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Life Insurance Guide
Help protect your family’s financial security
It’s not a pleasant thought and most of us avoid thinking about it. But when you have a family to provide for, it’s no longer just about you and your partner. There are kids to clothe, feed and educate. Bills to be paid. And a mortgage or rent to be taken care of. Plus, one of you may even have to cut back on work to look after the kids, creating even more financial pressure.
Did you know?
40% of Australians
say they’d struggle to survive financially after just three months without a job.
ABS, January 2014
You may want to consider Life Insurance, as it could be one of the ways you could cover your mortgage repayments and other family expenses, should something happen to you. With the average Australian mortgage sitting at around $500k (ABS, Feb 2020), you need to make sure it’s well and truly covered.
As you well know, kids are expensive. In fact, the average weekly cost of raising a child is around $170 a week (AIFS, April 2018). So you need to make sure they have support financially if you’re not around.
Education costs definitely add up. Putting your kids through school, as well as other expenses, such as buying them their first car, are all additional costs that you might need cover for.
It’s a very difficult thing to think about, but consider how you and your partner would survive if an unfortunate event disrupted your family’s life. You may decide one or both of these options could help provide the peace of mind and financial security you’re after.
Help look after your family if you’re not around
Multi-life policy
5% discount
on Life Cover for the youngest life insured
If you fell critically ill or died unexpectedly, your surviving partner and kids could struggle, not just emotionally, but financially.
Life Insurance could be a solid Plan B to help you care and provide for your family when you can’t. It could help ensure the household still operates, the bills and the mortgage are paid and the kids are clothed, fed and educated.
Policy document downloads
Helps protect your lifestyle if you’re sick or injured
Existing AAMI customers
receive a 5% discount
for AAMI Income Protection Insurance
Getting injured or sick can be really difficult, especially when it means you’re no longer able to work and no longer receiving your regular income.
Receive a monthly benefit if you are injured or sick and unable to work, to help put you and your partner in good stead for the long run. It may be the difference between being able to pay pricey medical bills and the mortgage, and putting your family through financial hardship.
Policy document downloads
Not sure how much cover you may need?
Savings hack!
All long-term insurance should allow you to select Inflation Protection cover, to help protect against the rising cost of living.
You don’t always have to, but your policy will probably have more exclusions if you don’t provide it.
Unfortunately, you're not usually covered if you’re visiting a country that Australian Foreign Affairs have listed as dangerous.
Life cover included in your super may only cover you up until the age of 70.
Life & Income Protection Insurance
Working out how much Life Insurance cover you’ll need really varies across each person. One approach is to think about how much you can realistically afford to pay for cover each month, taking into consideration your existing expenses. An alternate approach may be to consider your current debts and future expenses like your mortgage or rent, living expenses, child care costs, schooling fees, etc.
The Life Insurance calculator may help you work out how much cover you and your family may want to consider. You can then use that information to get a more accurate Life Insurance quote.
Most super funds offer at least a basic level of life insurance, as well as income protection and Total Permanent Disability (TPD) insurance to protect members and their families from the financial hardship of death or a terminal illness.
The level of cover and types of insurance provided through your super are limited. Payments are also sometimes delayed after you’ve made a claim, and coverage ends after you reach a certain age (usually 65 or 70). Read more about the pros and cons about using the life insurance included with your super fund at Money Smart.
Yes, if you hold other AAMI branded Insurance policies such as car insurance, we will apply a 5% discount on your AAMI Life Insurance premium for the life of the policy.
In addition, if you add another adult to your policy, the youngest person will receive a 5% discount.
For the Sickness and Injury cover, it depends on the benefit period you have chosen. Each time you make a claim that’s accepted, you can be paid for up to 5 years, as long as you’re still unable to work due to the sickness or injury during that time.
You can claim as many times as you need over the life of the policy. The payment of benefits is subject to the relevant terms that apply to your policy, including any exclusions or limitations – check out the Combined Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) and Financial Services Guide (FSG) to find out more.
Most of the time, income protection premiums are tax deductible if you’re working (depending on a few individual circumstances). That means at tax time you may be able to claim your premium as a deduction and potentially save money.
Depending on your earnings and tax bracket, the table below can be used as a guide to see what you could potentially save. The examples used here are based on a payment of AAMI Income Protection premiums of $1,000 per year:
Your Annual Earnings |
AAMI Income Protection Annual Premium |
Marginal Tax Rate* |
Value of tax deduction** |
Cost of cover after tax |
Over $180,001 |
$1,000 |
45% |
$450 |
$550 |
Between $87,001 - $180,000 |
$1,000 |
37% |
$370 |
$630 |
Between $37,001 - $87,000 |
$1,000 |
32.5% |
$325 |
$675 |
Between $18,201 - $37,000 |
$1,000 |
19% |
$190 |
$810 |
Between $0 - $18,200 |
$1,000 |
0% |
$0 |
$1,000 |
*For the 2017/18 financial year. The above marginal tax rates do not include the:
- Medicare levy of 2%;
- Temporary Budget Repair Levy payable at a rate of 2% for taxable income over $180,000.
**The value of this tax deduction noted above will depend on a taxpayer’s individual circumstances. For the purposes of this table it is assumed that the taxpayer has only a single deduction (the annual premium for AAMI Income Protection cover) allowing the deduction to be applied at the highest marginal tax rate applicable to the taxpayer.
If you suffer from the same or related sickness or injury that you have previously claimed for within 6 months of your last benefit being payable, we will recommence benefit payments without applying a new waiting period. These benefits will be added to the remaining benefit period to ensure the maximum payment under the benefit period is not exceeded. If you’ve made a full recovery in between claims then you will commence a new claim and the benefit period will restart.
