Life Insurance and Income Protection for IT and Tech Workers

Income Protection

Should illness or injury keep you from your work for months, what could keep part of your income arriving?

Income protection can pay part of your income after a waiting period, so the household can keep going while you recover.

Together, we’ll compare income protection around the way your tech pay arrives, from a salary to a day rate.

Income protection is designed to pay part of your lost income if illness or injury stops you working, after a waiting period and under the policy’s terms. Most policies look at what you earned in the 12 months before the illness or injury, and each policy’s own definitions decide which earnings count and what disability means. Most policies offer waiting periods from 14 days to 2 years, and benefits for 2 or 5 years, or to an age.

What we work through with you on income protection:

• Base pay and any quarterly or annual bonus, checked against how each insurer words insurable earnings
• Shares that vest through the year, and whether a policy’s income definition counts them, which differs between policies
• Investment income, such as dividends on shares you hold, which some policies leave out of insured earnings
• A start-up salary taken with options, and how a lower base could show in the 12 months a policy looks back on
• Personal leave owed by an employer, or a buffer built from day-rate earnings, matched to how long you could wait for payments
• A four-day week, a return from parental leave or a compressed schedule, checked against hour thresholds some policies use
• Any on-call rotations or after-hours incident work, described accurately on an application and read against the disability definition
• Premiums funded from your take-home pay rather than a fund balance, generally tax deductible, with your accountant confirming the deduction

Learn more about Income Protection

Life Insurance

Who would keep the household running, and any home loan paid, if you were no longer here?

A lump sum paid to your beneficiaries can help your loved ones clear debts and keep the plans you share.

We can work out a life cover amount with you from your debts and the people who rely on your income.

A life policy can pay a lump sum to your beneficiaries if you pass away, and some policies also include terminal illness cover. Insurers usually ask about your age and job when you apply. If you haven’t named a beneficiary, your estate or the super trustee may decide where the money goes.

What we work through for life cover:

• Repayments on any property bought with a tech income, plus car finance or credit cards, totalled for life cover
• Any household that relies mainly on your tech income, and the everyday costs that income meets
• Any life benefits scattered across accounts from short tech stints, totalled so nothing is counted twice
• Any life benefit a tech employer arranged for staff, read for its terms before you change companies
• Beneficiary choices in every fund joined across job moves, limited to eligible people or your estate
• A business loan tied to your own tech company, if you’ve personally backed one, counted in the debts to clear
• A larger loan after a promotion or a move to a higher-paying company, prompting a fresh look at the amount
• Childcare, school fees and a partner’s income, where those apply, weighed when setting the lump sum

Learn more about Life Insurance

TPD Insurance

Where would long-term plans stand if you could never return to work like yours?

TPD cover can pay a lump sum for debts and plans ahead if you can’t work again, as the policy defines it.

Together, we’ll read each TPD definition against your current tech role and the skills it draws on.

A TPD policy can pay a lump sum when illness or injury leaves you unlikely to work again, as its definition sets out. An own occupation test looks at the job you were doing, while an any occupation test looks at any job suited to your education, training or experience. Whether an insurer offers own occupation cover depends on the insurer and the occupation, and it is usually only available outside super. TPD cover in super usually ends at 65.

What we compare with you for TPD:

• TPD tied to your own engineering, data or infrastructure job, compared insurer by insurer where available, generally outside super
• A broad skill set that transfers across roles and industries, and how an any occupation test may read those skills
• Disability wording in any default fund a past tech employer used, lined up before consolidating
• Your job title on file after any move from engineering into product, design or people leadership
• A lump sum sized for any home loan, any deposit you’re saving and household spending without your salary
• Remote, part-time or contract roles your training might suit, and how an any occupation test can take those roles into account
• One policy holding both life and TPD cover, where paying out on TPD may lower the death benefit afterwards
• Tax on a TPD lump sum drawn from super, with your accountant confirming the figure for your age

Learn more about TPD Insurance

Trauma Insurance

While you recover from a serious illness, how might the extra costs and time off be met?

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

We’ll explain the medical definitions in a trauma policy and where a lump sum fits beside any income protection.

A trauma policy lists the serious illnesses and injuries it covers, and can pay a lump sum when you have a listed condition that meets the policy’s definition and isn’t excluded. 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:

• Differences in how insurers word each critical illness, set out side by side before you settle on a provider
• Rent or loan repayments during treatment, if a start-up salary leaves little room in the budget
• Any side project or early-stage venture you run, and how a trauma lump sum could help with its costs during time off
• Time away mid-contract, if you contract on a day rate, with a trauma lump sum sitting beside any savings
• Treatment costs and any partner’s time off work, set against the lump sum a policy could pay
• A standalone trauma policy compared with a linked one, where a claim on the linked version may shrink other cover
• Recovery time away from screens and stand-ups, and the household costs a trauma lump sum could meet meanwhile
• Trauma premiums, which the ATO says you can’t claim as a deduction, budgeted from your take-home pay

Learn more about Trauma Insurance

Cover in Super

After a few job moves, does the cover in your super still match your life now?

Reading each fund side by side shows what you hold and where cover may overlap.

Together, we’ll check any cover in your super funds 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. With more than one super account, you may be paying premiums on more than one insurance policy, and you may not be able to claim the full benefit from more than one.

What we look at in your super with you:

• Any insurance attached to each fund a graduate, contract or permanent role opened, listed account by account
• Insurance premiums drawn from any small balances left behind by short tech stints
• Claims on cover held in more than one fund, where the full benefit may not be payable from each
• Occupation details held by each fund, compared with the tech role you do today
• Funds an earlier tech employer picked, compared with the one you now use for the cover each holds
• A salary sacrifice arrangement into one fund, and whether the insurance you want sits in that same account
• Any super account opened during an agency placement, and any insurance the agency’s chosen fund added
• Cover in super set beside any policy you pay for personally, so the amounts work together

Learn more about Superannuation

Contracting and Your Own Company

Between one contract and the next, what keeps your cover in step with how you’re paid?

Cover reviewed around how each contract pays you can stay in step with the income you earn.

We’ll start with how you’re engaged, in your own name or through a company, then compare personal cover with you.

As a contractor, you won’t have paid holidays or sick leave. On a contract, a business may still have to pay super if you’re paid mainly for your labour, for your own skills rather than a result, and you do the work yourself. A contract made with your company, trust or partnership is different: the business doesn’t have to pay super for whoever that entity employs.

What we look at with you when you contract:

• No paid sick leave on a contract, so savings and the waiting period are planned together
• The three ATO tests for super on a contract in your own name, which your accountant can apply to your contract
• Super contributions through your own company, since the client doesn’t pay them, and any cover held in that fund
• Company financial statements and your share of business profits, gathered as income evidence for an application
• A gap between contracts, and how quiet weeks could show in the 12 months a policy looks back on
• Policy ownership through your company or in your own name, with the structure confirmed by your accountant
• Workers compensation, generally for employees, and whether a scheme treats a contractor as a worker, a question for the scheme or a lawyer
• Personal cover looked at with you before an agency contract starts, rather than after the first invoice

Learn more about Income Protection

Changing Roles and Layoffs

When a role changes or ends, which of your cover comes with you?

Checking each source of cover at the change shows what stays with you and what to look at next.

We’ll show you what cover each past role and fund has left you, and what may need a fresh look.

Income protection is designed to pay part of your lost income if you can’t work due to illness or injury, so it doesn’t pay because a role ends. Any cover an employer arranged runs on its own terms.

What we check with you when a role changes:

• What income protection responds to, illness or injury, kept distinct from a role coming to an end
• Any cover arranged through an employer, read for what happens to that cover when you leave
• Any cover in the fund your new employer pays into, compared with what you held before
• Super contributions that stop after a layoff, while premiums for any cover in super keep coming out of the balance
• Personal cover outside super, held on the policy’s own terms, which a change of employer doesn’t end on its own
• The timing of any new application around a role change, since insurers ask about your current work and income
• Beneficiary nominations checked after each move, so each fund names eligible people or your estate
• A cover review at each new role, package or promotion, set against what you now earn

Learn more about Personal Insurance

Making a Claim

At claim time, who could walk each step and form alongside you?

Having a claim lodged with you and followed up can leave more room for everything else.

We’ll lodge a claim with you, then keep in touch with the insurer or fund while it assesses the claim.

If you arranged cover through a financial adviser, Moneysmart suggests speaking to them first, and for cover through an employment arrangement, your employer. An insurer can ask for medical reports, your work duties and weekly hours, and payslips and tax returns, or financial statements if you’re self-employed. The insurer assesses the claim, and a complaint goes first to the insurer or super fund, then to AFCA.

How we help with a claim:

• Sprint, release or support work and any on-call rotation, written up as your role stood beforehand
• Bonus letters, any vesting statements the insurer asks for, or company accounts, collected as earnings proof
• A timeline of days away from work, beside the GP letters the insurer may request from your doctors with your consent
• Insurance left in a super account from a previous tech job, with any claim on it lodged through that account
• Any benefits a current or former tech employer arranged, where a claim begins with that employer
• Stepping back into sprints part-time, with the reduced-capacity forms some insurers send during that stage
• Contact with the insurer handled with you while you focus on treatment, with each request and deadline tracked
• A decision you disagree with, which you can raise through the insurer’s or fund’s complaints process and then AFCA