, each with its own terms. We can advise on cover alone, without a full financial plan, explaining each one in plain language and comparing cover from a wide range of insurers with you. The insurer decides on any application.
Every financial decision impacts the next
Your Financial Life Is Connected
Great advice starts with understanding the bigger picture. Every stage of life presents new opportunities and challenges, from buying property and changing careers to growing your family, planning for retirement and protecting what matters most. At Ryker, we help connect every piece of your financial world into one clear strategy.
Learn more about Financial Planning and Advice for Aircraft Maintenance Engineers
Your
Wealth
- Property & Investing
- Career & Income
- Tax Strategy
- Insurance & Protecting Your Family
- Super & SMSF
- Wealth & Investments
- Life Events & Changes
- Business & Wealth
- Legacy & Future Wealth
- Retirement Planning
Frequently Asked Questions
Ryker’s financial advisers are licensed to give personal advice under Synchron Advice’s Australian financial services licence (AFSL 243313). We start with you: your aircraft maintenance work, your family, work, income, assets and goals. Then we recommend the types and amounts of cover that suit your life.
Aircraft maintenance work can mean line or hangar maintenance, avionics, structures or engines, certifying or supervising, as an employee, through labour hire or on contract, in Australia or overseas. Each can affect how an insurer assesses an application and how a policy’s definitions apply to a claim, so your duties, hours and pay are what we look at.
With a financial adviser, you also have:
- Access to a wide range of insurers, who can assess the same health details differently
- Help preparing your application and answering the health questions with care
- Advice on whether to hold cover inside or outside super, and the trade-offs
- Annual reviews of your cover through ongoing advice, with your health, family and work in mind
- Someone in your corner if you ever need to claim
Going directly to an insurer can mean no separate advice fee, but you’ll only see that insurer’s policies, and you’ll generally receive general advice only, which doesn’t consider your personal circumstances.
Going through an online comparison site or broker, you may see more options side by side, but they also generally provide general advice only, which doesn’t consider your whole financial picture.
When we give you personal advice, the law requires us to act in your best interests, which we take personally. The insurer still decides whether to offer cover and on what terms.
We’re invested in your long-term success. What we do is personal, and we take it personally.
Your financial decisions connect, so we consider the parts of your financial life that are relevant to the advice you need:
- Property & Investing
- Career & Income
- Tax Strategy
- Insurance & Protecting Your Family
- Super & SMSF
- Wealth & Investments
- Life Events & Changes
- Business & Wealth
- Legacy & Future Wealth
- Retirement Planning
This is how we help you make decisions today with your longer-term goals in view.
Everybody’s situation is different, so we listen first, understand what matters to you and explain your options clearly before we make a recommendation.
Income protection is usually based on your earnings in the 12 months before an illness or injury. Which parts of your pay count, such as licence and type rating payments, shift penalties and overtime, is set by each policy’s own definition of income, so it’s worth asking each insurer.
A type added or dropped in those 12 months can move the figure, so payslips that show each part of your pay are worth keeping. We can read the income definitions with you, and the insurer decides on any application.
Moneysmart notes insurers usually ask about your age and job when you apply. Your day-to-day duties are part of describing your job, so it helps to set out line or hangar work, avionics, structures or engines, certifying or supervising, and any flying your work involves, as they are.
Since 5 October 2021, when you apply for life cover as a consumer, your duty is to take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation, which means answering the questions asked with reasonable care. Each insurer assesses an application in its own way. We can help you prepare an accurate description of your work, and the insurer decides on any application.
It varies by employer, award or agreement. Under one award, for example, an employer that requires maintenance staff to fly must either insure them or pay them a set benefit itself, against death or a totally incapacitating injury from that flying, unless a set benefit comes another way. That award also pays accident pay on top of weekly workers compensation for up to a set time after a work injury.
Both terms are narrow and tied to the job. Default cover through super is for a set amount, so it might not match your needs, and any cover through your employer may not continue once you leave. Your own cover can be held alongside these, and we can compare it with you, with the insurer deciding on any application.
Start with the policy itself: how its terms treat work or living overseas is a question to ask each insurer before you go. The nominations on your policies and super are worth checking too, so they name the people you’d choose today.
Super is a separate question. If your employer isn’t an Australian resident, the ATO says they aren’t required to pay your super while you work outside Australia, so your own contributions may be worth planning. We can go through this with you before you sign, and the insurer decides on any application.
Definitions differ between policies and funds. Own occupation wording looks at your usual job, and own occupation cover is usually only available outside super. Any occupation wording looks at work suited to your education, training or experience, so planning, quality, technical records or training experience may be taken into account when a claim is assessed.
A move off the floor can also change what a policy treats as your usual work. How a fund or policy records your job is worth reading again when your work changes. We can read the wording with you, and the insurer decides on any claim.
If the move makes you self-employed, Moneysmart suggests checking whether it affects the insurance cover through your super, and notes you won’t have paid holidays or sick leave. Any cover through your employer may not continue once you leave, so it’s worth asking your employer or fund before your last day.
If you work for yourself as a contractor, Safe Work Australia says workers compensation usually won’t cover you and you’d arrange your own personal injury insurance, though each scheme sets who qualifies. We can compare income protection, life, TPD and trauma cover with you before you start, and the insurer decides on any application.
A first licence, a new type, a move to contract or labour hire, or a contract overseas can each change what you’d want from cover. A new home loan, a baby or a separation can be a reason too.
You can book a conversation with a financial adviser, and we’ll go through any cover you hold, compare it with the work you do now and talk through your options. The insurer decides on any application.
Our ongoing advice clients have an annual review with us.
A quick online quote can give you a first look at prices from the answers you enter. It may not show whether your week is mostly line, hangar or avionics work, how any licence and type rating payments shape your income, or what cover already comes through work or super.
Personal advice starts with those details. We read any cover you hold with you, then compare options from a wide range of insurers, and the insurer decides on each application.
Your accountant and financial adviser bring different expertise to the same decisions. Your accountant can advise on tax reporting, structures and consequences; we help you plan how cashflow, debt, super, investments and protection work towards your goals. We can coordinate before important decisions.
What an accountant does
- Prepares and lodges tax returns, BAS and financial statements
- Advises on tax structures such as companies, trusts and partnerships
- Manages bookkeeping, payroll and ATO compliance
- Provides tax advice on the consequences of a transaction
What a financial adviser does
- Sets a long term strategy across retirement, investing and cash flow
- Builds wealth from early in a working life, starting with cash flow, a first home and super
- Recommends specific super funds, investments and personal insurance
- Operates under an Australian Financial Services Licence, which is required to give personal advice on financial products
- Handles retirement planning, Centrelink and aged care strategy, and estate planning considerations
Professional roles and authorisations matter. We provide financial advice within our authorisations and work with your accountant for specialist tax advice and lodgements.
Where they work together
- Tax position. Your accountant confirms your marginal rate, deductions and carried forward losses, which shapes decisions on super contributions, investment structures and the timing of asset sales.
- Business and entity structures. Your accountant advises on the structure itself and your financial adviser works within it for investments, insurance and succession planning.
- Cash flow. Your accountant’s figures can help us understand what’s available for debt repayment, protection and longer-term goals.
- Before key decisions. We can coordinate with your accountant on contributions, asset sales and other material choices in time to consider relevant tax consequences.
We’re a national service, so you can meet with us by phone or video from anywhere in Australia. We also have offices in three cities:
- Sydney: offices in Sydney CBD, Parramatta, Seven Hills, Ingleburn and Narellan, servicing areas including the City of Sydney, Eastern Suburbs, Inner West, North Shore, Northern Beaches, Sutherland Shire, Blacktown, Liverpool, Campbelltown and all surrounding suburbs.
- Melbourne: our St Kilda Road office, servicing areas including the City of Melbourne, Port Phillip, Boroondara, Monash, Casey, Wyndham and all surrounding suburbs.
- Brisbane: our Eagle Street office, servicing areas including Brisbane City, Moreton Bay, Ipswich, Logan, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast and all surrounding suburbs.
Yes. Apprentices, AMEs, LAMEs and contractors all start the same way: we talk about the work you do and how you’re paid.
There’s no cost for the initial conversation. Any advice after that is a paid service, with its scope and fee agreed with you in writing first.
If you can, bring a few recent payslips, or tax returns and statements if you’re self-employed, plus each super statement and any policy documents.
Reviews
Testimonials from Our Clients
Client Success Stories
A Property Sale Became a Full PlanEstimated long term financial benefitApprox $448,000
A Plan to Keep the Family HomeLife cover established$1.2 Million
Cover in Place and Fees LoweredImmediate value$1,055 a year
Super Fees More than HalvedProjected retirement uplift$416k
Income Covered for a New MortgageImmediate value$975 a year
A 13-Year Mortgage Paydown PlanPlanned mortgage paydown13 years
A First Home and Family CoveredImmediate value$1,346 a year
Age Pension Kept After an InheritanceProjected uplift at 90More than $642,000
Grow & Protect Your Wealth Today
Whatever’s on your mind, we’re here to help. You’ll speak with an authorised financial adviser who’ll listen first and get to know what matters to you.
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