
Your registration, training steps, how you’re paid and any cover in super all shape how personal cover works for you. We help you review any cover you hold, compare and apply, and revisit cover as your income changes.





What we advise on
During a stretch away from hospital work through illness or injury, what could keep the household running?
Income protection can pay part of your income after a waiting period, helping your household keep its routine.
Together, we’ll compare or review income protection around hospital pay that rises with each year and role.
Income protection can replace part of your income if illness or injury stops you working, after a waiting period and subject to the policy’s definitions. The benefit is usually based on your earnings in the 12 months before the illness or injury, and the policy’s definition of income decides what counts. Any sick leave you’ve built up can be weighed against the waiting period you choose.
What we work through with you on income protection:
What could support your loved ones through the years ahead if you were no longer here?
Life cover can pay a lump sum to your beneficiaries, helping your loved ones with debts, daily costs and future plans.
We can size life cover with you from any debts, your plans and anyone who relies on your income.
Life insurance can pay a lump sum to your beneficiaries if you pass away, and some policies include a terminal illness benefit. An insurer may limit the amount it offers by your current income and age, so an amount set on earlier pay is worth looking at again as your income rises. If no beneficiary is named, the payment goes to your estate, or for cover in super, the fund’s trustee decides who receives it.
What we work through for life cover:
Were you never able to work again, what could still pay for the plans you’ve made?
A TPD lump sum, paid as the policy defines it, can go towards debts, care and the goals you’d planned.
Together, we’ll weigh TPD definitions against clinical and procedural work and the other roles a medical degree could suit.
A TPD policy can pay a lump sum when illness or injury leaves you unlikely to work again, under the policy’s own definition. Own occupation looks at your usual job, while any occupation looks at any job suited to your education, training or experience. Own occupation cover is usually only available outside super, and which definitions an insurer offers can depend on the occupation.
What we compare with you for TPD:
Should a serious illness mean treatment and time away from clinical work, what could help with the costs?
Trauma cover can pay a lump sum for a listed condition meeting the policy’s definition, helping with costs during treatment.
We’ll read the conditions a trauma policy lists with you, and how each one is defined.
A trauma policy can pay a lump sum when a listed illness or injury meets the policy’s definition and isn’t excluded. Medical definitions can be different between insurers, so the list is worth reading condition by condition. 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:
Has any cover in your super kept up with your role and pay today?
Checking any cover in super, account by account, can show what to keep and where your cover could better suit your role.
Together, we’ll read any cover in each super account, and set out any changes in a financial plan, or Statement of Advice.
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. Cover usually doesn’t start automatically for a new member under 25, or with a low balance, unless they ask the fund for it.
What we look at in your super with you:
With each step up in pay through training, how could your cover keep pace with your income?
Looking again at each step can help your cover follow your income and the plans you’re making.
We’ll review the amounts with you at each step and explain how any increase option in a policy works.
Some policies include an increase option that lets you raise cover without new medical evidence after a listed event, within a set time and up to an age limit, and it may not be available if a loading or exclusion for health or pastimes applied at the start. A salary increase event can be limited to employees with no ownership of a business. Without an option, more cover is a new application, assessed on your health at the time.
What we plan with you as your pay steps up:
What is each of your insurances there to do as your registration and work settings change?
Knowing where indemnity stops and personal cover starts can make each policy easier to plan around.
Together, we’ll set out what medical indemnity covers and where your personal cover begins.
Medical indemnity insurance covers civil liability from a claim about a negligent act, error or omission, including legal costs and any damages, rather than your own living costs. For public hospital work, cover may come through an employer’s indemnity arrangements, while private practice generally needs your own indemnity with retroactive cover. Questions about any indemnity policy go to your indemnity provider.
What we set out with you as your work changes:
If you ever needed to claim, who could work through the forms and follow-up with you?
Support with the forms and the follow-up can leave you more time for your health and the people close to you.
We can prepare and lodge a claim with you, then follow it up with the insurer or fund.
Moneysmart suggests speaking first to whoever you arranged the cover through, such as the fund, the insurer or a financial adviser. An insurer can ask for medical reports, details of your work duties, including physical requirements, and the hours you work each week, along with payslips, or financial statements if you’re self-employed. The insurer assesses the claim. A complaint goes first to the insurer or, for cover in super, the fund, then to AFCA if it isn’t resolved.
How we help with a claim:
Your work and your cover
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
| 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 |














Your Role and Specialty Set Out
Your role, any specialty or procedural work and your weekly hours described in full on any application.
Pay Read Against the Income Wording
How a policy counts any salary packaging, overtime or private practice allowance, read through with you.
Cover Reviewed at Each Training Step
Any cover looked at again at general registration, a registrar post, fellowship or another change of role.
Increase Options Explained
Any increase option in a policy, with its listed events, time limit and conditions, set out plainly.
Indemnity and Personal Cover Side by Side
What medical indemnity covers, and what income protection, life, TPD and trauma cover are for.
TPD Wording Read for Medical Work
Any occupation wording read against clinical and procedural work, and whether an insurer offers own occupation for your role.
Cover Across Rotations Mapped
Any cover in each super account from your hospital years listed, with what each one provides.
Claim Forms Prepared Together
A claim prepared and lodged with you, then followed up while the insurer or fund assesses it.

Every conversation starts with listening. We want to understand how your work is set up, how you’re paid and what you’d like your cover to do for you and anyone close to you. From there, we explain each type of cover in plain words, answer questions as they come up and work at a pace that suits you. Our recommendations usually come to you in writing, you read each application before it’s sent, and the decisions are yours.
We work through the paperwork with you. With your consent, we can ask any fund that holds cover for you for its insurance details, prepare what an application needs and follow up with insurers while they assess it. If you’d like a partner or someone close to you in the room, they’re welcome. And if you ever need to claim, we’ll lodge the claim with you and stay in touch with the insurer until it has made its decision.
Every financial decision impacts the next
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

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 medical career, your family, work, income, assets and goals. Then we recommend the types and amounts of cover that suit your life.
Hospital medicine can mean pay that rises with each year and role, salary packaging, moves between hospitals, registration steps and, for some doctors, private work later on. That’s why your role, how you’re paid and your registration stage are part of what we look at.
With a financial adviser, you also have:
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:
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.
Medical indemnity insurance covers civil liability from a claim about a negligent act, error or omission, including the costs of defending the claim and any damages payable. Registration rules require appropriate indemnity arrangements to practise. For public hospital work, those arrangements may come through your employer, while private practice generally needs your own indemnity with retroactive cover.
Personal cover does a different job. Income protection can pay part of your income after a waiting period if illness or injury stops you working, and life, TPD and trauma cover can each pay a lump sum as the policy defines. Questions about any indemnity policy go to your indemnity provider. We can set out your personal cover with you alongside your indemnity arrangements.
Some policies include an increase option, which lets you raise your cover without new medical evidence after a listed event, such as a salary increase, a home loan or a new child. The option may have to be used within a set time after the event and before an age limit, and it may not be available if a loading or exclusion applied when the policy started. In some policies, a salary increase event applies only to employees with no ownership of the business.
Without an option, more cover is a new application, assessed on your health at the time. We can explain how any option in your policy works, and the insurer decides on any increase.
Moving from registrar to consultant can bring a change in your registration, new duties and a different pay structure, and each is worth reading against any cover you hold. Income protection is usually based on your earnings in the 12 months before an illness or injury, and the policy’s definition of income decides whether any private practice allowance counts. An insurer may also limit life, TPD and trauma amounts by your current income and age.
Any policy or fund record may still describe your registrar role, and any increase option may apply to the change for a set time. We can review your cover with you at this step, and the insurer decides on any change it offers.
Own occupation TPD looks at whether you could work in your usual job, while any occupation looks at any job suited to your education, training or experience. A medical degree can suit teaching, research, administration or advisory roles, so the wording of an any occupation definition is worth reading closely.
Own occupation cover is usually only available outside super, and which definitions an insurer offers can depend on the occupation. TPD held through a fund uses the fund’s own definition, which may differ again. We can compare the definitions with you against your clinical work and any procedural work you do, and the insurer assesses any claim against the policy’s wording.
While you’re away, the fund’s insurance terms decide what happens to any cover it holds, and premiums for that cover keep coming out of your balance.
Income protection is usually based on your earnings in the 12 months before an illness or injury, so a year on a different income can change what a policy would pay. Indemnity while you’re away depends on the registration rules and your indemnity arrangements, so it’s a question for your indemnity provider. We can look at any cover with you before you leave and again when you return.
Private rooms or visiting work can change how your income is shown. For a self-employed doctor, an insurer may work out income from business records and your share of the profits, rather than from payslips. There’s no paid sick leave when you’re self-employed, which is worth weighing when you choose a waiting period. Private practice also generally needs your own indemnity, with retroactive cover.
If you’re moving from employee to self-employed, it’s worth checking whether that affects any insurance through your super. In some policies, a salary increase event applies only to employees with no ownership of a business. We can review your cover with you before you start, or soon after.
Insurance offered to doctors through memberships or partner programs can be a reasonable place to start comparing. Moneysmart notes that if an insurer doesn’t ask for your medical history, it may mean that the policy has more exclusions or narrower policy definitions, so the wording is worth reading closely.
Advice starts from your role, pay, registration stage, any cover in super and your plans, then compares policies from a wide range of insurers. Every application question still needs answering with reasonable care. We can read any offer you’ve received alongside other options with you, so you can see where each one fits.
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
What a financial adviser does
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
Yes. At any stage of hospital medicine, we begin with your role, how you’re paid and what you’d like your 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. Any super statements, policy schedules, a recent payslip and your registration and training dates are useful to bring, if you have them, and together we’ll agree on a practical next step.
No medical records are requested at that first conversation.
Who We Help
From first job to retirement, we help you build wealth, protect it, and live well.

First jobs, first home, first super, HECS debt, budgeting and more.

First home buyers, new parents, school fees, single incomes, young families and more.

Doctors, dentists, pharmacists, allied health, nurses and more.

Lawyers, accountants, brokers, engineers, consultants and more.

Electricians, plumbers, builders, sole traders, franchisees and more.

Executives, senior managers, directors, board members and more.

Police, firefighters, paramedics, ADF personnel, teachers and more.

Pre-retirees, transition to retirement, Age Pension, aged care, estate planning and more.

Any income, any stage, career changers, separation, second opinions and more.
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Whatever’s on your mind, we’re here to help. You’ll speak with an authorised financial adviser who’ll listen first and get to know what matters to you.
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