Income protection insurance in Australia.

Usually up to about 70% of what you earn before tax, and some policies will pay extra on top to keep your super going. People on strong incomes can sometimes get more than that, if the insurer is comfortable with the application.

Generally yes, if you hold it in your own name outside super — and then any payment you receive is taxed like income. Premiums inside super aren't deductible to you, but they come out of your super balance rather than your bank account, which suits some people.

Two to six weeks if it's straightforward. Doctors and other specialists often take longer — overseas medical records, unusual scope of practice, extra health questions. We chase it all so you don't have to.

Not automatically a no. Insurers see the same condition very differently. When an adviser handles it, the application can go to the ones most likely to say yes — often with a higher premium or one specific exclusion rather than a flat refusal.

Both have their place. Inside super is easier on the household budget, because it comes out of your balance. Outside super you get more choice, a cleaner claim, and the tax deduction. Plenty of people end up with some of each.

If your life runs on what you earn, yes — it is the only cover that replaces the thing actually paying for everything, which is your income, not your house or your super. The honest exception is someone near retirement who could afford to stop tomorrow. Whether it stacks up for you is a conversation, not something a web page can answer.

There isn't a useful average, because the same person can be quoted double or half depending on five choices. What drives the price: your age, the job you do, how long you wait before it starts paying, how long it keeps paying, and whether the premium climbs each year or stays flat.

The biggest lever most people have is the waiting period. Going from 30 days to 90 cuts the premium noticeably, and it's a sensible trade if you have enough leave or savings to get through those months. We'd rather quote your actual situation than repeat a number from an article.

There isn't one, and any page that names a winner is selling something. What separates a policy that pays from one that argues is the wording of what counts as being unable to work, whether the amount is locked in, the waiting and payment periods, and how the insurer behaves at claim. It changes with the job: wording that suits a surgeon is wrong for a site foreman. We're licensed to advise you on which one fits.

Most policies stop at 65, a few run to 70. The practical answer is that it stops being worth paying for once you could fund the rest of your life without working. For plenty of people that comes earlier than the policy's end date — which is why it's worth reviewing rather than just renewing out of habit.

You tell them, they ask for medical evidence and proof of what you were earning, and they keep checking in while they're paying you. Nearly every fight at claim traces back to something missed at application — which is the whole argument for doing it properly at the start.