Life Insurance and Income Protection for Commercial Divers
Income Protection for Commercial Divers and Their Families
Inshore, offshore, aquaculture or scientific dive work, supervising or attending, how you’re paid and any cover through work and super shape your options. We’ll help you explore cover, apply for it, review any cover you hold and lodge claims.
Financial Advice for Life Insurance and Income Protection
Who We Help
- Construction and inshore divers working on underwater assets and salvage
- Offshore divers on exploration and development work
- Hyperbaric welders doing underwater repairs
- Aquaculture and fisheries divers paid by an operator, on wages or contract
- Scientific divers whose research takes them underwater
- Dive supervisors and superintendents overseeing dive operations
- Divers’ attendants supporting a team from the surface
- Contract divers sending their own invoices
- Owners of small dive businesses running their own jobs and gear
- Divers becoming supervisors or contractors, with cover from earlier work
We Can Help You
- Set out your type of dive work, depths and equipment as duties for a cover application
- Describe supervising, attending or welding work as it is on an insurance application
- Go through disability wording with you, including how a policy treats reduced duties
- Check the part payments some income protection policies allow if you return to dive work in stages
- Put questions on day rates and diving allowances, with you, to the insurers willing to consider your work
- Set short and long income protection waits against savings you could use after illness or injury
- Look at household spending with you, to see what you’d want beside a policy’s earnings-based amount
- List what each super fund holds for you, including its insurance amounts and your recorded occupation
- Look at cover again when a first contract, an offshore job or supervising changes your work
- Lodge a diver’s claim with you, following each form through to the insurer or fund’s decision
What we advise on
How Each Cover Works Around Dive Work
Income Protection
While illness or injury keeps you from dive work, what could help with the bills at home?
A share of income can be paid after a waiting period, subject to the policy’s terms and exclusions and the insurer’s assessment.
Together, we’ll look at income protection from the insurers willing to consider your work, around your duties and pay.
Income protection can pay a share of your pre-tax income if illness or injury stops you working, usually based on earnings in the 12 months before, and most policies offer a waiting period between 14 days and two years. An insurer usually looks at your job and duties when you apply, and this can affect whether cover is offered, the benefit periods available and the amount. Exclusions can apply, including to occupations or activities, and the insurer decides.
What we look at with you on income protection:
- Not being able to carry out your usual dive tasks, and how some policies word the duties in question
- Earning less on reduced duties or in a supervising role after illness or injury, and the partial benefit terms in some policies
- How your supervising or inspection time may count, if a claim runs long and a policy moves to a suited work test
- What your household spends each month, as a guide to what you’d want, beside a policy’s share of your earnings
- Money you’ve set aside, and how long it would last through the wait before a benefit can start
- A policy’s minimum hours, if it sets them, and the quiet stretches in your year of dive work
- Strong runs and gaps between jobs, and how both could shape the 12 months of earnings a benefit is usually based on
- Being hurt on a dive job, any workers compensation if you qualify, and how that may reduce an income protection benefit
- Paying premiums from your dive pay or from your fund, and asking an accountant how each route is taxed
Life Insurance
Does anyone rely on what your dive income pays for now?
Life cover can pay your beneficiaries a lump sum, for debts, everyday costs and the plans you’ve made.
We can estimate a life cover amount with you from your debts and anyone relying on your income.
Life cover can pay a lump sum to your beneficiaries if you pass away, subject to the policy’s terms, and the insurer decides on any claim. Moneysmart notes it can help if you have large debts or a mortgage, and insurers usually ask about your age and job when you apply. With nobody named as a beneficiary, your estate or the super trustee may decide where the money goes.
What we weigh up with you on life cover:
- A home loan, if you have one, and the regular costs at home that depend on what diving or supervising brings in
- Debt on a vessel or other dive gear, if you have any, and who signed for each loan
- Fund statements from past dive employers, if you have them, read together for life cover they may include
- Life insurance through a dive employer, if yours provides it, read first, and what could change when that job ends
- Who you can name for a death benefit, what each trustee requires, and where a payment goes if you name nobody
- TPD and life held together, and what a TPD payout might leave for anyone you’ve named
- Bell, inshore or supervising work set out with reasonable care on a life cover form
- Money at home apart from dive pay, such as a partner’s wage, if you have a partner, and any cover held
TPD Insurance
Suppose you could never work again: what could support the plans you’ve made?
TPD can pay a lump sum towards debts and plans if you can’t work again, as the policy defines it.
We can show you how TPD definitions read the skills dive work builds, from supervising to inspection.
An any occupation definition looks at any job suited to your education, training or experience. An own occupation definition looks at your usual job, and Moneysmart notes that cover is usually only available outside super. Some policies use everyday activities instead, each fund can have its own wording, and a TPD payment may reduce any life cover packaged with it.
What we compare with you on TPD:
- Own occupation wording for dive duties, if a policy offers it, as that cover usually sits outside super
- Time spent supervising dive teams or inspecting, and whether an any occupation definition may count it as suited work
- The TPD wording in each super fund, and how it reads if you couldn’t return to dive work
- Your job title on fund records, compared with the inshore, offshore or supervising work you do today
- Definitions in some TPD policies built on everyday living, not your dive job, which Moneysmart calls activities of daily living
- Money you’d still owe on gear, a dive business or a home, if anything, set beside a TPD amount
- What each cover is for: income protection for time off work through illness or injury, TPD for a lump sum if you meet its definition
- Becoming a dive supervisor, and whether your new duties could become your usual occupation for TPD
Trauma Insurance
Could a lump sum help with the costs if a serious diagnosis meant time away from dive work?
Trauma cover can pay a lump sum for a condition it lists, if the policy’s definition is met and it isn’t excluded.
We’ll go over what a trauma policy lists with you, and how a lump sum could fit beside income protection.
Each trauma policy has its own list of conditions and its own definition for each one, and Moneysmart notes medical definitions can be different between insurers. 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:
- The names on a trauma policy’s list, and what each medical definition asks for, in plain language with you
- A trauma policy’s part payment terms for an earlier condition or a milder one, set beside other policies
- Premium payments from your dive pay, as super can’t hold a new trauma policy
- Time before any income protection could start, and the household costs a trauma payout could meet
- Contracting for yourself with no sick leave to call on, and the costs a lump sum could meet while you’re off work
- Trauma sold with life in one contract, and what a trauma payment could leave in place for your beneficiaries
- Moving from an older trauma policy, if you have one, and what you’d gain or lose under current wording
- How tax might apply to a trauma payment, a question for an accountant before it goes into your budget
Cover in Super
If you joined a fund for an earlier job, could its cover still suit the dive work you do now?
Looking through each fund can show what it holds, what it costs and the job it has on record.
We’ll check each fund with you before anything changes, including its cover and the job on record.
Premiums for cover in super come off your balance, and default cover is for a set amount that might not match your needs. 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.
What we check in each fund with you:
- Funds you joined through past dive employers or earlier careers, if you have them, each set out with its insurance
- An old job title at your fund, now that you do dive work, and Moneysmart’s advice to contact them if it’s wrong
- Super from a new dive employer, which generally goes to your current super account unless you pick a different fund
- Joining a fund under 25, as cover may have to be requested, depending on your diving job and that fund
- What a PDS says about health conditions you had before joining the fund, looked at with you
- What cover costs your balance during gaps in dive work, when no super is coming in
- Insurance in each fund, read through before you decide whether to roll any dive job accounts together
- Asking for cover above your fund’s set amount, as that usually means underwriting, if others count on your dive pay
Your Dive Work, Set Out as It Is
Would setting out your type of dive work help your cover fit the way you work?
Clear detail on your duties gives an insurer a fuller picture of the work you do.
We’ll write up your dive work with you for any application, and look at how a policy or fund records it.
Jobs and Skills Australia lists specialisations for divers including fisheries, hyperbaric welder, offshore and onshore diving, and tasks such as research, salvage and construction. What you do is worth writing down as it is. 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.
What we write down with you about your dive work:
- SCUBA or surface supplied work, described in plain words with the share of your week on each
- Closed bell work, if you do it, stated as part of your duties, with how often it comes up
- Construction, repair and inspection dives, set out by type of job and the time on each
- Hyperbaric welding or other underwater trade work, named as the trade it is, if you do it
- Aquaculture and fisheries tasks for an operator, such as net repairs or underwater cameras, written up plainly
- Scientific dives, with the research tasks and any other work you do alongside them set out
- Time supervising or attending, counted apart from time in the water, as part of your usual week
- Your mix of dive work looked at again when it changes, as a fund or policy record may need updating
A Dive Medical and a Policy’s Terms
How do a yearly dive medical and an income protection policy sit side by side?
Each has its own purpose: one is for work safety, and the other sets its own terms for a claim.
We can walk through a policy’s definitions and conditions with you, beside what a dive medical is for.
Workplace safety rules can require a diver to hold a current certificate of medical fitness, generally renewed yearly, which can carry conditions on the type of diving work. Each income protection policy has its own definition of disability and conditions that must be met before a claim is made. The insurer assesses any claim against that policy’s terms and exclusions.
What we go through with you:
- A certificate of medical fitness, which is a work safety document, read apart from a policy’s claim terms
- Conditions a doctor can set on the type of diving work, and why a policy’s claim wording is read on its own
- Each income protection policy’s own definition of disability, and the conditions it sets before a claim
- A workplace certificate and a claim as two separate assessments: a doctor signs one, and the insurer assesses the other
- Reduced dive duties after illness or injury, and the partial terms some policies set for working in a reduced capacity
- Your work duties and weekly hours at claim, including the physical requirements an insurer can ask you about
- Medical reports and test results from your doctor, and your work records, which an insurer can ask for at claim
- A financial plan that doesn’t rely on a certificate or a policy alone in a year when dive work changes
- Who answers what: a doctor on fitness to dive, the insurer on a claim and a financial adviser on your plan
Day Rates, Contracts and Gaps Between Jobs
Moving from wages to a day rate: what could change for any cover you hold?
Checking cover before you move can show what changes and what you’d like to apply for.
We’ll look at cover with you before you go on contract, or while you’re between dive jobs.
Moneysmart notes that self-employed people don’t have paid holidays or sick leave, and suggests checking how leaving wages affects cover through your super. A business may have to pay your super if more than half the contract’s value is for your labour, payment doesn’t depend on a set result and the work can’t be delegated, but not under a contract with your company, trust or partnership. An ABN doesn’t settle it, and an accountant or the ATO can confirm.
What we look at with you before the change:
- Sick leave on your own contract dive work, which Moneysmart notes you won’t have if self-employed, set against your savings
- Insurance through your super, checked before you leave wages for contract dive work
- Whether a dive company has to pay your super: paid mainly for labour, not a result, on work you can’t delegate
- A dive contract through your company, trust or partnership, as the hirer doesn’t then have to pay super for the person doing the work
- Dive gear in your price, detailed separately from labour, and how the ATO treats equipment in a contract
- Which income an insurer may count for income protection on day rates and allowances, asked of each insurer
- Weekly minimum hours in some income protection policies, checked against the gaps between your dive jobs
- Time between jobs, planned with savings, as income protection is generally for illness or injury rather than losing a job
- Gear, vessel and public liability insurance, which a general insurance broker can advise on apart from personal cover
When to Review Your Cover
How might a new stage in dive work or a change at home affect any cover?
New work or a change at home can be a good reason to read through a policy again.
Together, we’ll go through what you hold, if anything, beside the dive work you do and your plans at home.
Dive work can move from trainee to a first job, from inshore to offshore, from wages to a day rate, or from diving to supervising. Default cover through super is for a set amount, so it might not match your needs. A change at work or home is a good reason to book a conversation, and we can read through a policy or fund statement with you. The insurer decides on any new application.
Situations worth raising with us in a conversation:
- Finishing training and taking a first dive job, and what your fund then shows as your occupation
- Moving up a Part, and whether a fund or policy shows the dive work you now do
- Inshore to offshore dive work, and how to describe it if you apply for new cover
- Leaving a regular wage for contract dive work, and whether a compensation scheme would still apply: each scheme sets who qualifies
- Moving from the water to supervising, and reading income protection and TPD wording again for those duties
- A move to another dive company, as insurance tied to your old job may not continue, which the employer or fund can confirm
- Under 25 with a new dive job, and if your fund offers cover on its own or waits for you to ask
- A new baby, a separation or buying a home, and how much cover the people relying on your dive pay may want
- Premiums that generally rise with age and may change, set against strong and slow dive runs
Making a Claim
Could it help to have someone alongside you for the forms and calls during a claim?
Forms and follow-up can be easier with help, while the insurer or fund assesses the claim.
We’ll follow each step with you as we lodge a claim, while the insurer or fund assesses it.
Moneysmart says to start with whoever you bought the cover through, and your employer for cover through an employment arrangement. At claim, an insurer can ask about your work duties, including physical requirements, the hours you work each week and your pay records, or financial statements if you’re self-employed. The insurer, or the fund for cover in super, assesses the claim, and a complaint goes first to the insurer or fund, then to AFCA.
How we help with a claim:
- The right starting point for a dive claim, and the forms that insurer, fund or employer uses
- A plain description of your dive day, including physical requirements and your hours each week
- Proof of pay from dive employers, or financial statements if you’re self-employed, as the insurer requests
- Reports from your doctor, at the insurer’s request, kept with your dive work claim forms
- If you apply to a workers compensation scheme as well, its decision and the insurer’s are made separately, on different rules
- Money from other sources during an illness or injury, and whether a policy reduces what it pays because of it
- Returning on less dive work or to supervising, and the wording some policies use for working in a reduced capacity
- Disagreeing with a decision: where to raise it first, and when AFCA can look at your dive claim
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
- Your type of dive work: Insurers usually ask about your job when you apply. Jobs and Skills Australia lists several specialisations for divers, and two divers can have very different weeks, so your mix of work is part of describing it accurately.
- Equipment and depths: SCUBA, surface supplied or closed bell work and the depths you usually work at are part of your duties, so it helps to set them out as they are.
- Offshore, inshore or aquaculture: Where you work is part of describing your job, so it’s worth stating. Each workers compensation scheme sets who qualifies, and offshore or maritime work can involve a different scheme.
- Supervising or attending: Your share of time supervising, attending or in the water is worth setting out. A TPD any occupation definition may also take this experience into account.
- A yearly dive medical: A certificate of medical fitness, generally renewed yearly, can be a work safety requirement. An income protection policy has its own definition of disability and its own conditions for a claim, and the insurer assesses any claim.
- Wages, day rates or invoices: Where you’re employed, any paid leave is a starting point. Under one award, casuals receive a loading instead of annual leave, paid personal/carer’s leave, notice of termination, redundancy benefits and other entitlements. Self-employed people don’t have paid sick leave, and an insurer can ask for financial statements at claim.
- Gaps between jobs: Income protection usually works from your earnings in the 12 months before an illness or injury, and some policies only cover you if you work a minimum number of hours. A budget can show what you’d want coming in.
- Back in reduced duties for a while: Some policies can pay a partial benefit if illness or injury has you working in a reduced capacity and earning below a set level. Workers compensation is separate, each scheme sets who qualifies, and other payments may reduce an income protection benefit.
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 | The insurers willing to consider your work | 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
- The insurers willing to consider your work
- 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 Dive Work, Worked Through Together
Dive Work Duties Set Out
Your type of dive work, equipment and usual depths, described as they make up your week on any application.
Supervising and Attending Duties Described
Time supervising, attending or in the water, set out accurately before you apply.
Disability Wording Read With You
A policy’s definition of disability and its conditions for a claim, gone through with you as its own test.
A Household Budget for Time Away From Dive Work
What you’d want coming in, worked out from household spending, beside the earnings-based amount a policy can pay.
Day Rate Income Laid Out for an Insurer
Day rates, allowances and records set out, with each insurer asked how it works out income.
Each Fund’s Cover Read
The cover and job on record at each super fund, gone through with you before anything changes.
Cover Looked at Before a Contract
Any cover you hold read with you before you take a contract or a day rate offer.
A Dive Work Claim Lodged With You
Your duties, weekly hours and pay records gathered with you, while the insurer or fund assesses the 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 Commercial Divers
Commercial dive work is skilled work that few people ever see. Ports, bridges, pipelines and fish farms are looked after because a team planned the job with care and looked out for one another on the day. We’d like to hear about the work you do, how you’re paid and what matters to you away from it. From there, we can help you shape a plan around your income and the life you’d like.
A strong run of jobs can open up some choices. That money could go towards a home, a trip with the people you love, a move into supervising or more freedom in the years after dive work. If someone depends on your pay, they can be part of the plan as well. Your goals may change along the way, so we can review the plan with you each year through ongoing advice and keep it in step with them.
If illness or injury kept you from dive 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 with you from the insurers willing to consider your work. 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 Commercial Divers
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 dive work, your family, work, income, assets and goals. Then we recommend the types and amounts of cover that suit your life.
Dive work can mean inshore, offshore, aquaculture or scientific work, supervising or attending, as an employee, a contractor or an owner. Each can affect how an insurer assesses an application and how a policy’s definitions read a claim, so your duties, hours and pay are what we look at.
With a financial adviser, you also have:
- Access to the insurers willing to consider your work, each with its own way of assessing an application
- 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.
They’re written for different purposes. Workplace safety rules can require a diver to hold a current certificate of medical fitness, generally renewed yearly, and a doctor can set conditions on the type of diving work. Questions about your fitness to dive sit with that doctor.
Each income protection policy has its own definition of disability and conditions that must be met before a claim is made. Income protection is generally for illness or injury, and the insurer assesses any claim against the policy’s terms and exclusions. We can read that wording with you and build a plan that doesn’t depend on either one. If your medical isn’t renewed or comes with new conditions, we can help you understand what that could mean for any cover you hold.
Insurers usually ask about your job when you apply, and two divers can have very different weeks. It helps to set out your share of time on each: inshore or offshore work, SCUBA, surface supplied or closed bell, welding, supervising or attending.
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. Each insurer assesses applications in its own way. We can help you set your work out as it is, and the insurer decides on any application.
Moneysmart says income protection usually bases the benefit on your annual earnings in the 12 months before your illness or injury. If your work comes job to job, that can take in strong runs and gaps, and some policies only cover you if you work a minimum number of hours. It’s worth asking each insurer how it works out income, including any allowances.
This cover is generally for illness or injury rather than losing a job. Keeping records up to date with an accountant can help, and the insurer decides on any application.
Workers compensation is separate from personal cover. It runs through a state, territory or Commonwealth scheme, and each scheme sets who qualifies, so how you’re paid doesn’t settle whether you qualify, either way. Offshore and maritime work may involve a different scheme, and the scheme decides any workers compensation claim.
Income protection, if you hold it, has its own terms and exclusions, and scheme payments may reduce a benefit. We can go through any cover you hold and plan your finances around where you stand, and the insurer decides on a claim under your policy.
Start with the policy wording. 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. For cover in super, Moneysmart suggests asking what happens to the cover if you change jobs.
A TPD any occupation definition looks at any job suited to your education, training or experience, so supervising experience may come into it. A new application needs your new duties set out. We can go through this with you, and the insurer decides on any application.
An industry award for diving work has a term on this, for the offshore employees it covers. Under that award, an offshore employee who chooses to take out cover against death from any cause, for the period of their employment, can have the policy’s cost reimbursed by their employer on evidence of the purchase. The cover must be at a sum insured the award sets. The reimbursement doesn’t apply where the employer provides the cover directly.
If you work offshore as an employee, it’s worth asking your employer what applies to you. Taking out cover is your choice, and we can work out a life cover amount with you around what you owe and anyone who relies on you. The insurer decides on any application.
Moving up a Part, going from wages to a day rate, a first offshore job or a move into supervising can each be a good reason to book a conversation.
At home, a new loan, a baby or a separation can be too. We can go through a fund statement or policy with you beside the work you do now, and look at new cover you could apply for. The insurer decides on any application.
Our ongoing advice clients have an annual review with us.
A quick online quote can show a price for the details you enter. It may not show how a policy’s definitions read supervising or attending, how an insurer counts allowances on day rates, or what’s already sitting in a super fund.
Personal advice starts with those questions, and we then go through options with you from the insurers willing to consider your work. The insurer decides on any 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, from a first dive course to a supervisor’s role. We’d start with the work you do now and what you’d like cover to do.
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.
Useful things to have with you are pay records or invoices, a tax return, statements from each super fund, any policy papers and a list of the dive work in a usual week.
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
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