Life insurance advice: what your family actually gets.
Life insurance advice, rather than a policy picked off a comparison table. It pays your family a lump sum if you die or are told you are terminally ill. How it is set up, whose name it is in, and how the premiums work all decide how much of it actually reaches them.
Working out how much.
How much cover you need is a sum, not a gut feel. We work it out from what would actually have to be paid for if you weren't here. If you're putting cover in place for the first time, start with our advice for young professionals.
- +Clearing what you owe
The mortgage, personal loans, and anything you have guaranteed that would land on your family.
- +Replacing your income
Years of household income for your partner and kids — at least until the children are standing on their own feet.
- +School and childcare
Fees, help through uni, and paying for the care you currently do for free if your partner has to go back to work.
- +Funeral costs, and breathing room
The funeral, sorting out the estate, and enough spare that nobody has to sell the house at the worst possible moment.
- +What you already have
The default cover in your super, anything through work, and any policies you hold. New cover goes on top of that, not instead of it.
Six choices to make.
What kind of cover, how the premiums behave, and whose name it sits in are three separate decisions. We work through each against your situation instead of taking the default on all three.
Term life
A lump sum paid if you die, or are told you have a terminal illness. Renews each year and usually runs to 99. This is what most Australians hold.
Bundled with TPD
Life and TPD joined under one policy. Cheaper at the start, but a TPD payout eats into what your family would get — unless you can buy it back.
Premiums that climb
The cost goes up every year as you age. Cheap early on. Suits cover you plan to reduce or replace within a decade or so.
Premiums that stay flat
Held steady until an age you choose. Dearer at the start, and a lot cheaper if you hold the cover for the long haul.
Inside super
Premiums come out of your balance. Whether the payout is taxed depends on who receives it. There are limits on how much cover you can get.
Outside super
Held in your own name or through a trust. The money goes straight to whoever you nominated, generally tax-free, without the super rules getting in the way.
Climbing premiums or flat ones?
It comes down to how long you'll hold it, what you can afford now, and what the cover is actually for. How a policy inside super interacts with one in your own name is covered in more detail on the superannuation advice page.
Cheap now, dear later.
Goes up every year as you get older. Suits cover you plan to cut back or replace within ten to fifteen years, or a household that is stretched now but earning more later.
Steadier over the long run.
Set to stay flat until an age you pick, with the insurer reviewing the underlying rate now and then. Over twenty years it works out a lot cheaper. Suits cover you expect to keep right up to retirement.
Whose name it is in, and the tax.
The exact same amount of cover can reach your family whole and tax-free, or arrive with a chunk taken out. Whose name the policy is in decides which. For doctors this usually tangles up with owning a practice and protecting partners, which is covered on the advice for doctors page.
- +Your own name, outside super
Goes straight to whoever you named, generally tax-free, and paid quickly.
- +Through a trust
Used in business and estate planning, where it matters exactly where the money ends up.
- +In super, to a spouse or young child
Generally tax-free — a partner, children under 18, or anyone who depended on you financially.
- +In super, to a grown-up child
Part of it may be taxed. This is the classic trap, and it catches families every year.
- +Who you have nominated
Inside super you need a binding nomination; outside you name a beneficiary. Both go stale, and both need checking.
Who you're dealing with.
- Your adviser
- Balki Balakrishnan
- Experience
- 12+ years on personal risk
- Member of
- FAAA
- Authorised as
- AR 409415 of La Verne Capital Pty Ltd
- Focus
- Ownership, tax, and beneficiary outcomes
- On its own?
- Yes — we will review cover without a full plan
Life cover is one of the four common covers we arrange most often, alongside income protection, TPD, and trauma. Recommendations require personal advice and sit inside the financial planning licence.
Questions people ask before booking.
Stepped costs less now and more later. Level costs more now and less later. The point where they cross over is usually somewhere between ten and fifteen years in. Holding the cover long term, level wins. Covering a set period — say until the mortgage is gone — stepped is usually the better call.
We work it out from what would need clearing, how many years of income your family would need, school and uni costs, and a buffer on top. It's a number specific to your household, not “ten times your salary”.
Inside super is easier on the budget. Outside super, it's clearer who gets the money and you dodge the tax trap that hits when an adult child inherits a super payout. Plenty of people hold some of each.
Outside super it's generally tax-free. Inside super it's tax-free to a spouse or someone who depended on you financially — but an adult child who didn't may pay tax on part of it. This catches a lot of families out, so we go through it properly.
Questions about your health, often a medical or blood test, and a look at your health records. The effort goes in when you apply rather than when your family claims — which is the entire point of doing it properly.
The other covers
- All personal risk coverLife cover in context with the four other covers we advise on.
- Income protection insuranceMonthly benefit while illness or injury keeps you from work.
- TPD insuranceLump sum if you can never return to work. Often bundled with life.
- Trauma insuranceA lump sum when something serious is diagnosed.
- Business insuranceCover for partners, key people and buy/sell deals.
- Insurance for doctorsApplying around specialist practice and overseas records.
Information on this page is general in nature. It does not take into account your personal objectives, financial situation, or needs. Read the relevant Product Disclosure Statement and consider whether personal advice is appropriate before acquiring any insurance product mentioned here.
Book a free life cover review.
An hour on the file. Sum insured, premium structure, ownership, and beneficiaries, all checked against your circumstances today.