Life Insurance and Income Protection for Telco Field Technicians and Tower Riggers
Income Protection for Telco Field Technicians and Tower Riggers and Their Families
Premises, pit, aerial or tower duties, per-job or wage pay and any cover through work and super shape your options. We help you apply for cover, read any cover you hold and lodge claims.
Financial Advice for Life Insurance and Income Protection
Who We Help
- Broadband and telco technicians employed on wages
- Subcontractors taking dispatched jobs through a contractor
- Registered cablers on premises and data work
- Pit and pipe crews working underground
- Aerial crews and jointers on telecommunications lines
- Tower riggers on communications towers and masts
- Trainees starting out in telco work
- Supervisors and planners in field operations
- Small firm owners with a crew or a van of their own
- Technicians changing employer or moving onto an ABN, and reading any cover they hold
We Can Help You
- List any pits, aerial runs, towers and premises in your week on an application for cover
- Describe any share of your week on towers as it is on an insurance application
- Go over how disability wording treats lighter or desk-based telco work you could still do
- Find partial benefit wording for a staged return to cabling or field jobs, in income protection policies
- Check how rate-per-job pay and van costs, if you have them, count for income protection, with each insurer
- Line up your savings, if you’re self-employed, with the waiting periods income protection policies offer
- Add up household costs, not a big run of jobs, to show what income protection you’d want
- Note the job and any cover on record at each of your super funds
- Go through what changes for cover if subcontracting, tower work or a supervising role comes up
- Stay beside you through a cabling or field work claim, lodged together, with the insurer or fund assessing it
What we advise on
How Each Cover Works Around Telco Field Work
Income Protection
Time off field work through illness or injury: what could help with the bills?
Part of your income could keep coming in after a waiting period, subject to the policy’s terms, exclusions and the insurer’s assessment.
We’ll compare income protection with you around your duties and pay, from the insurers willing to consider your work.
A policy can pay a share of pre-tax income if you can’t work, usually based on earnings in the 12 months before. Each has its own definition of disability, and most offer a waiting period between 14 days and two years. An insurer usually looks at your job and duties when you apply, and this can affect whether cover is offered, the benefit periods available and the amount. Exclusions can apply, including to occupations or activities, and the insurer decides.
What we look at with you on income protection:
- Cabling, pits or towers you couldn’t work on for a while, and how some policies look at the duties central to your income
- Desk-based planning or lighter fault finding while you recover, and the part payments some policies make when you earn less
- Planning or supervising know-how, if a lengthy claim shifts to a broader measure of work you’re suited to
- Your earnings over the 12 months before illness or injury, across busy and slow weeks, with tax returns or payslips as records
- Groceries, rent or repayments added up, to show what you’d want, apart from the portion of earnings a policy covers
- A policy’s hours-worked rule, if it has one, and the cabling weeks when few dispatched jobs come through
- Compensation payments through a scheme, if you qualify, and whether a policy sets those amounts against its own
- A subcontract stopping, with money set aside for it, as this insurance is generally for illness or injury rather than losing a job
Life Insurance
If someone relies on your telco work income, what would you want in place for them?
Life cover can pay your beneficiaries a lump sum towards debts, living costs and the plans you’ve made, subject to its terms.
We can size a life cover amount with you from your debts and anyone relying on your income.
Some life policies include terminal illness cover as well as paying a lump sum to your beneficiaries if you pass away. Moneysmart notes life cover can help if you have large debts or a mortgage, and insurers usually ask your age and job when you apply. Where no beneficiary is named, your estate or the super trustee may decide where the money goes.
What we weigh up with you on life cover:
- Any finance on a van, ute or test gear in your name, and who’d be left with those repayments
- Debts in a small telco firm’s name, if you own one, and whether you’ve signed personally for them
- Mortgage repayments, if you have them, and the weekly costs your cabling or field pay meets
- Funds from earlier telco or other work, if you have them, checked for life insurance you may have lost track of
- Anyone you’ve nominated for your super if you pass away, and the part a trustee or your estate may play
- A package joining life and TPD, and what a TPD payout could mean for the lump sum left behind
- Cabling, pits, aerial or towers, in the answers you give about your work on a life application
- Cover your partner holds, if you have a partner, beside the money your telco jobs bring home
TPD Insurance
What happens to your plans if you could never work again?
If you can’t work again, as the policy defines it, TPD cover can pay a lump sum towards debts and plans.
We can talk through how TPD definitions may treat the skills telco work builds, from fault finding to planning.
An own occupation definition looks at your usual job, while an any occupation definition looks at jobs suited to your education, training or experience. Moneysmart notes own occupation cover is usually only available outside super. Each fund’s definition can differ too, and a TPD payment may reduce any life cover packaged with it.
What we compare with you on TPD:
- Own occupation wording for a telco role, which is up to each insurer, and Moneysmart’s point about holding it outside super
- How an any occupation test may count fault finding, planning or auditing skills as suited work
- A fund’s own TPD definition, read for a technician who can’t do field jobs but could work at a desk
- Telco titles on each fund’s record, beside the pit, aerial or tower duties you do now
- Tests built on daily living in some TPD wordings, looking at self-care tasks instead of your telco job
- What a TPD payout might clear, set beside any van, test gear or home debts you have
- Months off jobs and a permanent end to field work, as separate needs for income protection and TPD
- A role moving from the field to supervising, and what your usual occupation may then mean under a policy
Trauma Insurance
Treatment after a serious diagnosis can mean time away from jobs: what could help with the costs?
For a listed condition that meets its definition and isn’t excluded, a trauma policy can pay a lump sum.
We’ll read through a trauma policy’s listed conditions with you, and how a lump sum could sit beside income protection.
New trauma cover can’t be held inside super, which has been the rule for policies written since 1 July 2014. Each policy lists the conditions it covers with its own definitions, and Moneysmart notes that medical definitions can be different between insurers.
What we read with you in a trauma policy:
- Each condition’s medical definition in the policy, taken one by one, as insurers’ wording can differ
- Lesser stages of some conditions, and smaller partial payments certain trauma wordings set out
- A premium budgeted from invoices or wages for trauma, since new cover of this kind can’t be held in your super
- Rent, groceries and power while you’re off jobs for treatment, and what a lump sum may help with
- Any van repayments coming up during weeks of treatment, with a payout as one source
- Trauma sitting inside a life policy, if yours has it, and the smaller sum that may remain for anyone you’ve named
- A policy you’ve held for some time, if you have one, set against today’s trauma definitions ahead of replacing it
- An accountant’s answer on whether this payout is taxed, asked before you count on the full amount
Cover in Super
If you have cover in a fund from an earlier job, how well does it suit your telco work now?
Reading each fund before you change anything can show what it holds and what you pay for it.
We’ll list any cover in your super with you, fund by fund, along with the job each has on record.
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. Default cover through super is for a set amount, so it might not match your needs, and premiums come off your super balance.
What we check in each fund with you:
- Funds from telco employers or other work, if you have them, read one by one for insurance held inside
- The telco role on your fund’s records, and a call to that fund if it reads wrong, as Moneysmart suggests
- Starting with another telco business, whose contributions generally follow your current fund, and what that means for insurance
- Trainees or apprentices under 25 in a new fund, who may have to request insurance, depending on job and fund
- Earlier illnesses or injuries, and what the rules in a fund’s PDS could mean for a claim on that insurance
- Premiums taken from your super, if your fund holds insurance, and the household or van debts you’d want it to meet
- Bringing accounts together, after you’ve read what each one insures, since that insurance may not move with you
- Extra cover above a fund’s set level, if you’d want it for van finance or a household, usually through a fresh application
Premises, Pits, Aerial and Tower Work
What does your week involve, from premises and pits to aerial and tower work, when an application asks?
Setting out what you do, as it is, can give an insurer a clear picture of your week.
We can write down your field duties with you for any application, and check how a policy or fund records them.
Jobs and Skills Australia lists tasks for telecommunications trades workers such as installing cabling, joining cables and sealing sheaths, and erecting, testing and maintaining aerial and underground wires and mobile phone antennae. One label can cover very different weeks. 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 write down with you about your work:
- Premises connections, including roof space or ceiling work if you do it, with the share of your week they take up
- Pit and pipe work, if you do it, named plainly when an application asks where your duties take you
- Aerial cable work, if you do it, listed with how often it comes up in your usual jobs
- Jointing, testing or fault finding work you do, counted apart from installation work
- Tower and mast work, if you do it, with the share of your hours and what the duties are
- Antenna installation and maintenance, described in your own words if your role includes those duties
- Cabling registration, a licence or tickets, if you hold them, listed as facts of the job you do
- The mix as it is now, if your work has shifted between premises, pits, aerial or towers
Per-Job Pay, Contracts and ABN Work
When your pay or the business above you changes, what could that mean for any cover you hold?
Looking at cover before a change can show what stays the same and what you might apply for.
Together, we’ll look at what could change for your cover if you move to per-job pay or start a firm.
Moneysmart notes self-employed people don’t have paid holidays or sick leave, and suggests checking how the move affects insurance through your super. A business may have to pay your super if more than half the contract’s value is for your labour, you’re not paid for a set result and you can’t delegate the work, but not under a contract with your company, trust or partnership. An ABN doesn’t settle it, and an accountant or the ATO can confirm.
What we look at with you before the change:
- No paid sick leave when self-employed, as Moneysmart notes, set against how long your savings could last
- Insurance inside your fund, read before you go from employee to self-employed, as Moneysmart suggests
- Who pays your super per job: paid mainly for labour, not a result, on work you can’t delegate
- If your own company, trust or partnership signs the contract, the hirer doesn’t have to pay your super
- A van, test gear or materials, if they’re in your price, and how the ATO treats those items, with an accountant confirming
- How each insurer may count per-job income for income protection, asked before you rely on a figure
- Being hurt on a job, where each workers compensation scheme sets who qualifies, and any cover of your own sits apart
- Life and TPD amounts set against van finance, if you have it, with a broker for the loan
When to Review Your Cover
How might a change in telco work or at home affect any cover you hold?
A new role or a change at home can be a good reason to look at your cover again.
We can go through what you hold, if anything, beside your field work and your life at home.
Telco work can move from trainee to registered, from premises jobs to towers, or from wages to an ABN. Default cover through super is for a set amount, so it might not match your needs. A change at work or home is a good reason to book a conversation, and we can read through a policy or fund statement with you. The insurer decides on any new application.
Situations worth raising with us in a conversation:
- From trainee to registered cabler, and how your new duties read on fund records
- Moving from premises jobs onto towers, and how your fund or insurer records those duties
- Stepping into supervising or planning, and how a TPD or income definition may treat desk work
- Taking dispatched jobs from a telco firm on your own account, and what an injury could mean: each workers compensation scheme sets who qualifies
- Changing contractor or employer, and questions about your insurance to raise ahead of that change
- Your final week with a telco business: cover through an employer may not continue, so ask them or your fund
- A new house, a child or a relationship ending, if that’s where you are, and what you’d like cover to do
- Finance on a first van or crew, if you’re planning one, and what level of life or TPD you’d like to weigh up
Making a Claim
Who would you like beside you through a claim, from the first form to the decision?
Help with forms and follow-up can ease some pressure while the insurer or fund assesses a claim.
Together, we’ll lodge a claim and stay across each step with you while the insurer or fund assesses it.
Moneysmart says to speak first to whoever you bought the policy from, or your employer for cover through an employment arrangement. Insurers can ask for your work duties, including physical requirements, and weekly hours, plus payslips and tax returns, or financial statements if you’re self-employed. The insurer, or the fund for cover in super, assesses the claim, and a complaint goes first to the insurer or fund, then to AFCA.
How we help with a claim:
- Working out together who to phone first, from your policy schedule or fund statement
- Your premises, pit, aerial or tower duties, physical requirements and hours, set down as your work was before you stopped
- Job sheets and invoices for rate-per-job pay, or payslips on wages, alongside any tax papers an insurer asks for
- What your doctors report, plus test results, when an insurer asks about a cabling or field job claim
- A workers compensation decision by a scheme, if that’s underway too, which doesn’t settle a claim on your own policy
- Sick pay or other amounts received while off jobs, which can lower a policy’s benefit
- Part weeks back on lighter jobs, and what some policies pay when you’re earning less
- Challenging an insurer or fund’s answer on a cabling or field job, with AFCA as the next step
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
Your work and your cover
How Your Work Shapes Your Cover
What We’d Look At Together
- Premises and pit work: An insurer usually looks at your job and duties when you apply. Premises connections and pit and pipe work can sit under one job title, so the mix in your week is part of describing it accurately.
- Aerial and tower work: If your work includes aerial cable, towers or masts, it helps to set out what you do and how often. Jobs and Skills Australia lists erecting and maintaining aerial wires and antennae among the tasks of this trade.
- Registration and tickets you hold: Any cabling registration, licence or tickets are facts of your job, worth listing when an application asks about your work. Your registrar, the licensing regulator or the site asking for them answers questions about keeping them current.
- Paid per job or on wages: If you’re on wages, start with paid leave and cover through your employer and fund, where you have them. If you’re self-employed, Moneysmart notes you won’t have paid holidays or sick leave, and an insurer can ask for financial statements at claim.
- Weeks of uneven jobs: Income protection usually works from your earnings in the 12 months before an illness or injury, which can take in busy and slow weeks. A budget can show what you’d want, beside the share of earnings a policy pays.
- Van and test gear: Any van or test gear loan adds to your debts, and its costs may show in your income records. It’s worth asking each insurer how it works out income, and setting life and TPD amounts against what you’d owe.
- Supervising or planning work: Time spent supervising, planning or auditing is worth setting out beside any field work. A TPD any occupation definition may also take this experience into account.
- Back on lighter duties for a while: Some policies pay a partial benefit when you work in a reduced capacity and earn less than before. Workers compensation sits apart, and each scheme sets who qualifies. Other payments may reduce an income protection benefit.
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
Why Work With a Financial Adviser for Your Personal Insurance?
| 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 | The insurers willing to consider your work | 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 |
Type of advice
- Ryker financial adviser
- 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.
- Direct from an insurer
- Usually general advice
- Online broker or comparison site
- Usually general advice
Advice that considers your health, family, work and goals
- Ryker financial adviser
- Yes, as part of your advice
- Direct from an insurer
- Not with general advice
- Online broker or comparison site
- Not with general advice
Choice of insurers
- Ryker financial adviser
- The insurers willing to consider your work
- Direct from an insurer
- That insurer’s policies only
- Online broker or comparison site
- A panel of insurers, side by side
Help preparing your application
- Ryker financial adviser
- Yes, alongside you
- Direct from an insurer
- The insurer’s own process
- Online broker or comparison site
- Varies
Advice on holding cover inside or outside super
- Ryker financial adviser
- Part of your advice
- Direct from an insurer
- Not with general advice
- Online broker or comparison site
- Not with general advice
Support if you need to claim
- Ryker financial adviser
- Yes, we’re in your corner
- Direct from an insurer
- The insurer’s claims team
- Online broker or comparison site
- Varies
Cost of advice
- Ryker financial adviser
- 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:
- Direct from an insurer
- No separate advice fee
- Online broker or comparison site
- No separate advice fee
Your Cover for Telco Work, Worked Through Together
Field Duties Set Out
Premises, pit, aerial or tower work described as it makes up your week on any application.
Tower Work Described as It Is
The share of your hours on towers and masts, if you do that work, set out before you apply.
Disability Wording Read for Lighter Work
How a policy treats lighter or desk-based work you could still do, read with you before you apply.
What You’d Want Worked Out From a Household Budget
Household spending used to show what you’d want replaced, beside the share of earnings a policy can pay.
Per-Job Pay and Records Laid Out
Job payments, invoices or tax returns set out, with each insurer asked how it works out income.
Cover in Each Super Fund Read
Any cover and the job on record at each fund, read through with you.
Cover Looked at Before an ABN
Any cover you hold read with you before you move from wages to an ABN.
A Field Work Claim Lodged With You
Your usual work, hours and earnings records set out with you while an insurer or fund assesses a claim.
This has really changed our lives
Ray and his team has been incredible, they look after my entire family including my brother in law. Over the years he has helped us with investments, tax and other advice. This has really changed our lives.
Read moreDean Desoukey is changing lives!!
From the very beginning he was warm, patient, incredibly knowledgeable, and genuinely cared about helping us make the right decisions for our future. The positive impact they've had on our family financially and the peace of mind he's given us has been huge.
Read moreI felt heard, understood, and respected
I can't speak highly enough of the service I received from Dean Desoukey. Financial conversations can often feel overwhelming, but he created a space where I felt heard, understood, and respected. He took the time to really listen, explained things clearly, and never rushed me through decisions.
Read moreKnowledgeable, patient and caring
I cannot recommend Ray highly enough. He is an exceptional financial adviser: knowledgeable, patient and caring. From the very beginning, he took the time to truly understand my goals and helped me to create a clear structured financial plan. I never feel rushed or pressured.
Read moreThank you Ray for protecting me and my family
Ray has been my trusted financial adviser for over 12 years. He is highly knowledgeable and passionate about making sure his customers have the right insurance to secure them and their family. I was recently sick and Ray was there right away when needed most.
Read moreHe went above and beyond
I recently dealt with Ricky Regmi at Ryker Capital, and I couldn't be more satisfied with the service I received. Ricky was incredibly patient and supportive throughout the entire insurance process. He went above and beyond, coordinating with my accountant and doctor to ensure everything was in order.
Read moreIt never feels transactional
We've been working with Jack for the past two years, and it's been an incredibly positive experience. He takes the time to build genuine relationships and really gets to know his clients beyond just the numbers. It never feels transactional; it feels like he truly cares about our wellbeing.
Read moreImmensely professional and diligent
Ray has been immensely professional and diligent in my most recent SMSF restructure and insurance review. He not only tweaked it to make it work more for me and my future goals but recommended future strategies to help build my wealth. Cannot recommend him enough.
Read moreHolistic and Experienced Financial Advisers for Telco Field Technicians and Tower Riggers
Few people see the work behind a phone call or an internet connection, and it takes real skill and care to do it well. Families, businesses and towns rely on what you do long after you’ve driven off to the next job. We’d begin by listening: how your weeks run, who matters to you and what you’d like more of. From there, we can help you build a plan around how you’re paid and the life you want.
What you earn can go towards more than the next bill. It might be a home, time away with people you love, a small firm of your own, or the choice to slow down one day. The plan can also allow for anyone who relies on your income. Wherever you’re heading, we can work through it with you, and if you’d like ongoing advice, we can review your plan with you each year.
If illness or injury kept you from working on telco networks and cabling, income protection can pay part of your income after a waiting period, subject to the policy’s definitions, exclusions and the insurer’s assessment. Personal cover can also include life, TPD and trauma cover, each with its own terms. We can advise on cover alone, without a full financial plan, explaining each one in plain language and comparing cover with you from the insurers willing to consider your work. The insurer decides on any application.
Every financial decision impacts the next
Your Financial Life Is Connected
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.
Learn more about Financial Planning and Advice for Telco Field Technicians and Tower Riggers
Your
Wealth
- Property & Investing
- Career & Income
- Tax Strategy
- Insurance & Protecting Your Family
- Super & SMSF
- Wealth & Investments
- Life Events & Changes
- Business & Wealth
- Legacy & Future Wealth
- Retirement Planning
Frequently Asked Questions
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 work on telco networks and cabling, your family, work, income, assets and goals. Then we recommend the types and amounts of cover that suit your life.
Telco work can mean premises, pit, aerial or tower duties, as an employee, a contractor or an owner. Each can affect how an insurer assesses an application and how a policy’s definitions apply at claim, so your duties, hours and pay are what we look at.
With a financial adviser, you also have:
- Access to the insurers willing to consider your work, each with its own way of assessing an application
- Help preparing your application and answering the health questions with care
- Advice on whether to hold cover inside or outside super, and the trade-offs
- Annual reviews of your cover through ongoing advice, with your health, family and work in mind
- Someone in your corner if you ever need to claim
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:
- Property & Investing
- Career & Income
- Tax Strategy
- Insurance & Protecting Your Family
- Super & SMSF
- Wealth & Investments
- Life Events & Changes
- Business & Wealth
- Legacy & Future Wealth
- Retirement Planning
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.
An insurer usually looks at your job and duties when you apply, and one job title can cover very different weeks. It helps to set out the share of your time on each: premises connections, pits and pipes, aerial cable, jointing or tower work.
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. Each insurer assesses applications in its own way. We can help you describe your work as it is, and the insurer decides on any application.
Moneysmart says income protection usually bases the benefit on your annual earnings in the 12 months before your illness or injury. On per-job pay, those months can take in busy weeks and slow ones. It’s also worth asking each insurer how it treats any van, test gear or materials in your invoices.
Tax returns or financial statements can be asked for at claim, so keeping records up to date with an accountant can help. We can raise these questions with you across the insurers willing to consider your work, and the insurer decides on any application.
The policy’s definitions come first. Each income protection policy has its own definition of disability, and in some policies it changes to a wider test of work you’re suited to after a set time. Some pay a partial benefit if you can work in a reduced capacity and earn less than before.
At claim, an insurer can ask about your work duties, including physical requirements, the hours you work each week and your pay records. Any benefit is subject to the policy’s terms and exclusions and the insurer’s assessment. We can read the wording with you before you apply.
Income protection is generally for illness or injury rather than losing a job, so a contract ending is usually planned for through your budget and a buffer for the time until your next contract or job.
Any cover that comes through your employer may not continue once you leave, so it’s worth asking your employer or fund before your last day. We can work through the numbers with you, and you can read more about our cashflow advice.
Workers compensation is separate from personal cover, through a state, territory or Commonwealth scheme. Each scheme sets who qualifies, so the scheme is the place to ask about your own position, and its rules set who decides a workers compensation claim.
If you hold income protection, it has its own terms, and scheme payments may reduce a benefit. We can read your cover with you and plan your finances around the scheme’s answer. The insurer decides on any claim on your policy.
Cover you already hold was issued on its own terms, and the policy wording sets when they can change, so it’s worth reading before you change or replace it. For cover in super, Moneysmart suggests asking what happens to the cover if you change jobs.
Field experience, planning and auditing may all come into a TPD any occupation definition, which looks at jobs suited to your education, training or experience. Your new duties would go on any new application. We can go through this with you, and the insurer decides on any application.
Moving from trainee to registered cabler, from premises jobs to towers, from wages to an ABN or into supervising can each be a good reason to book a conversation.
At home, a new loan, a baby or a separation can be too, if that’s where you are. We can go through a fund statement or policy with you beside the work you do now, and any new cover you could apply for. The insurer decides on any application.
Our ongoing advice clients have an annual review with us.
Quote forms can be handy for seeing one seller’s price. They may not show the split between the premises, pit, aerial or tower jobs you do, how any job payments rise and fall over a year, or what insurance your fund holds.
Personal advice looks at those first. We’d go through any policy you hold, then options from the insurers willing to consider your work. The insurer decides on any application.
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
- Prepares and lodges tax returns, BAS and financial statements
- Advises on tax structures such as companies, trusts and partnerships
- Manages bookkeeping, payroll and ATO compliance
- Provides tax advice on the consequences of a transaction
What a financial adviser does
- Sets a long term strategy across retirement, investing and cash flow
- Builds wealth from early in a working life, starting with cash flow, a first home and super
- Recommends specific super funds, investments and personal insurance
- Operates under an Australian Financial Services Licence, which is required to give personal advice on financial products
- Handles retirement planning, Centrelink and aged care strategy, and estate planning considerations
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
- Tax position. Your accountant confirms your marginal rate, deductions and carried forward losses, which shapes decisions on super contributions, investment structures and the timing of asset sales.
- Business and entity structures. Your accountant advises on the structure itself and your financial adviser works within it for investments, insurance and succession planning.
- Cash flow. Your accountant’s figures can help us understand what’s available for debt repayment, protection and longer-term goals.
- Before key decisions. We can coordinate with your accountant on contributions, asset sales and other material choices in time to consider relevant tax consequences.
We’re a national service, so you can meet with us by phone or video from anywhere in Australia. We also have offices in three cities:
- Sydney: offices in Sydney CBD, Parramatta, Seven Hills, Ingleburn and Narellan, servicing areas including the City of Sydney, Eastern Suburbs, Inner West, North Shore, Northern Beaches, Sutherland Shire, Blacktown, Liverpool, Campbelltown and all surrounding suburbs.
- Melbourne: our St Kilda Road office, servicing areas including the City of Melbourne, Port Phillip, Boroondara, Monash, Casey, Wyndham and all surrounding suburbs.
- Brisbane: our Eagle Street office, servicing areas including Brisbane City, Moreton Bay, Ipswich, Logan, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast and all surrounding suburbs.
Yes. We’d begin with what a normal week looks like for you, as a trainee, a cabler, a rigger or anyone else in field work.
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.
Handy things to bring: payslips or job sheets, last year’s tax return, any fund statements and policies, and your usual jobs written down.
Reviews
Testimonials from Our Clients
Client Success Stories
A Property Sale Became a Full PlanEstimated long term financial benefitApprox $448,000
A Plan to Keep the Family HomeLife cover established$1.2 Million
Cover in Place and Fees LoweredImmediate value$1,055 a year
Super Fees More than HalvedProjected retirement uplift$416k
Income Covered for a New MortgageImmediate value$975 a year
A 13-Year Mortgage Paydown PlanPlanned mortgage paydown13 years
A First Home and Family CoveredImmediate value$1,346 a year
Age Pension Kept After an InheritanceProjected uplift at 90More than $642,000
Grow & Protect Your Wealth Today
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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