Income Protection Insurance - Best Deal

Those of you who have IPI - what sort of deal are you getting?

I have just had quotes from my insurance broker.

Would be interested to hear your details. Thanks.

I've had income protection insurance for the last 15 or so years, premiums are dependent on how much you earn AND women pay a lot more than men now apparently [!] although that hasn't been the case with my policy, maybe because it has been in place for so long.

PM me if you want to know actual amounts for what cover, toast [].

Just in case it's of interest and/or relevant...

There was a really interesting interview with an insurance specialist (not a broker or anyone working for an insurance company) on the radio a week or two ago and she suggested two ideas that she felt were really good deals instead of income insurance for people who are employees (vs company owners/sole traders).

1. Redundancy insurance - but you are only eligible if you don't know there is a possiblity of redundancy. Once it's officially mooted in a company, you can't get it.
2. Trauma insurance - the lady in particular used this when she was diagnosed with cancer. She couldn't work, she wasn't eligible for income insurance (because she'd had cancer before) but this meant she had an income while she was ill. A new kind of insurance apparently and apparently is known as "the best kept secret" of the industry.

Just in case it's helpful, I'd never heard of these two insurance policies before. She didn't quote numbers but said it was "cheap" in comparison to income insurance.

I should have mentioned that I am taking out the start-up ICI & when I have two sets of financial accounts it will be adjusted.

I have my own business which I have just started up (March 2009).

I have Trauma insurance and Hubby has income protection insurance. His work has a 12 month income protection insurance of its own so our premium is really low since we can have a 12 month stand down (obviously this is not helpful in your situation). I can't remember what the premiums were before he switched jobs but we are through AXA and they were really helpful in providing information and quotes

read teh fine print, some policies require you to use up all your savings before they kick in.

I'd say things have changed since I got mine signed up. Mine is based on your income - you can't chose a higher amount even if you want to pay higher premiums - and you get 80% payments on that. You are also covered indefinitely, no limit to payouts. And it covers you for if you can't do your current work, so they can't force you into other sorts of work.

If you do chose to take a lower paying different job, they top the income up to what you would have had previously before you got sick or hurt and was unable to continue to do that original work.

I doubt any current policies are as generous...

Confused tiggerr - if you get hurt - does ACC not pay 80% of your previous annual salary?

I don't know about anyone else, but I'd be financially ruined if I only got 80% of my income, even for a short period of time.

Well, hubby has income IPI and it only pays about 60% of current income, for up to a maximum of 6 months and only in case of illness. It is with AMP, has been taken out more than 10 years ago (when I was made redundant) and was the best deal available. At the time AMP was the only insurer who had this kind of insurance available.

Hang on, doesn't it depend on the occupation before anything else (ie risk factor?)

I know when we had the roofing business in Aussie we looked at the same type of policy via our bank and we couldn't afford the premiums due to roofers being high risk (due to home owners failing off ladders I might add).[!][!][!][!]

If it is an accident then ACC pays and you can't top that payment up. You also can't insure accidents.

Some professions (like builder) probably demand a higher premium as for instance you may still be able to do a sitting job after a back injury but not building.

I have got IPI, there was only 1 company prepared to insure me, nd then there was a maximum payment period of 3 years. All because I was a commercial roofer, if I did more than 50% domestic then payment would be infinite and premiums significantly cheaper. I got the payment length to 5 years stating that safety on commercial jobs is regulated alot more.
I pay roughly $55 per month for 5 yrs cover with a 13 week stand down period.
Hopefully I never need to use it.

The one I'm looking at is for initial two years of starting a business. There's no previous income to base their percentage on so it is an agreed set amount.

AIG Life has a key person benefit which would be great for your situation.

Quote 1
For $500 a week in the event you are unable to work for more than 4 weeks that pays out for up to 2 years off work is $136.54 per month

Quote 2
For $500 a week in the event you are unable to work for more than 4 weeks that pays for up to 1 year off work is $109.24 per month

Quote 3
For $750 a week in the event you are unable to work for more than 4 weeks that pays out for up to 2 years off work is $204.78 per month

Quote 4
For $750 a week in the event you are unable to work for more than 4 weeks that pays out for up to 1 year off work is $163.83 per month

The benefit with this cover is there are no offsets so if you were to receive ACC you would receive this benefit on top of that.

We cancelled our IPI years ago as it is a really high cost insurance. When I had to be off work for 7 months, because it was an accident I got ACC (80% of my salary) my IPI wouldn't top it up which I think is crap, they would of had to have paid me 100% had it not been covered by ACC in the first place so to not cover the 20 % I think is bad form after years of paying premiums. After that experience we increased our life cover and added a early life settlement for any serious illness and canned the IPI altogether.