Life Insurance and Income Protection for Professional Athletes

Income Protection

How could part of your income continue if illness or injury kept you from playing?

Income protection is designed to pay part of your income after a waiting period, on the policy’s terms.

We’ll find out what’s open with you around your sport and how you earn, then compare and apply for cover with you.

Income protection usually replaces a percentage of your pre-tax income, based on your earnings in the 12 months before an illness or injury. Each policy has its own definition of disability, waiting period and benefit period, and other payments may reduce a benefit.

What we look at with you for income protection:

• A policy’s definition of disability, read against playing, training and anything else your sport asks of you
• Bonuses, prize money and sponsor income, and how each policy’s income wording counts them when a benefit is worked out
• A gap between contracts or a quiet season, set against a benefit based on the 12 months before an illness or injury
• Waiting period choices, weighed against any injury pay a contract provides and what else you could draw on
• Payments from a contract or league arrangement, and whether a policy’s terms may reduce a benefit because of them
• A part-time playing contract or training load, compared with the minimum weekly hours some policies set
• Income from a second job, and how an application can show it alongside what you earn from sport
• Prize money or match pay funding premiums, and any deduction question, which an accountant can confirm

Learn more about Income Protection

Life Insurance

Who would rely on what your sport earns if you were no longer here?

Life cover can pay your beneficiaries a lump sum towards any debts and plans you’ve made.

We can work out an amount with you, starting from any debts and anyone relying on you.

A life policy can pay a lump sum to your beneficiaries if you pass away. Insurers usually ask about your age and job when you apply, and where life cover is packaged with TPD or trauma, a payout on either may reduce it.

What we weigh up with you for life cover:

• League or association life cover, if playing brings it, added once so the amount you’re working towards stays accurate
• Any life cover in each super fund you hold, read beside the debts and people it would need to reach
• A home loan, if you have one, and how much of the balance a lump sum could go towards
• Beneficiaries for super earned while playing: eligible people or your estate, where a nomination applies
• Playing, training and other duties, described accurately on a life application because insurers ask about your job
• Few or no people relying on you yet, and an amount sized to your debts and plans as they stand
• A parent or sibling who relies on your income, counted when you and your financial adviser size the amount
• An amount looked at again at an annual review, as your debts, family and earnings from sport move along

Learn more about Life Insurance

TPD Insurance

Which plans beyond sport would still need funding if you could never work again?

TPD cover can pay a lump sum if you meet the policy’s definition.

We’ll read TPD wording with you against a playing career that could stop while other work stays possible.

TPD cover can pay a lump sum if illness or injury means you’re unlikely to work again, as the policy defines it. An own occupation definition looks at the job you were working in before your disability, and an any occupation definition looks at any job suited to your education, training or experience. Own occupation wording, where a policy has it, is usually only found outside super, and TPD cover usually ends at 65.

What we compare with you for TPD:

• Any own occupation wording in a policy, and how it would describe the job you were doing as an athlete
• Any occupation wording, and how coaching, study or other work experience may be weighed
• Study or a qualification gained while playing, and how an any occupation test looks at training and experience
• A fund’s TPD wording, taken from the PDS and compared for someone whose work is playing
• Partners, children or parents relying on an athlete, and what a packaged TPD payout may do to the life sum
• An injury ending a playing career, compared with the definition, since the policy’s wording is what the insurer assesses
• A lump sum from a league or association arrangement, if you have one, listed beside TPD when an amount is sized
• Tax on a TPD lump sum paid to a former athlete, which an accountant can confirm

Learn more about TPD Insurance

Trauma Insurance

Beyond playing injuries, what would a serious diagnosis mean for your plans?

Where a listed condition meets the policy’s definition and isn’t excluded, trauma cover can pay a lump sum.

We’ll read a trauma policy’s list of conditions with you and weigh how it sits beside other cover.

Trauma cover can pay a lump sum for a listed condition that meets the policy’s definition and isn’t excluded, and what’s covered and the medical definitions can differ between insurers. It’s tied to a listed condition rather than to whether you can keep playing. New trauma cover can’t be held inside super, which has been the rule for policies written since 1 July 2014.

What we go through with you for trauma cover:

• Medical definitions for each listed condition, compared across insurers because what’s covered can differ
• An illness with nothing to do with playing, and how trauma wording sits beside any injury-based cover
• A trauma lump sum set beside match payments and injury pay, where a contract offers them
• Treatment costs and time away from sport, and what a lump sum could go towards if a claim is paid
• Trauma and life on one policy, for athletes with people relying on them, and what a payment may do to the life sum
• Earnings from sport, or from other work, paying premiums directly, since super can’t hold trauma policies written now
• Any trauma policy already in your name, and how its wording compares before a switch in the middle of a career
• How a trauma payment may be treated at tax time, which an accountant can confirm

Learn more about Trauma Insurance

Cover in Super

Which cover sits in your super, if it holds any?

Reading each fund’s statement and PDS gives you a clearer picture of what you hold.

We’ll check any fund’s cover and terms with you, and recommendations come 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. Premiums are deducted from your super balance. A fund’s insurance terms can change, so a notice from your fund about cover is worth reading.

What we check in each fund with you:

• Athlete, player or sportsperson: the job title a fund records, and what its PDS says about someone paid to play
• A fund from a job outside sport, if you hold one, and the cover it carries
• A fund’s letter or email changing insurance terms, gone through with you for what the change means while you’re playing
• Eligibility terms in a group policy, read from the PDS against how you’re engaged to play
• Playing and any past injuries, set beside the exclusions and pre-existing condition rules a PDS lists
• Funds from different clubs or jobs, if you hold several, each read for its cover before combining
• Ages when fund cover usually ends, 65 for TPD and 70 for life, beside your plans beyond sport
• A fund’s TPD definition, and how an any occupation test reads for someone paid to play

Learn more about Superannuation

Contract, League and Association Cover

If you have a playing arrangement, what comes with it, and when does it end?

Listing any cover or pay in one place helps you see what you hold and what to ask.

We’ll list any cover that comes with playing with you, then look at what personal cover could add.

Cover through a contract, league or association has its own terms where it exists. Some arrangements include insured benefits, and others include discretionary funds, which aren’t an entitlement. The contract, league or association is the place to confirm what applies to you.

What we list with you:

• What triggers a benefit under an arrangement, such as playing, training or travel, confirmed with whoever runs it
• Illness as well as injury, and whether an arrangement treats the two differently
• How long injury pay under a contract runs, where a contract provides it
• A contract’s end date, listed beside cover that may not continue once the contract finishes
• Discretionary funds, listed apart from insured benefits so each is counted for what it is
• Non-playing earnings, and whether an arrangement’s cover reaches them, checked with the league or association
• Questions only the league, association or contract can answer, written down with you to ask them
• A gap once everything’s listed, and looking at personal cover for it, with the insurer deciding on any application

Learn more about Personal Insurance

When Playing Stops

What work would you like to move into when you stop playing?

Looking at your cover before and after that move helps you plan for the next job.

We can review your cover with you before and after a move into other work.

A new occupation changes what an application describes, and cover tied to a contract may not continue once the contract ends. Moneysmart suggests checking your insurance before changing super funds or closing an account. Career-ending and personal accident cover are usually sold as general insurance, and a general insurance broker is the person to speak to.

What we look at with you when playing stops:

• A final contract year, as a good time to read what you hold and plan for what comes next
• Cover tied to a contract or league arrangement, listed with you so you can see what may not continue
• A personal policy or fund cover, read before you retire from sport and start describing a new job
• A new job’s super fund and any employer cover, read beside anything you already hold
• Applying with a new occupation, which gives the insurer a different job to assess
• Questions about past injuries on a later application, answered with reasonable care
• Keeping or changing existing cover, weighed with you before anything is cancelled or replaced
• An annual review after the move, with the new job, pay and debts written into what we look at

Learn more about Personal Insurance

Making a Claim

When a claim needs forms, records and follow-ups, who would you like beside you?

A financial adviser can lodge a claim with you and follow it up while the insurer or fund assesses it.

We’ll lodge a claim with you on a personal or super policy, then follow up while the insurer or fund assesses it.

Moneysmart suggests speaking first to the person or company you bought the policy from: the insurer, a financial adviser, your super fund or, for cover through an employment arrangement, your employer. The insurer or fund assesses the claim, and a complaint goes first to the insurer or super fund, then to AFCA.

How we help with a claim:

• Which reports an insurer wants from treating doctors or team medical staff, and the authority the insurer needs, explained with you
• Playing contracts and pay records, where you have them, set out for an insurer asking how you earned
• Prize money and sponsor records, gathered so income from sport is shown as it came in
• A claim on cover in super through a fund, with your playing and pay records gathered with you
• League or association cover, where that claim runs with them and we lodge a personal policy claim with you
• A training or match injury can bring two claims: one through the scheme, if eligible, and one on any personal policy
• Training, playing or other work resumed during a claim, told to the insurer in line with the policy’s terms
• A decision on your playing income you’d like to question: speak to the insurer or fund first, then AFCA

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