Life Insurance and Income Protection for Bricklayers, Plasterers, Tilers and Painters

Income Protection

Off the tools for a while through illness or injury, how would the bills be paid while any booked jobs wait?

Income protection can pay part of your income after a waiting period, which can help with bills while you’re off the tools.

We’ll compare income protection with you around how brick, plaster, tile and paint work is paid.

Income protection can pay part of your income if illness or injury stops you working, usually a percentage of pre-tax income based on your earnings in the 12 months before the illness or injury. Each policy has its own definition of disability. Waiting periods can run from 14 days to 2 years, you must be unable to work at the end of the waiting period to be paid, and payments can run for a set term or to an age.

What we work through with you on income protection:

• How each insurer works out the income it pays on, the question Moneysmart suggests asking before you apply
• A policy’s definition of disability, read against work such as quoting or measuring up that you might still manage
• A waiting period chosen around how long a job’s final payment takes to land, if you work for yourself
• Benefit periods long enough for the years of laying, setting, tiling or painting you still plan to do
• For a site injury, the offset clause some policies apply when another payment covers the same time off
• Income protection some funds build in for members, weighed against cover you’d own privately on how soon payments begin and how long they last
• Monthly benefits counted as taxable income, so what you’d keep after tax can be worked out, with an accountant if you use one
• Income from a second trade, such as rendering or waterproofing, and whether it forms part of the earnings a policy insures

Learn more about Income Protection

Life Insurance

From the home to the plans ahead, what could a lump sum keep on track if you were no longer here?

Your beneficiaries could receive a lump sum towards any home loan or work debts, and any plans your family has made.

We’ll size a life cover amount with you from any debts, anyone relying on your work and any cover in super.

A life policy can pay a lump sum to your beneficiaries if you pass away, and life cover may also come with terminal illness cover. Insurers usually ask about your age and your job when you apply. If you haven’t named a beneficiary, your estate or the super trustee may decide where the money goes, and life cover in a package may be reduced by other claims paid in that package.

What we work through for life cover:

• Any mortgage, plus any van, trailer or spray rig on finance, added up so a lump sum could clear what’s still owing
• Any old life cover in funds from apprentice years or earlier trade jobs, listed beside whatever you hold today
• Who receives each fund’s payout, eligible people or your estate, updated when your family or relationships change
• A life and TPD bundle, where money paid out for TPD may shrink the life benefit that remains
• Your trade spelled out on a life application, whether you lay bricks, set plaster, fix tiles or paint
• Life cover for anyone at home who handles your quotes, invoices and bookings, considered next to your own
• Life cover paid early for a terminal illness with a limited life expectancy, if offered, on the insurer’s definition
• Fund life insurance that usually finishes at 70, against a private policy you may be able to keep while premiums are paid

Learn more about Life Insurance

TPD Insurance

Retraining, changes at home and any debts: how would they be paid for if you could never work again?

A TPD lump sum can go towards costs like these if you’re unable to work again, as the policy defines it.

We’ll compare own and any occupation TPD wording with you against the skills your trade has built.

If illness or injury means you’re unlikely to work again, as the policy defines it, TPD cover can pay a lump sum. An own occupation definition looks at your usual job, while an any occupation definition looks at any job suited to your education, training or experience. Own occupation cover is usually only available outside super, and TPD cover in super usually ends at 65.

What we compare with you for TPD:

• A definition tied to laying, setting, tiling or painting itself, compared with one covering any job your skills suit
• Quoting, estimating or bringing on apprentices, and the weight an any occupation test may give your years in the trade
• Private TPD built around laying, setting, tiling or painting itself, which insurers usually sell only outside super and not for every trade
• The disability test inside each old or current fund, compared before any account from a past trade job closes
• Washing, dressing and moving about, a self-care TPD test some policies use, which sets the highest bar to claim
• A TPD and life combination, where paying out on disability may cut the life amount still available
• A disability payout from super, which may be taxed if you’re under 60, sized with that tax in view and any accountant’s input
• Changes to a home or car for access, plus any debts and retraining, added into the TPD figure

Learn more about TPD Insurance

Trauma Insurance

Treatment costs and any jobs already booked: what could ease both after a serious diagnosis?

Trauma cover can pay a lump sum for a listed condition that meets the policy’s definition and isn’t excluded, easing treatment costs.

We’ll go over the conditions a trauma policy lists with you, and where a lump sum fits 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 life cover packaged with trauma could be reduced by the amount paid on a trauma claim. 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 definition behind each listed condition, which can differ from one insurer’s wording to the next
• A portion of the cover paid for an early-stage condition, an option only some policies include
• Any quoted jobs you’d hand to another tradesperson or push back during treatment, and a lump sum sized for the lost income
• Time at home before any return to ladders or floors, and the household costs a lump sum could carry
• Linked life and trauma, with any listed-illness lump sum possibly coming off the life amount paid later
• A diagnosis in a slow month or a busy one, and a lump sum that doesn’t depend on recent job income
• Trauma cover set beside TPD, since a serious diagnosis may not stop you laying, plastering, tiling or painting for good
• Tax on a trauma policy you pay for yourself: the ATO doesn’t allow its premiums as a deduction, so the cost comes from after-tax money

Learn more about Trauma Insurance

Cover in Super

Across any funds from your training, past employers or builders, how well does any cover suit the way you work now?

Checking each fund’s statement and PDS can show what you hold, so you can weigh up what to keep.

We’ll check any cover in each of your funds with you before anything changes.

Many funds include life and TPD cover, and some include income protection, for a set amount. 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, and with 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:

• Accounts opened by any bricklaying, plastering, tiling or painting business you’ve worked for, gathered into one list
• Which account any contributions of your own go into as a subbie or sole trader, since premiums for cover there come out of that balance
• Bricklaying, plastering, tiling or painting matched to the job title each fund holds, with any error raised with the fund
• Any default sums in each fund set beside any debts and anyone relying on income from your trade
• Duplicate insurance across accounts from old trade jobs, compared before any accounts are rolled together
• Going from a wage to quoting under your own ABN, with any insurance through your super looked at first
• Any fund cover and private policy sized together, so the two fit together for a bricklayer, plasterer, tiler or painter
• The insurance section of each fund statement read line by line, so you know the sum, the cover type and the premium

Learn more about Superannuation

Paid by the Metre, the Thousand or the Job

How could cover reflect what you really earn and work when you’re paid by the metre, the thousand or the job?

Setting out the figures and hours a policy looks at gives an insurer a clear picture of your work and pay.

We’ll write up your income and hours with you the way an application asks for them.

Income protection is usually based on your earnings in the 12 months before an illness or injury, and each insurer can be asked how it works out income. A business generally has to pay super to a contractor paid mainly for their own labour and skills, rather than for a result, who does the work themselves, but not under a contract with a company, trust or partnership.

What we set out with you on output pay:

• Weekly hours written down from diaries, quotes and invoices when your pay doesn’t count them for you
• A rate per square metre, per thousand bricks or per job turned into the yearly income a policy uses
• Paint, plaster or adhesive on an invoice, set apart from what your work earned, with an accountant’s help if you use one
• Final payments that land weeks after the work, read against a policy’s definition of when income counts
• Labour-only rates and quoted prices for a result, set against the ATO’s three super tests and its company, trust or partnership exception
• Premiums for any cover in super, paid from a balance you may be the only one adding to
• Income protection held outside super, paid from your own pocket, with deductibility confirmed by an accountant
• A busy run of jobs and a quiet month, both inside the 12 months before an illness or injury that a policy looks at

Learn more about Income Protection

Your Trade on an Application

When you apply for cover, how can your work be described the way you do it, including any second trade?

An application that matches your real duties gives the insurer an accurate picture to assess.

We’ll talk through your duties with you before any application goes to an insurer.

Insurers usually ask about your age and your job, and your answers help the insurer decide whether to insure you and on what terms. 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.

What we go through with you before you apply:

• Your main trade and any second one, such as rendering, patching, waterproofing or painting after plastering
• The share of your week spent on floors, on walls and on ceilings, described the way the work runs
• Any ladder, trestle, scaffold or other work at height, with how often each is part of your week
• Any spraying, cutting, grinding and mixing listed as tasks you do, so the duties on an application are complete
• Time spent quoting, measuring up or supervising, set beside the hours you spend on the tools
• Running any crew, and how much laying, setting, tiling or painting you still do with your own hands
• Each application question answered with reasonable care, with the insurer deciding whether to offer cover and on what terms
• Any cover you already hold read before applying for a replacement, since it was issued on its own terms

Learn more about Personal Insurance

Making a Claim

During a claim, how much of the paperwork would you like someone to share with you?

Sharing the forms and follow-up with someone who knows your cover can make a claim easier to manage.

We’ll take any claim from the first form to the insurer’s decision with you, following up each step.

Moneysmart suggests speaking first to whoever you arranged the cover through: a financial adviser, the fund, the insurer or, for cover through work, your employer. An insurer can ask for details of 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. A continuing claim may need regular assessments and progress claim forms, and a complaint goes first to the insurer or super fund, then to AFCA.

How we help with a claim:

• First contact set by where each cover came from, such as work, a fund or a financial adviser, before the insurer or fund takes the claim
• What a day of laying, setting, tiling or painting asks of you, written into the claim as it really is
• Proof of what the trade earned you, from job invoices and tax returns or, on wages, a run of payslips
• Medical evidence of the laying, setting, tiling or painting you can’t do, collected once you agree
• Progress claim forms during a long claim filled in with you, and any regular assessments prepared for as each falls due
• A request for urgent financial help during a claim, and how an advance payment may reduce the final payout
• Compensation through the scheme if you’re an eligible employee hurt on the job, alongside any claim on your own policy that we lodge with you
• Picking up quoting or lighter tasks part-way through a claim, and telling the insurer as your work changes

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