Keeping up with life’s changes

When we go through life’s ages and stages, there are times when our need for insurance increases. 


This can be due to certain events happening, such as:

  • Buying a house, bach, or investment property 

  • Having kids

  • A change in your relationship status (e.g., going from single to married, or the other way around). 

  • Increase in household expenses or mortgage repayments

  • Increase in salary

These sorts of events typically mean the stakes are higher if something were to happen to you. E.g., if you have debt or expenses that you’re responsible for paying, or people that rely on you or your income to get by (e.g., your spouse or kids).
 
In some circumstances, we may feel comfortable to accept the risk ourselves e.g., if your mortgage increases, but only by $50,000, you may decide this is a risk you’re happy to absorb. Whereas if your mortgage increased by $250,000, you may not feel so comfortable. 
 
The problem is, it can be a right pain in the neck to increase your insurance with each of these life-changing events, particularly if you’ve had any new health events that may pose limitations or exclusions on increased covers. Coupled with application forms and the likes, it can start to feel like it’s all in the too-hard basket, and gets pushed further down the to-do list. 
 
The good news – there is an easy solution! Most insurance companies offer what’s known as a ‘Special Event Increase’. It’s typically included in your policy at no extra cost, and allows you to increase your insurances (up to a certain amount), when you’ve experienced one of these life-changing events, without filling out an application form.

This means:

  • Any medical issues you may have experienced since your original policy was put in place will not need to be disclosed to the insurance company.

  • Only proof of the special event is required (bank loan approval, birth certificate of your new baby, new and improved pay slip / offer of employment, marriage certificate etc). 

(The only downside is you will need to pay for the increased cover)

How it works: one of our clients recently purchased a new house, and their mortgage has increased by an extra $250,000. They have a young family, so they want to leave their spouse mortgage-free if something happens to them. They’ve been able to increase their life cover by $250,000 using a special event increase, meaning they’ve now protected themselves against this increased risk. 
 
If you’ve experienced one of these life-changing events recently, or you have something coming up in the future, please get in touch. There are windows of time after the event takes place to apply for these increases, so keep us in the loop if this is something you would like to exercise.  
 
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