Insuring against loss of income

For young people in particular, their biggest asset is their income-earning ability

Not all people have enough income protection insurance.

About 35 per cent of people insure themselves for income protection – and the vast majority of those people are self-employed.

Many people in full-time employment rely on an income protection through superannuation that they may not actually have.

A lot of people think they have protection through super when they don’t.

Also, people don’t understand the difference between total and permanent disability benefits and temporary disability benefits.

Take a moment to check your policy: the answer may surprise you.

Attitudes to income protection can be baffling.

If you don’t have an income, then there are all the other things that are dependent on that – you can’t pay the mortgage, you can’t feed the family.

A lot of people could only go a month or two without income.

Ask the population if they have home and contents insurance and 90 per cent would say yes.

But they don’t think they have to insure themselves, and they’re the ones generating the money to pay for all this.

It is always important to review your insurance policies every year as insurance companies change their rates. The policy you purchased 5 years ago might not be the best policy for you now.