Life Insurance and Income Protection for Roofers and Roof Plumbers

Income Protection

If time off the roof for illness or injury ran longer than you hoped, what would keep the household running?

Income protection can pay part of your income after a waiting period, to help with rent or repayments while you can’t work.

Together, we’ll match income protection to the roofing trade you’re in and how your week splits between roof and ground.

Income protection usually works from your earnings in the 12 months before an illness or injury, and can pay part of that income if you can’t work. 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 benefits can run for a set number of years or to an age.

What we work through with you on income protection:

• Disability wording in some policies, tied to the important income-producing duties of your usual job, read against what roofing work involves
• Any partial benefit some policies pay if you return on lighter roofing jobs or fewer hours and earn less
• A definition that may move to any occupation later in a long claim, as some policies do on longer benefit periods
• The monthly amount sized from your household budget, rather than from the busiest run of repair work in a year
• Weeks off the roof you could fund yourself from savings or any sick leave, setting how long a waiting period could run
• Minimum weekly hours some policies require, set beside how your hours fall across a year of roofing work
• Any workers compensation weekly payments after an injury on a roof, which a PDS may offset against income protection
• Who pays the income protection premiums, you directly or your super fund, and what your accountant says about deductibility

Learn more about Income Protection

Life Insurance

For the people at home, how would the costs your roofing pay covers now be met if you were no longer here?

Life cover can pay a lump sum to your beneficiaries for debts, everyday costs and plans already in place.

We can size life cover with you from your debts, the people who rely on your pay and any cover in super.

Life cover can pay a lump sum to your beneficiaries if you pass away, and some policies include terminal illness cover. Insurers usually ask your age and job when you apply. With no beneficiary named, your estate or the super trustee may decide where the money goes, and life cover in a package may be reduced by another claim paid under it.

What we work through for life cover:

• Any home loan taken on with roofing income, plus any car or credit card debt, totalled for a lump sum
• Any equipment finance for ladders, scaffolding, a trailer or a ute, and any roofing business debt in your name
• Life cover found in a super fund from a job before roofing, traced before any account is closed or combined
• Who should receive any super payout, from eligible people to your estate, recorded on a nomination that meets your trustee’s rules
• Default life and TPD sold as one package in super, where any TPD payout may come off the life amount
• Your roofing trade, whether tiling, sheeting or roof plumbing, described plainly even on a life application
• A partner’s own cover, if you have one, weighed beside yours against the household costs roofing pay helps meet
• A bigger sum insured weighed up when a roofing crew grows, a child arrives or a mortgage gets larger

Learn more about Life Insurance

TPD Insurance

Were you never able to work again, how would any home loan, other debts and longer-term plans be funded?

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

We’ll weigh TPD definitions with you against the skills and experience a roofing trade builds.

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 your usual job, an any occupation definition looks at any job suited to your education, training or experience, and some policies use daily activities instead. Own occupation cover is usually only available outside super, and a TPD payout may reduce any life cover packaged with it.

What we compare with you for TPD:

• Own occupation wording tied to your work as a roof plumber, roof tiler or metal roofer, compared with any occupation wording
• Quoting, estimating or inspection experience, and how an education, training or experience test may count your background
• Each fund’s TPD definition, read for how it treats a roofer who could no longer climb or carry materials
• The occupation each fund holds for you, checked against the roofing work you do now, before any TPD claim
• Daily living tests in some TPD wording, which look at tasks like washing and dressing rather than whether you can work
• Own occupation TPD bought outside super, the usual place it’s offered, funded from roofing earnings rather than your balance
• A TPD amount worked from what you owe and the roofing income a permanent stop would remove
• TPD for never returning to roofing, weighed beside income protection for a stretch off the tools

Learn more about TPD Insurance

Trauma Insurance

When a serious diagnosis means treatment and weeks off the tools, how could those costs be met?

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

We can go through a trauma policy’s list of conditions with you, and where it sits 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, and 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:

• The list of conditions in a trauma policy, read one definition at a time so you know what a diagnosis must show
• Lower-tier trauma payments for a less advanced condition, which some policies make before any full benefit
• Trauma funded from your roofing pay or business account, because new trauma cover can’t be held inside super
• Power, phone and grocery bills through treatment, and whether a trauma lump sum could meet them rather than roofing savings
• Treatment and recovery costs for a roofing subcontractor on an ABN, with no sick leave to fall back on
• A trauma benefit linked to life cover, which under some contracts reduces the life sum once a trauma claim is paid
• An existing trauma contract from before your roofing days, kept or replaced only after its terms are weighed against new ones
• A trauma amount sized to the months a roof plumber or roof tiler might spend away from the tools during treatment

Learn more about Trauma Insurance

Cover in Super

Could a super fund from a job before roofing still hold cover that suits the work you do now?

Checking each fund’s statement and PDS can show what cover, if any, it holds, so you can decide what suits roofing work.

We’ll check the cover in each fund you hold, from any earlier job onwards, with you before anything changes.

Most super funds automatically give life and TPD cover from age 25, and some also income protection, for a set amount; under 25 or with a low balance, it usually needs a request unless the fund covers a dangerous job automatically. 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.

What we look at in your super with you:

• Any default insurance from a fund joined in a job before roofing, such as retail or hospitality, compared with your roofing duties
• A kitchen hand or student occupation still on a fund’s member file, raised with the trustee once you’re roofing
• Contributions from a roofing employer you start with, generally sent to the fund you already hold unless you choose another
• Apprentice roofers in their teens or early twenties, and whether opting in to insurance makes sense this early
• Your health history set against what each fund’s PDS excludes, before you count on that cover for roofing work
• Insurance premiums drawn from each balance, set against whether that fund’s cover still suits roofing work
• Rolling any fund from an earlier job into another only once the insurance in both funds has been compared
• Lifting the sum insured above a fund’s default for a household on roofing pay, usually with the insurer’s health questions

Learn more about Superannuation

Tiles, Metal Sheeting and Roof Plumbing

How could setting out the roofing trade you’re in, from tiles to metal sheeting, help your cover fit the work?

Describing your work as it is, from the start, gives an insurer a true picture of the job you do.

Together, we’ll describe your roofing trade on any application and check how a fund or policy records it.

Jobs and Skills Australia lists roof plumbers and roof tilers as separate occupations, with registration or licensing required for roof plumbers. 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.

What we set out with you about your trade:

• Tile and slate work, including battens, sarking and ridge capping, described as the work you actually do
• Metal sheeting, flashings and wall cladding on homes or commercial buildings, set out plainly on an application
• Gutters, fascias and downpipes, fitted on new builds or replaced on older homes, named as part of your duties
• New builds, re-roofs and repairs, and the mix of each across a year, described as your work really runs
• Single-storey homes, multi-level buildings and commercial roofs, listed as they are in your week
• Any storm make-safe or repair work you take on, and the travel it involves, included in your duties
• A roof plumbing registration or licence, held or in progress, named on any application that asks
• Your work description looked at again with you when the mix of roofing jobs changes

Learn more about Personal Insurance

On the Roof, on the Ground and Running a Crew

As more of your week moves to quoting and running jobs, or onto an ABN, what could change for any cover?

Reviewing cover ahead of a move gives you time to look at any gap before the new work starts.

We’ll review your cover with you before a move to subcontracting, a crew of your own or more ground work.

Some policies define total disability as being unable to do one or more important income-producing duties of your usual job while not working, and some pay a partial benefit for reduced capacity and lower earnings. An ABN means no paid sick leave. A business may have to pay your super if you’re paid mainly for your labour, for your skills rather than a result, and do the work yourself, but not under a contract with your company, trust or partnership.

What we look at with you before the change:

• The share of your week on roofs against measuring up, quoting and supervising, set out for any application
• How a disability definition in some policies may read the duties you could still do from the ground
• Insurance through your super checked before any move from a roofing company to an ABN
• Whether a builder has to pay your super on a labour contract, under the ATO’s three tests and the company, trust or partnership exception
• Any profit and loss figures and tax returns from a roofing business, prepared by your accountant, for an income protection application
• Business expenses cover, which some insurers offer separately from income protection, if you run a crew
• A company or trust for a roofing business, with the structure itself set with your accountant
• Business, tool and public liability insurance, referred to a general insurance broker who can advise on it

Learn more about Personal Insurance

Making a Claim

When it’s time to claim, how could the forms, records and follow-up be shared rather than carried alone?

Support with the papers and the follow-up can mean you don’t carry a claim alone.

We can lodge a claim with you, then stay with it while the insurer or fund assesses it.

Moneysmart’s advice is to contact whoever you bought the cover through first, and for cover through an employment arrangement, your employer. Insurers can ask for your duties, physical requirements and weekly hours, plus payslips and tax returns, or financial statements if self-employed. The insurer assesses a claim on personal cover, including cover through super, and if you disagree with the decision, you can complain to the insurer or super fund first, then to AFCA if you can’t reach an agreement.

How we help with a claim:

• Policy schedules and fund statements read to see who arranged each cover, so a roofer knows where to start a claim
• Your typical week, split into roof work and ground work with its hours, written into the claim form as it was
• Pay evidence for a roofer: payslips if employed, or invoices, tax returns and financial statements on an ABN
• Medical evidence on ladder work, carrying sheets and pitched roofs, which the insurer may ask permission to get from your doctor
• Time off after a ladder or roof accident, and which of your personal policies could respond, set out with you before any claim is lodged
• Offset wording in each PDS, read with you for how other money you receive could lower an income protection payment
• Coming back to small repair jobs or half days on the roof, and any partial benefit a policy pays for reduced capacity
• Challenging a roofing claim decision through the insurer or fund’s internal complaints first, and the Australian Financial Complaints Authority next

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