If you suffer an injury or illness that leaves you unable to work ever again, the financial effects are similar to what would have happened if the injury or illness had resulted in your death. The difference? You still have to support yourself and your family, pay rent or mortgage, medical bills, education costs, and keep up with the rising cost of inflation, and you won’t have the benefits of life insurance.
The Total and Permanent Disablement (TPD) policy from BT offers financial assistance for those who need help in meeting the costs of their rehabilitation as well as to pay their ongoing living expenses.
What does TPD cover?
If you’re medically diagnosed with an illness or injury and unlikely to work ever again, or perform household duties, BT will pay you a lump sum to help meet rehabilitation costs, medical bills, rent or mortgage payments, as well as your everyday lifestyle needs.
What types of cover can I choose from?
As with most insurers, BT allows you to choose your level of TPD cover depending on your lifestyle and financial needs. There are four different types of cover, allowing you to choose coverage against:
- 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
BT 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.
- Home Duties
Because the effect of an illness or injury are not purely financial, BT provides a level of cover which helps provide financial assistance should you need reimbursement for hiring a housekeeper, a cleaner, or paying for childcare.
- General cover
Reimburses you if you lose independence, or if you lose two limbs, your sight, or one limb and sight in one eye.
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 an ‘own occupation’ definition as she’s unlikely ever to work again as a surgeon. However, she might not receive a payout under an ‘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.
Benefits
As with most of BT’s life insurance policies, a number of benefits give this policy a competitive advantage.
To give you extra piece of mind, BT guarantees that your TPD coverage will be just as valuable when you make a claim as it was when you first took it out. BT does this by automatically increasing the amount of your benefits each year to correspond with the rising Consumer Price Index. BT will also automatically upgrade your policy to its latest version, as long as the latest version doesn’t result in an increase in premium, so you won’t have to miss out on any improvements.
BT also guarantees that your Term Life policy is 100% renewable. As long as you pay your premiums, BT will not cancel your insurance, even if your health, occupation or lifestyle changes.
- Change your cover as you need
Want to switch covers? It’s easy. You can upgrade or downgrade at any time.
- Flexibility
TPD Insurance can be added to your Term Life policy or taken as a standalone policy. TPD is priced cheaper when added to your Term Life policy, so you can save money whilst getting more comprehensive insurance.
- Loyalty benefit – Multi-policy discount
If you’ve been with the insurer for 3 years or more. You can also get a 5% discount for taking out multiple covers.
- Premium Holiday
Want to pause your policy, without the hassle of re-applying later? If you can’t afford your monthly premium payments, BT can pause your policy for a maximum of 12 months if you’ve held it for longer than 6 months.
- Worldwide coverage
Relocating? You’ll still be covered, no matter where you are in the world.
- Counselling benefit
Should you or your family need help dealing with grief, BT will cover $5000 in counseling costs following the payment of a Death Benefit, Terminal Illness Benefit, TPD Benefit or Living Benefit.
- Future Insurability benefit
You can increase your TPD Benefit if one of the specified Personal or Business Events occurs, all without further medical underwriting. These include marriage, birth or adoption, becoming a carer, divorce, death of a spouse, or increases in your business’s value (some exclusions do apply).
- TPD Partial Benefit
You can still receive a benefit if you are partially and permanently disabled.
- Financial Planning Benefit
You could receive up to $5,000 for the preparation of a financial plan following the payment of a TPD Benefit.
- TPD Death Benefit:
Your nominated beneficiary will receive $10,000 should you pass away and the TPD Benefit has not been paid.
Want to compare this policy with others? You can compare BT’s insurance premiums with other policy providers through our free quote service.
© 2012 Wealth Smart Life InsurancePage last updated: February 26, 2014