Life Insurance With an Autoimmune Condition
Cover for You and Your Family With an Autoimmune Condition
Rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis or a thyroid condition can shape what an insurer asks about life, TPD, trauma and income protection cover. We can help you prepare an application and read the definitions in any cover you hold.
Our Financial Advice Team Is Here to Help You
We Can Help You
- Set out any DMARD, biologic or steroid you’ve taken, with start and stop dates, for a cover application
- Gather the specialist letters, imaging and blood tests, such as thyroid function and liver tests, for a cover application
- Complete an insurance questionnaire for arthritis, a thyroid condition, a skin condition including psoriasis or a general medical condition, where offered
- Weigh any income protection exclusion or loading offered against the work you do
- Read the wording of any joint or spine exclusion on a policy offer, and what it leaves covered
- Read the severe rheumatoid arthritis, lupus or myasthenia gravis definitions in any trauma policy you hold
- Read any default cover in your super against the date your condition was first diagnosed
- Check any disability benefits your super fund provides before any change to your hours or work
- Weigh up cover in a partner’s name, if you have one, alongside your own application
- Put together and lodge an insurance claim with you, with your treatment records in date order
Who We Help
- People living with rheumatoid arthritis and starting a new job or contract role
- Anyone starting a biologic or switching to a new one, and looking at income protection
- Adults living with lupus and taking on a mortgage
- People early in their career and diagnosed with psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis or ankylosing spondylitis
- Adults with scleroderma, vasculitis or a liver condition such as autoimmune hepatitis or PBC, preparing for questions about organ involvement
- Anyone on daily thyroid treatment for Hashimoto’s, or after Graves’ disease or thyroid surgery, and unsure how a form asks about it
- Anyone reducing their hours or thinking about it, because of fatigue or flares
- Policyholders with trauma cover taken out before an autoimmune diagnosis
- Applicants offered a joint exclusion or a spine exclusion, and wanting the wording explained first
Autoimmune, thyroid and skin conditions
Hearing How Your Condition Affects You
Where Our Questions Would Start
- Rheumatoid arthritis: which joints are affected, any flares or time off work, any medicines, and any joint surgery
- Psoriatic arthritis: the joints affected, any skin involvement, any flares, any treatment, and any time away from work
- Psoriasis: how much of your skin is affected, any treatment such as creams, tablets or injections, and any joint symptoms
- Ankylosing spondylitis (axial spondyloarthritis): how your spine and joints are affected, any treatment, and any effect on your work or daily life
- Lupus (SLE): whether it’s skin-only or systemic, any organ involvement such as the kidneys, any treatment, and any recent flare
- Hashimoto’s thyroiditis: when it was diagnosed, any thyroid hormone treatment, how settled your levels have been, and any symptoms
- Graves’ disease, including thyroid eye disease: any treatment, how long things have been settled, any eye involvement, and any lasting symptoms
- An underactive or overactive thyroid: the cause if one was found, any treatment, how settled your levels have been, and any symptoms
- Thyroid nodules or goitre: how they were checked, any biopsy or follow-up scans, and any treatment
- Thyroid surgery or radioactive iodine: why it was done, when, any ongoing medication, and how your thyroid levels have been since
- Sjögren’s syndrome: your main symptoms, any involvement beyond dry eyes and mouth, any treatment, and any specialist follow-up
- Scleroderma (systemic sclerosis): whether it’s limited or diffuse, any lung, heart or kidney involvement, and any treatment
- Vasculitis, including giant cell arteritis: the type, any organs affected, any treatment, and how long since it was last active
- Polymyalgia rheumatica: when it began, any steroid treatment and how it’s going, and any related diagnosis
- Polymyositis or dermatomyositis: the muscles affected, any skin or lung involvement, any treatment, and your strength now
- Myasthenia gravis: the muscles affected, any treatment or thymus surgery, and any hospital stays
- Mixed or undifferentiated connective tissue disease: the features you have, any organs involved, any treatment, and any change in diagnosis
- Addison’s disease: when it was diagnosed, the cause if known, any daily treatment, and any hospital stays since
- Autoimmune hepatitis: when it was diagnosed, any treatment, your recent liver test results, and any specialist follow-up
- Primary biliary cholangitis (PBC): when it was found, any treatment, your recent liver tests and any scans, and any specialist follow-up
- Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC): when it was found, any condition diagnosed alongside it, your recent liver tests, any scans, and any follow-up
- Vitiligo: when it began, the areas affected, any treatment, and any related autoimmune condition
- Alopecia areata: when it began, how much hair loss there has been, any treatment, and any related condition
This list isn’t complete, and the name of a condition decides nothing on its own. We’d want to hear about your treatment, any organ involvement and your work before anything is said about cover, and the decision is the insurer’s.
What we advise on
The Treatment and Joint Questions Behind Each Cover
What Underwriters Look At
How might an autoimmune condition shape the questions an insurer asks when you apply?
Mapping the likely questions together can help you gather your records first, so you begin the application ready.
Together, we’ll map the joint, organ and treatment questions an insurer may ask before you apply.
An underwriter at the insurer reviews each application and decides whether cover is offered, and on what terms. For an autoimmune or inflammatory condition, the questions can reach the joints involved, any organ involvement, any flares and time off work, the type and dose of any medication, and the work you do each day. They can also reach thyroid levels, liver tests and how much skin is affected. Each insurer sets its own questions, so we begin with your history.
What an insurer may ask about:
- Rheumatoid arthritis: the number of joints involved, any time off work, and any current medication and dose
- Psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis: how much skin is affected, any joints involved and any flares in recent years
- Ankylosing spondylitis: how your spine and other joints are affected, and any effect on your daily duties
- Lupus: whether the condition is skin-only or systemic, and any kidney, lung, heart or nervous system involvement
- Any DMARD, biologic, targeted therapy, steroid or thyroid medicine, with the dose and the dates you started, changed or stopped
- Blood tests and imaging, such as inflammatory markers, thyroid function, liver tests and joint X-rays, with the dates they were done
- Any joint surgery or joint replacement, with the date and how the joint works for you now
- Your occupation, whether manual or non-manual, and the duties you perform on a typical day
Life Insurance
If you passed away, what would you want to leave the people in your life?
Those closest to you can manage the costs that remain with a life insurance lump sum paid to your beneficiaries.
We’ll set out how an autoimmune condition can come into life insurance questions beyond your joints.
Life insurance can pay a lump sum if you pass away. A life application asks about your health as a whole, so for lupus, scleroderma or vasculitis the questions can turn to any involvement of the kidneys, lungs or heart. For rheumatoid arthritis, any effect beyond the joints can also come into life and trauma questions. The insurer considers the whole picture and makes the decision.
What we prepare with you for a life application:
- Any kidney function results for lupus, and any kidney biopsy, set out with the dates of the tests
- Any lung function tests or scans for scleroderma or polymyositis, with any specialist letters explaining the results
- Any heart involvement in lupus or scleroderma, described from your test results and specialist reports
- Vasculitis, including giant cell arteritis: the organs affected and the date it was last active
- Effects of rheumatoid arthritis beyond the joints, such as on the lungs or eyes, where any have been found
- Autoimmune hepatitis, PBC or PSC: recent liver test results, regular blood monitoring, any imaging, and how often a specialist reviews the condition
- Myasthenia gravis: the muscles involved, any thymus surgery and any hospital stays for weakness
- Skin-only lupus, such as discoid lupus, and any later tests for systemic involvement
TPD Insurance
What would your future income look like if you could never return to work?
TPD cover can help replace lost pay if you can’t return to work, as the policy defines it.
We’ll weigh own-occupation and any-occupation TPD definitions against your role and its duties.
A TPD policy pays a lump sum if illness or injury leaves you unlikely to work again, as its definition sets out. An own-occupation definition looks at your usual work, and any-occupation looks at work suited to your education, training or experience. With a condition that can flare and settle, how a policy treats permanent incapacity is something we’d look at with you first.
What we weigh up with you on TPD:
- Flares coming and going, and what a TPD definition says about permanent incapacity
- Own-occupation TPD for hands-on work, which Moneysmart notes is usually only available outside super
- Any joint replacement, and how your surgeon describes its effect on the work you do
- Any TPD cover held through super, with its definition compared to the tasks in your role
- Any organ involvement from lupus or scleroderma, and how a specialist report describes the effect on your work
- Fatigue and joint stiffness, described by your treating specialist in the terms a TPD claim form uses
- Muscle weakness from myasthenia gravis or myositis, and the effect of the weakness on the tasks your job involves
- A TPD sum insured allowing for home modifications, ongoing treatment and any debts you carry
Income Protection
During time off work with illness or injury, how could your income be looked after?
Income protection can pay part of your income after a waiting period, so the bills can keep being paid.
We’ll explain each income protection term on offer, set against any flares, appointments and the work you do.
Income protection can replace part of your income if illness or injury stops you working, within its waiting period, definitions and exclusions. With an autoimmune condition, an insurer may offer alternative terms, such as an exclusion for the condition or a higher premium. A joint or spine exclusion’s wording sets what still pays. Premiums on a policy held outside super and paid by you are generally tax deductible, which your accountant can confirm.
What we work through with you on income protection:
- The reach of a joint or spine exclusion, such as whether it names one joint, several or the condition itself
- A flare keeping you off work for days, set against the waiting period before benefits begin
- Regular infusions or specialist appointments, and how the time away sits within a policy’s definitions
- Manual or non-manual work and your daily duties, which an insurer may ask about for joint conditions
- Any loading on an autoimmune offer, compared with an offer that carries a joint exclusion instead
- Cutting back your hours because of fatigue, and how fewer hours can change the income a policy insures
- Lost income during a part-time return after a flare, and any partial benefit a policy offers for the shortfall
- Definitions of disability in an offer, read alongside any fatigue or flares affecting your work
Trauma Insurance
If a serious illness brought costs beyond treatment, how would you like them met?
A trauma lump sum, for a listed condition that meets the policy’s definition and isn’t excluded, can leave savings for other plans.
We’ll go through what “severe” means in a trauma definition, which is separate from how your records use the word.
Trauma insurance pays a lump sum when a listed condition is diagnosed and meets the policy’s definition. Some policies include severe rheumatoid arthritis, defined by treatment tried without response and a permanent loss of daily function. A condition you already have may be excluded, which limits cover for that condition and related claims according to the exclusion’s wording. New trauma cover can’t be held inside super, which has been the rule for policies written since 1 July 2014.
What we read with you in a trauma policy:
- Severe rheumatoid arthritis, where some policies require the diagnosis to be confirmed by a rheumatologist or clinical immunologist
- Lupus of a specified severity, which some policies define by involvement of the heart, lungs, nervous system or kidneys
- A lupus event that some policies place inside a limited benefit, with its own conditions and amount
- Myasthenia gravis, listed as a trauma event in some policies, where the definition rests on an unequivocal diagnosis
- Scleroderma, vasculitis, polymyositis and lupus, which some policies group with rheumatoid arthritis for a later claim
- The word severe on a PBS biologic authority, which is set by different rules from a trauma definition
- Related autoimmune events left out by any exclusion on a new trauma offer, set out with you before you accept
- Any trauma claim on an autoimmune event, lodged with you and assessed by the insurer against its definition
Answering the Health Questions
How do you give a full picture of your treatment when the health questions ask?
Your treatment records, open beside each question, can help you give a full picture with reasonable care.
Together, we’ll work through each health question, with your treatment history and test results to hand.
Since 5 October 2021, the duty when applying for consumer life cover is to take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation, which means answering the questions asked with reasonable care. If you leave out important details, the insurer may change or cancel your cover or refuse a claim (Moneysmart). With an autoimmune condition, the dates you started, changed or stopped each medicine are worth confirming from your records first.
What we prepare together before an application is signed:
- The dates you started, changed or stopped any DMARD, biologic or steroid, confirmed from your records
- A positive blood test, such as an ANA result, answered as the question on the form asks
- An autoimmune condition still under investigation, and the wording a form uses for symptoms not yet diagnosed
- Joint injections, joint surgery or a joint replacement, listed with dates and the treating specialist
- A past diagnosis later changed, such as undifferentiated disease becoming lupus, set out in order
- Any time off work for flares or infusions, with dates taken from your leave records
- Radioactive iodine or an operation on your thyroid, and any daily thyroid hormone treatment since, dated for a thyroid or glandular question
- Questions on fatigue, joint pain or stiffness, each answered separately as the form asks rather than grouped together
Applying With Help
Where do you begin when applying for cover with an ongoing condition?
Beginning together, one form at a time, can turn the application into a clear set of steps you can follow.
We’ll line up your application with you, from any questionnaire or pre-assessment to the specialist reports.
An insurer may offer a condition questionnaire for arthritis, a thyroid condition or a skin condition including psoriasis, and a general medical condition questionnaire, which may let an underwriter decide without a medical report. Some insurers also offer pre-assessment, which gives an indication before a formal application is lodged. If an offer comes with alternative terms, an insurer can talk them through with your financial adviser before you accept.
How we prepare the application with you:
- Records from more than one specialist, such as a rheumatologist, endocrinologist, dermatologist, liver specialist or kidney specialist, put in one order
- A steroid taper or new biologic under way, and how an application asks about treatment still changing
- A one-page summary listing each medicine, dose and date, prepared with you for the forms
- Reports your treating specialist may be asked to write, and what each insurer request covers
- Whether to apply now, or once a flare has settled, a new medicine is established or an organ test is back
- Applying for more than one cover at once, such as income protection and life, and the order that suits
- A past application declined or deferred during a flare, and how a later form asks about it
- Occupation details for hands-on or on-your-feet work, described accurately for the occupation questions
Cover You May Already Hold
Could there be cover in your super or your own name that’s worth a look first?
Reading any policy in your super or your own name first can show which parts are worth keeping as your plans change.
We’ll read any policy you hold now, including its trauma definitions, before any change to your hours or your cover.
Cover you already hold was issued on its own terms, and the policy wording sets when they can change, so it’s worth reading before you change or replace it. Default cover inside super can usually be issued without medical checks, though it may carry pre-existing condition rules set out in the fund’s PDS, and increasing it is usually underwritten like any other application. For an autoimmune condition, that reading includes any trauma definitions a policy carries.
What we look at with you:
- Cover that began before your diagnosis, and whether any health terms were written into it then
- Severe rheumatoid arthritis, lupus or myasthenia gravis definitions in any trauma policy you hold
- Any disability benefits your fund provides, checked before you tell an employer about reduced hours or leaving
- An existing joint or spine exclusion, and which joints or conditions its wording names
- Income protection held through an employer or super, and what may change if you reduce your hours or leave
- New cover considered as a replacement, and the treatment questions a fresh application brings before anything is cancelled
- Any trauma cover from before July 2014 still inside a super fund, read with you for lupus or arthritis events
- An increase to cover you already hold, and the health questions an increase can bring
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 Autoimmune Cover, Worked Through Together
A Treatment Timeline for the Underwriter
Any DMARD, biologic or steroid listed with its dose and dates, ready for an insurer’s questions.
Specialist Letters and Results Lined Up
Any specialist letters, blood tests and imaging gathered in the order an application asks for them.
Organ Involvement Described From Your Records
Any kidney, lung or heart findings described accurately from your specialist reports.
Income Protection Weighed for the Work You Do
Any income protection terms offered, set against your occupation, your duties and any time off for flares.
A Joint Exclusion’s Wording Made Clear
The joints or conditions any exclusion names, and what the policy still pays for, explained.
Severe Arthritis and Lupus Definitions Read
Any autoimmune events listed in a trauma policy you hold, read through with you.
Fund Disability Cover Checked Before Cutting Hours
Any disability cover in your super, read with you before any change to your hours or work.
A Claim Supported by Your Treatment History
An income protection, TPD or trauma claim lodged with you, with each treatment date in place.
Proactive, Holistic, and Experienced Financial Planning
Living with a condition that changes from week to week can mean explaining things other people can’t see, like fatigue or a flare that comes and goes. Here, those parts are taken seriously from the first conversation. We listen to how your condition shapes your days and your work, including the parts that don’t show on a test. The conversation moves at a pace that suits you, around good days and harder ones.
Appointments, blood tests and specialist visits already take up plenty of time, so we handle the insurer’s requests alongside you and keep you updated as things move. A partner, relative or close friend is welcome to join any of our conversations, whenever that would help you. Each step is explained before it happens, and every decision about your protection is yours. We help you plan protection around the life you want to keep building.
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.
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 autoimmune condition, your family, work, income, assets and goals. Then we recommend the types and amounts of cover that suit your life.
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
- Reviews as your health, family and work change
- 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.
We’d want to learn about your situation before anything is said about cover. An application can be offered on standard terms, with a premium loading, with an exclusion for a named condition, deferred for a period, or declined. The insurer decides.
With an autoimmune condition, an application can ask about your treatment in detail: any DMARD, biologic or steroid, with doses and dates. The questions can also reach the joints involved, any organ involvement and any time off work. Once we understand those, we can explain what each of the four covers would ask of you. For the thyroid, liver and skin conditions on our list, such as Hashimoto’s, autoimmune hepatitis or psoriasis, we’d start the same way, with your treatment and recent results.
A biologic or methotrexate becomes part of the treatment history an application asks about. The questions can cover the type of medication, the dose, and when you started, changed or stopped it. Being on a particular medicine decides nothing on its own, and the insurer makes the decision.
We set out each medicine with you from your records, so your answers reflect your treatment accurately and with reasonable care. We then explain any terms offered before you accept.
We’d start with your work and your history. An insurer may ask about the number of joints involved, your medication and dose, any time off work, and whether your work is manual or non-manual.
Income protection can replace part of your income if illness or injury stops you working, within its waiting period, definitions and exclusions. Alternative terms can come up, such as an exclusion for the condition or a higher premium. A joint or spine exclusion’s wording sets what still pays. We explain each term against your work before you decide.
The questions can start with whether your lupus is skin-only or systemic. For systemic lupus, they can reach any involvement of the kidneys, lungs, heart or nervous system, your treatment, and any recent flare.
Some trauma policies include lupus of a specified severity, defined by involvement of one of those systems, and some place it inside a limited benefit with its own conditions. We’d want to understand your history first, then set it out with you from your specialist’s reports and explain what each cover would ask.
A thyroid condition is part of the health history an application can ask about. One insurer’s medical examination form asks about any “thyroid disorder or any other glandular disorder”, and another offers a thyroid condition questionnaire. The questions can reach when you were diagnosed, your daily treatment and dose, and how settled your thyroid levels have been.
Since 5 October 2021, the duty when applying for consumer life cover is to take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation, which means answering the questions asked with reasonable care.
We’d want to hear about your thyroid history first, then set out your treatment and recent results with you from your records. The insurer decides, and we explain any terms offered before you accept.
The word severe is set by different rules on each document. A PBS authority for a biologic uses its own criteria, and a trauma policy’s definition of severe rheumatoid arthritis has separate criteria of its own. Some definitions are written around treatment tried without response and a permanent loss of daily function.
The policy’s definition is what a claim is read against, and the insurer assesses any claim. If you hold trauma cover, we’ll read its definition with you, gather your treatment records and lodge a claim with you when you decide to go ahead.
Arthritis Australia’s psoriatic arthritis site advises that if your condition has progressed and you’re thinking of reducing your hours or leaving work, “it is wise to get good advice before telling your employer”. It also notes: “Most superannuation policies include disability benefits – but not all.”
Before any change, we can look at any income protection you hold, any cover and disability benefits in your super, and how fewer hours could affect the income a policy insures. Your fund decides fund benefits and the insurer decides claims, and we go through the details with you first.
An application can ask about conditions diagnosed in your close family, so a parent’s or sibling’s lupus or rheumatoid arthritis may come up.
We’ll go through the family history questions with you and explain what each one is asking, so you can answer with reasonable care.
Buying direct online is quick, and it works well for some. If an insurer doesn’t ask for your medical history, it may mean the policy has more exclusions or narrower policy definitions (Moneysmart).
Through a financial adviser, each DMARD, biologic or steroid is listed with its doses and dates beside your specialist reports, so your treatment history is set out clearly for the underwriter. We then go through any terms with you, and whether to go ahead stays your decision.
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.
Yes. You don’t need to know anything about insurance, and you can share as much or as little about your condition as you like at first.
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. In that first conversation we’ll ask what you’d like to protect, look at any cover in your name or your super, and outline what an application would involve with your treatment history.
Nothing is lodged with an insurer at that point, and the next step is your call.
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