TAL Total and Permanent Disablement Insurance

TAL Total and Permanent Disablement Insurance

If you suffer an injury or illness that leaves you unable to work ever again, would you be able to rely upon your savings to sustain your lifestyle? Could you afford to take out a loan to take care of your family? The financial effects of a disability often can’t be taken care of by your health insurance fund or even government pensions. If you want to support yourself and your family, pay rent or mortgage, medical bills, education costs, and keep up with the rising cost of inflation, TAL’s TPD Insurance can provide a lump sum benefit of up to $5 million to help meet your rehabilitation costs, medical bills your health insurance can’t cover, rent or mortgage payments, as well as your everyday lifestyle needs.

Whereas most insurers provide the TPD benefit lump sum weeks or even months after making a claim, TAL makes a unique product offering with a 10% advanced payment for eligible claims.

What’s included?

TAL aims to make your TPD insurance as valuable to you as possible. In addition to the TPD lump sum payout, TAL TPD Insurance can help you:

  • Access your benefit faster
    TAL will provide an advanced payment of 10% of the total benefit amount as soon as they receive the death certificate or medical certificate confirming your death.
  • Get covered for partial disability
    If you suffer from the loss of a single limb or eyesight in one eye, you could receive an advance payment of up to 25% of your total benefit amount.
  • Ensure your insurance stays valuable
    TAL will automatically increase your benefit amount by a minimum of 5% annually to keep up with the rising Consumer Price Index (CPI). Because increased cover affects your premium, you also have the option to remove this benefit, which will reduce the size of your premium increases.
  • Avoid rising costs
    Want your premium to stay the same year-after-year? You can reduce your cover so your premium stays the same if you’re on a stepped premium policy, or if you’re over 30.
  • Increase your cover as your life changes
    As you get older and your life changes, your life insurance benefit amount might need to change as well. Which is why you can increase your cover without medical underwriting for events such as marriage, birth of a child, death of a spouse or a child, or if you increase your share in a business.
  • Cover the costs of financial planning
    TAL will reimburse you for up to $5,000 for professional financial planning advice if you receive a full claim payment.
  • Keep your family close by if needed
    If TAL pays you the Terminal Illness Benefit and you need to stay more than 100km away from home with a member of your immediate family, you could receive up to $250 to cover the costs of your family member’s accommodation.
  • Get the emotional support you need
    Should you and your family need psychological support, TAL with reimburse you up to $1000 to cover the costs of counselling sessions.
  • Protect the rest of your family
    You can include your children in your life insurance plan. If one of your children suffers from one of TAL’s specified children’s critical illnesses, you could receive a lump sum payment of up to $10,000 to help cover medical costs.

For an additional cost, you could also avoid premiums if you’re unable to work.

What types of cover can I choose from?

As with most insurers, TAL allows you to choose your level of TPD cover depending on your lifestyle, your finances, and your individual health needs. TAL gives you the flexibility to hold your TPD insurance in four different ways:

  • On its own
  • Attached to your Life Insurance
  • Attached to your Critical Illness insurance or
  • Linked to your Life insurance

As with most insurers, there are a few definitions of a total and permanent disablement that will determine your eligibility to claim. These are:

  • Any Occupation
    This level of cover pays out a lump sum if you’re unlikely to work again in ‘any occupation’ following an illness or injury.
  • Own Occupation
    TAL will reimburse you if you are unlikely to ever be able to work in the occupation you were last involved in before you made a claim.
  • Daily activities
    TAL will provide you with the lump sum payment if you’re unable to live your life as usual, including bathing, cooking, eating or getting out of bed without assistance.

The main difference to pay attention to is the likeliness of receiving a payout under “any occupation” or “own occupation”. For example, if a neurosurgeon loses an arm or a hand in a car accident, she may receive a payout under the ‘own occupation’ definition as she’s unlikely ever to work again as a surgeon. However, she might not receive a payout under the ‘any occupation’ definition as she can still work as a university lecturer or general practitioner based on her education, training and experience. If she were completely paralysed and suffered from complete loss of mental cognition, then she would receive a payout under an “any occupation” definition, as she would not possess the physical or mental capacity to work.

Want to compare this TPD policy with others? You can compare TAL’s insurance premiums with other policy providers through our free quote service.

Page last updated: April 12, 2014