Life Insurance in Australia

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Securing Life Insurance in Australia is very important because of the cover it provides the family and their members in the event of the death or serious illness of the main breadwinner of the family. With the current economic trend, it is more crucial than ever for families to take protective measures and be insured. With the increases in cost of mortgage, standard of living and credit cards, it is important for a family to be covered. This supports them in the event of misfortune, whether serious or otherwise. Especially in the case of families with dependent children, who will suffer the most in the event of death or permanent illness of one parent or sometimes both.

The Life Insurance market in Australia is very huge in comparison and is continually growing. The Tower Australia conducted a study in which they state that the market will grow in an excess of 18% till it reaches the year 2018. In spite of this rate of growth there is a substantial level of under-insured people in Australia. There are two reasons for this; one is the lack of proper financial advice. Many people have been taking Life Insurance via superannuation fund and believe that’s enough. Superannuation fund is just a retirement scheme that supports the customer when he becomes ill or his dependents if he dies. Getting Life Insurance through a superannuation fund is a less tangled way and it is much cheaper. But the cover they provide during the hour of need is simply not enough. One advantage however, is that the premium is paid off through pre-tax dollars thus making it tax effective, but other types of insurance are just not included. Also it doesn’t require medical check-ups and that feature attracts more people. Superannuation benefits require a lot of waiting because there is a huge delay that goes on because of the complicated rules. Unless there is binding beneficiary nomination, there is no guarantee that the money will reach the beneficiary.

People in Australia back out of Life Insurance because of the dreary paperwork associated with it. There are a lot of time consuming routines to carry out. Most Life Insurance companies require that you have a medical check up and the customer needs to be advised each step of the way by a financial adviser. Most people are reluctant to endure this as it is quite expensive. But the benefits customers get from proper Life Insurance are much better than Life Insurance through superannuation.

There are so many companies providing this service. Some of them are AC and L Insurance, AIA Insurance, AMP Insurance, Asteron Insurance, Aviva Insurance, AXA Insurance CommInsure Insurance, ING Insurance, Macquarie Insurance, MLC Insurance, MetLife Insurance, Prefsure Insurance, Suncorp Insurance, Tower Insurance and Zurich Insurance. Understandably the rates are not all equal; the policies vary from company to company. Deal with the company that has the highest rating and ensure that they have a long history of trustworthy dealings and come to the aid of dependents when necessary. Earlier, people bought Life Insurance with the help of financial advisers, but now companies have gone online and it is possible to get free quotes online, making insurance hunting a much easier task.

More about life insurance at Real Insurance blog at Worpress.com.

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By chrisp