{"id":1584,"date":"2018-07-10T03:51:49","date_gmt":"2018-07-10T03:51:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.careerone.com.au\/career-advice\/?p=1584"},"modified":"2018-07-10T03:51:49","modified_gmt":"2018-07-10T03:51:49","slug":"is-your-ability-to-work-adequately-protected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.careerone.com.au\/career-advice\/on-the-job\/salary\/is-your-ability-to-work-adequately-protected","title":{"rendered":"Is your ability to work adequately protected?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is your ability to work adequately protected?<\/strong><\/p>\n

While it\u2019s easy to be cynical about \u2018insurers\u2019 following banking Royal Commission findings of \u2018unconscionable\u2019 sales conduct, there are times when adequate income protection probably makes perfect sense.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re mid-career with a young family, a hefty home loan, and private school fees to cover, then knowing you can maintain your family\u2019s lifestyle – should you need to be temporarily off work through injury or illness – may help you sleep a lot easier at night.<\/p>\n

However, even if you\u2019re just starting out in the workforce, and have little in the way of assets or debts, income protection will also allow you to protect your most valuable asset \u2013 namely you\u2019re ability to earn and living through gainful employment.<\/p>\n

What will income protection cover?<\/strong><\/p>\n

By paying up to 75 percent of your gross wages for a maximum of two years (or up to age 60), income protection insurance ensures you can continue paying your rent or mortgage and everyday expenses in the event that you\u2019re unable to work due to injury, illness or accident. Benefit payments are typically made monthly in arrears and continue for as long as you are Totally Disabled or Partially Disabled in accordance with the terms and conditions of your Policy.<\/p>\n

However, it\u2019s important to remember that what you\u2019re actually covered for under income protection depends on the types of events you may potentially wish to claim against. So before signing up for any kind of \u2018living\u2019 insurance, ensure you know what type of cover you need.<\/p>\n

Equally important, check the small print so that you clearly understand what is and isn\u2019t covered and under what criteria.<\/p>\n

How long should you have income protection?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Whether you do or don\u2019t take out one of the three forms of so called \u2018living\u2019 insurance cover depends on your own personal circumstances. However, assuming have taken out some form of cover, how do you know when to turn it off?<\/p>\n

Trigger points for cutting back on \u2018living\u2019 insurance would typically be once the house is paid off, and all school fees are done. Technically you\u2019re able to let your policy run until the anniversary prior to your 65th birthday.<\/p>\n

However, in practise most people turn their policies off just before they need them the most. According to research by life insurer TAL, the average age a person discontinues one or more of three types of \u2018living\u2019 insurance policies – disability, critical illness\/trauma and income protection – is age 45 years, while the average age for a claim is 46.5 years.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a harsh outcome for anyone who\u2019s been servicing premiums for many years.<\/p>\n

So if you like the idea of having some form of income protection, but don\u2019t how much or for how long, then you might want to consider seeking professional financial advice before doing anything.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What price would you put on protecting your income?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[131,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-salary","category-work-life-balance"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.careerone.com.au\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.careerone.com.au\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.careerone.com.au\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.careerone.com.au\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.careerone.com.au\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1584"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.careerone.com.au\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1588,"href":"https:\/\/www.careerone.com.au\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1584\/revisions\/1588"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.careerone.com.au\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.careerone.com.au\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.careerone.com.au\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.careerone.com.au\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}