How much life insurance do I need
03 October 2019
5
min read
Personal insurance, including life insurance, provides a financial safety net to help take care of yourself and your family following an unexpected event such as illness, injury or death.
What would it mean for you if something unexpected happened and there was a sudden loss of income or worse?
QSuper insurance can help give you the confidence of knowing that you and your loved ones are supported when life doesn’t go to plan.
If you are an eligible QSuper Accumulation member, you may benefit from:
- Valuable automatic cover you could tailor to suit your needs
- An industry-leading claims experience1
- Cover from a fund that has looked after its members for over 100 years.
Types of insurance through a QSuper Accumulation account
You may need one or more different types of insurance. Some types of personal insurance include:
This is insurance that pays a benefit if you die. Additionally, if you are diagnosed with a terminal illness, you may be able to receive your death benefit as a terminal illness benefit.
TPD cover can provide a lump sum to assist with living expenses, debts and medical costs if you suffer an injury or illness and are unlikely ever to work again.
If an illness or injury means you can't work for a period of time, income protection can provide you with an income to help meet your living expenses.
Working out how much insurance you need
Your insurance needs – including death cover, TPD cover and income protection cover – will reflect your personal circumstances, which may include whether you are single, have a partner or a family, as well as your age, the assets and debts that you have, and any future planned expenses.
Tailoring cover
In terms of Life and TPD insurance, ASIC’s Moneysmart suggests the following as a starting point:
“To work out the amount of cover, consider how much money your family would:
need – to pay your mortgage and any other debts, as well as child care, education and living expenses.
receive – from superannuation, shares, savings and existing insurance policies, how much paid leave you have and what type of support your family could provide.
The difference between these is the amount of cover you should get.
Always consider your personal circumstances when choosing a policy and deciding how much cover you need, and the cost of premiums. For example, if you are single with no dependents, you may decide that you need less cover than someone with dependents such as, a partner and/or children.”
Source: moneysmart.gov.au. Accessed 25/9/19.
In relation to Income Protection insurance, eligible QSuper members may tailor their income protection cover to meet their needs by:
- Changing their level of cover (up to certain limits)
- Choosing their waiting period and benefit period (please note that police officers are not able to tailor their waiting or benefit periods)
- Having premiums that are occupationally rated
You will find information about these options in the Accumulation Account Insurance Guide.
Calculating your insurance needs
Use QSuper’s Insurance Needs calculator to help you determine how much insurance you may need.
Use QSuper’s Insurance Premium Estimator to estimate how much the insurance premiums will cost you based on the information you provide.
Insurance claims
You can feel confident knowing our insurer’s claims experience is ranked as industry leading.2
1 Source: MoneySmart Life insurance claims comparison tool for registered life insurance entities. Accessed 12 September 2019
2 APRA Life Insurance Claims and Disputes Statistics publication, issued 29 March 2019.