Life Insurance and Income Protection for Commercial Fishers

Income Protection

If the boat had to go out without you for a while after an illness or injury, what could keep money coming in?

Income protection can pay part of your income after a waiting period, helping with the bills while you’re unable to work.

We’ll compare income protection with you around how your pay is worked out and how your fishing year runs.

Income protection can pay part of your income if illness or injury stops you working, usually based on your earnings in the 12 months before the illness or injury, on each policy’s own definitions of income and disability. Waiting periods can run from 14 days to 2 years, and you must be unable to work at the end of the waiting period to be paid. Benefits can be paid for a set number of years or to an age.

What we look at with you for income protection:

• Pay that comes as a share of the catch, and how each policy’s income definition may treat it
• Settlement statements, payslips or tax returns, set out as the income evidence an insurer may ask to see
• Catch money from a long season or a cut-short one, and where it lands in the 12 months before an illness or injury
• Savings to tide share crew or an owner-skipper over the waiting period, where no sick leave comes with the berth
• Hours worked across a long trip, days tied up at the wharf and any closure, set out for a policy’s weekly minimum
• Anything a scheme pays after you’re hurt hauling gear, and whether income protection may then pay less
• A benefit that runs a set number of years or to an age, matched to the fishing years you have in mind
• Catch pay or a super balance meeting the cost of cover, with deductibility for income protection worked out by an accountant

Learn more about Income Protection

Life Insurance

For anyone at home, how would the costs your fishing income meets now be paid if you were no longer here?

Life cover can pay a lump sum to your beneficiaries for debts, everyday costs and the plans you’ve made.

Together, we’ll work out a life cover amount from any debts, anyone who relies on you and any cover already held.

A life policy can pay a lump sum to your beneficiaries if you pass away, and some include a terminal illness benefit. If no beneficiary is named, your estate or the super trustee may decide where the money goes. Life cover sold in a package may be reduced by another claim paid under that package.

What we work through for life cover:

• Any boat, licence or quota loans, and who would be left carrying them, added into the life cover amount
• Any personal guarantee given on a boat loan, counted into what the lump sum would need to cover
• Death benefit nominations for anyone eligible, or your estate, updated after buying a boat or a family change
• Death and disability cover sharing one sum insured, so a TPD claim on a deckhand’s policy may shrink the death benefit
• The fishing you do named plainly on a life application, such as hauling pots, working nets, diving or running the wheelhouse
• Someone at home with their own job or business, and any life cover they hold, weighed with yours against any boat debt
• Terminal illness payments built into some life policies, which can bring the lump sum forward when a diagnosis meets the policy’s definition
• A bigger or smaller sum once a licence is bought, a baby arrives or the boat loan is paid down

Learn more about Life Insurance

TPD Insurance

Were you never able to return to work of any kind, which plans would still need funding?

A TPD payment can go towards debts and plans if you’re unable to work again, as the policy defines it.

We’ll weigh up TPD definitions with you against the skills and experience your fishing work builds.

A TPD policy can pay a lump sum if illness or injury leaves you unlikely ever to work again, as its definition sets out. Own occupation wording looks at your usual job, while any occupation wording looks at any job suited to your education, training or experience. Own occupation cover is usually only available outside super, TPD cover in super usually ends at 65, and a TPD payout may reduce life cover packaged with it.

What we compare with you for TPD:

• Own occupation terms for skippering or deck work, side by side with any occupation terms
• Any coxswain or master certificate and years at the helm, as an insurer applying any occupation wording might weigh them
• Any super accounts from shore jobs or fishing years side by side, with the TPD test inside each compared
• The occupation a fund or insurer lists for you, updated by contacting them if you swap the deck for a shore job
• Self-care measures in some TPD policies, asking whether you could wash and dress without help after illness or injury ends fishing
• A TPD payment that may shrink linked life cover, and what that leaves against any boat or home debts
• A lump sum matched to what’s owed on a boat, a licence or a house, revisited as those balances change
• Income protection for time off the boat, whether weeks or years, with TPD kept for a permanent end to working life

Learn more about TPD Insurance

Trauma Insurance

Facing a serious diagnosis, what could help with treatment costs and any trips you miss while it runs?

Trauma cover may pay a lump sum if you’re diagnosed with a listed condition that meets the policy’s definition and isn’t excluded.

We’ll read through what a trauma policy lists with you, and how it would sit beside income protection.

Trauma cover can pay a lump sum for a listed critical illness or serious injury that meets the policy’s definition and isn’t excluded. Medical definitions can be different between insurers, and trauma insurance does not cover mental health conditions. 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:

• Heart attack, stroke or cancer as a trauma contract defines each one, and the medical proof a claim would need
• Less severe diagnoses, which some trauma contracts pay out on at a reduced level, short of the full sum insured
• Catch or wage money paying for trauma cover outside super, where all new trauma cover has sat since July 2014
• Fuel for trips to appointments, groceries and specialist bills, which a trauma lump sum may go towards while you’re off the boat
• Nights in a city near a hospital, and petrol or flights from a coastal port, added into the trauma sum
• Lump sums sharing one sum insured, where a critical illness payment may leave a smaller amount payable on death
• Any trauma contract already held, gone through clause by clause before any replacement is considered
• If you skipper your own boat, a trauma amount that leaves room to pay a relief skipper while you’re off the boat

Learn more about Trauma Insurance

Cover in Super

Across any super accounts you hold, is any cover still right for the fishing you do now?

Checking each account’s statement and PDS can show what cover you hold and its terms, to compare with your fishing now.

We’ll check the cover in each super account you hold with you before anything is changed or closed.

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. Premiums are deducted from your super balance, including when super isn’t paid for you. If you hold more than one account, you may not be able to claim the full benefit from more than one.

What we look at in your super with you:

• An account left from any shore job, and whatever death, disability or income cover it holds today
• Any account you add to yourself as share crew or an owner, and any cover inside it
• A young deckhand’s first fund, where life and TPD may only start under 25 if requested, or if the fund covers the job automatically
• A fund that still lists a shore job, or the wrong fishing role, updated by contacting the fund
• Any insurance through super from time crewing on wages, compared with what you’d need for the way you’re paid now
• What each account charges for its insurance from the balance, set against the sum it would pay on a claim
• Whether merging any shore-job fund into the one you use now suits you, weighed only once the cover each holds is compared
• Extra cover above the default level, for example to match a boat loan, which is usually underwritten

Learn more about Superannuation

Paid a Share of the Catch

When you’re paid a share of the catch, how could personal cover fit around what your crew arrangement does and doesn’t provide?

Knowing what your arrangement includes, and what it leaves to you, can help you plan cover with confidence.

We’ll look at your cover with you around how you’re paid and what your crew arrangement includes.

Workers compensation is separate, through a state, territory or Commonwealth scheme. Some schemes don’t treat crew paid wholly or mainly a share of the boat’s earnings as workers, and schemes can change. For crew working as contractors, whether super must be paid depends on the ATO’s tests: paid mainly for your labour, for your own skills rather than a result, and doing the work yourself, ABN or not, but not under a contract with your company, trust or partnership.

What we look at with you on a share arrangement:

• A waiting period planned around savings, since contractors and the self-employed don’t get paid sick leave
• Workers compensation left as a question for the relevant scheme, with any personal cover planned alongside the answer
• Rules for share crew that some schemes have changed, worth confirming with the scheme before you plan around them
• Super under the ATO’s three tests for contractors, unless the contract is with your company, trust or partnership
• Personal cover inside or outside super, looked at separately from whatever any boat owner or employer provides
• Any wage or day rate alongside a share, each set out as it appears on settlement statements and payslips
• A move to a new boat or skipper, and which super fund any contributions are paid into if you’re employed
• A move from a job ashore to share fishing, with any insurance through your super checked before the switch

Learn more about Income Protection

Running Your Own Boat

Should the boat rely on you as owner and skipper, what would need covering if you couldn’t take it out?

Planning before anything happens can help you see what any loan and the household would need.

Together, we’ll look at personal cover with you around the boat, the licence and any loan.

If you’re a sole trader or in a partnership, you don’t have to pay super guarantee for yourself. At claim, an insurer may ask a self-employed person for financial statements as income evidence. Life and TPD amounts can be worked out from debts such as a boat or licence loan, and owning a policy through a company or trust is a structure question to settle with an accountant.

What we look at with you as an owner-skipper:

• Boat, licence and any quota loans counted into the life and TPD amounts you choose
• A co-owner’s share of the boat or licence, and any buy-sell agreement, which a solicitor drafts
• Your own income protection as a sole trader or partner, when no employer pays you sick leave
• Financial statements and tax returns prepared with an accountant, as income evidence for an application
• Income that keeps coming in while you can’t work, such as from a relief skipper, and how the PDS treats it
• Who owns a policy held through a company, trust or partnership, with the structure set with an accountant
• Crew relying on the boat going out, considered in your plan for a stretch when you can’t skipper
• Vessel, hull and gear insurance, left with a general insurance broker who can advise on it

Learn more about Personal Insurance

Making a Claim

In port or laid up at home, who could stand beside you through the forms and follow-up of a claim?

Someone to gather paperwork and follow up with the insurer or fund can make each step of a claim easier.

We’ll lodge a claim with you, then follow it through while the insurer or fund assesses it.

Moneysmart suggests speaking first to whoever arranged the cover: the fund, the insurer, a financial adviser or, for cover through work, your employer. An insurer can ask about your work duties, including physical requirements, the hours you work each week, and payslips and tax returns, or financial statements if you’re self-employed. The insurer or fund assesses the claim, and any complaint goes first to the insurer or super fund, then to AFCA.

How we help with a claim:

• A first call to whoever each policy came through, as Moneysmart suggests: a fishing employer, a super fund, an insurer or a financial adviser
• Hauling, lifting and hours on a trip, written into the claim form as the work really runs
• Settlement sheets from a year of trips, matched with payslips or tax returns, to show what you earned
• Medical evidence from a GP, specialist or physio in a coastal town or the city, collected with your consent
• A deck accident that workers compensation may assess, kept separate from income protection or TPD paperwork we lodge with you
• The date you stopped fishing, recorded from day one, so the waiting period can be counted before any payment can begin
• Going back on shorter trips or easier deck work, and any partial benefit a policy may pay meanwhile
• If the insurer’s or fund’s answer doesn’t sit right, a complaint to the insurer or fund comes first, then AFCA, at no cost to you

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