Disability Insurance and Income Protection

Your superannuation may have insurance policies for Total and Permanent Disablement (‘TPD’) and Income Protection Insurance (‘IP’). Sometimes those disabled by injury or a medical condition do not realise they have this insurance, have a policy worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and have been paying for it from their superannuation for many years.

You could check your past superannuation statements to see if they list an insurance premium fee. We can also check your superannuation for free to see if you have TPD and IP insurance.

Income Protection and TPD Insurance

As TPD and IP insurance is based on contract law, every insurance policy can vary. It is not like a claim based on negligence or breach of a duty of care where the same rules will apply to everyone. Simply not being able to work might not mean you are TPD. Sometimes an insurance policy will have a different test for whether you qualify for the payout depending on whether you were employed at the date you became disabled or were between jobs.

Once you have a serious injury or condition, you might be effectively un-insurable for TPD and IP. It is therefore very important not to let what TPD or IP insurance policy you do have expire. You must keep a minimum balance in your superannuation account to avoid losing the insurance. If you balance transfer to another fund, the new fund might not give insurance, you lose the insurance with your old fund, subsequently become TPD or need IP benefits but miss out because of the balance transfer.

Contact us for a confidential, free, no-obligation initial consultation about your superannuation, TPD or IP case.