Introduction

For many people, one of the most important roles in life is parenthood, but as an “unpaid” occupation, can a full-time Mum or Dad insure against the costs of not being able to fulfil their role if they become sick or injured?

The short answer is yes; but another more difficult question to answer is, how do you place a value on looking after the family and managing the home?

Introduction

Incredibly, thousands of Australians are underinsured or have no insurance in place to cover the expenses caused by life-threatening illnesses. The grief experienced by family for loved ones suffering is often compounded by the costs associated with treatments forcing some to sell the family home to pay for extra time.

If you were one of these statistics, what value would you place on having access to the best available treatment to help you in beating a potentially fatal disease?

Introduction

The concept of Total and Permanent Disability (TPD) cover is relatively simple. If you are ill or injured and unlikely to be able to work again and meet the conditions of your particular policy, you receive a payment. The difficulty has always been to define what is meant by “unlikely to be able to work again”.

Advances in medical science and technology have meant that people who suffer horrific injuries might be rehabilitated and able to return to work, when years ago a similar condition would have left them permanently disabled. For instance, by-pass surgery once ended a working career; nowadays normal life can soon be resumed.

Different policies have different definitions and it’s an area where insurance companies are developing new features. Typical definitions that may be used are as follows.