Speaker 1: Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yr
Speaker 1: the Order Kerni Whoalbury and a waddery woman. And before
Speaker 1: we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I
Speaker 1: would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land
Speaker 1: of which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country,
Speaker 1: acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming
Speaker 1: through as this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing
Speaker 1: and the storytelling of you to make a difference for
Speaker 1: today and lasting impact for tomorrow. Let's get into it.
Speaker 2: She's on the Money, She's on the Money. Hello, and
Speaker 2: welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast for millennials
Speaker 2: who want financial freedom. Oh thanks, g, You're so welcome.
Speaker 2: Questions about insurance, what you need, what's a waste of money,
Speaker 2: and which you should prioritize are among the most common
Speaker 2: questions we receive in the She's on the Money inbox.
Speaker 2: And even though there's plenty of info out there on
Speaker 2: the Internet, we've found that it can all just be
Speaker 2: a little bit too much to wagh through on your own.
Speaker 2: That's why today we're dedicating an entire episode to Insurance,
Speaker 2: helping you to answer your burning questions about pretty much
Speaker 2: every type of insurance under the sun. My name is
Speaker 2: Georgia King, and joining me as she does each and
Speaker 2: every week, is financial Advisor, Miss Victoria Divine V. How
Speaker 2: are we hi?
Speaker 3: Well? How are you?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Good girl?
Speaker 2: Good to see you. Am I right in thinking? V?
Speaker 2: I don't know why I'm pretending here. I'm doing a
Speaker 2: bit of acting. But all of the questions from today
Speaker 2: are pulled from the community.
Speaker 3: Is that correct? Yeah, So we did a little Q
Speaker 3: and A on the Instagram story and said what do
Speaker 3: you want to know about insurance? We're going to do
Speaker 3: a Q and A. So this could be wild because
Speaker 3: I didn't pick these questions. You did, and I mean,
Speaker 3: arguably I should have picked them, but you wanted to
Speaker 3: have a turn.
Speaker 2: So that's good, exactly right. So the first question for
Speaker 2: today it comes from multiple people, Sarah, yess Lily, Anita, Karl, Matt's, Annie, Jessica,
Speaker 2: and Sophia. They all had the same pers all had
Speaker 2: the same question, and that is what's the deal with
Speaker 2: insurance inside your super All right? This is a very
Speaker 2: good question and arguably a very popular question. Was that
Speaker 2: really the only amount of people that asked this.
Speaker 3: I feel like this would have been a really popular
Speaker 3: one because so many people in our community always say
Speaker 3: things like oh my gosh, no, I don't need income
Speaker 3: protection or I don't need life insurance because it's inside subranuation.
Speaker 3: But essentially, insurance inside subranuation is there to help obviously
Speaker 3: provide for you and your loved ones if something happens
Speaker 3: to you or you can't work anymore because of illness
Speaker 3: or injury, and it's usually offered through a default subranuation
Speaker 3: company or your employer sponsored super plan as cover their
Speaker 3: negotia for you and their other employees, which is called
Speaker 3: group insurance. And this is actually the number one way
Speaker 3: that Australians have access to affordable insurance. And the big
Speaker 3: part here is without the need for underwriting. So underwriting
Speaker 3: is the process that you go through when you apply
Speaker 3: for a policy outside of superannuation and sometimes inside of superranuation.
Speaker 3: We're an underwriter who is somebody who works at insurance
Speaker 3: company and their job is to look at each and
Speaker 3: every single individual that comes into their insurance plan and says,
Speaker 3: all right, let me have a quick look at g.
Speaker 3: I want to see if she's going to be really
Speaker 3: risky if we ensure her. Let's have a look at
Speaker 3: her history of illness and injury and see what she's
Speaker 3: like to insure, and then we're going to offer cover
Speaker 3: based on that situation. If you're somebody who works in
Speaker 3: a really risky industry, you might go, oh, my gosh,
Speaker 3: like I have really limited superanuation options. We know that
Speaker 3: people in the sex work industry, we know that people
Speaker 3: in aviation often really struggle to get income protection insurance
Speaker 3: because insurants look at them and go, no, absolutely not.
Speaker 3: You're too risky. You're very likely to claim. Therefore, we
Speaker 3: don't want to ensure you. I have a client actually
Speaker 3: who's probably listening to this because she listens to everything.
Speaker 3: So Hi, my friend. But she is a traffic controller,
Speaker 3: so she isn't even in a plane. She just sits
Speaker 3: in the tower every day directing planes coming in and
Speaker 3: out of Melbourne International Airport, and she's not able to
Speaker 3: get income protection because her job is deemed too risky
Speaker 3: for insurers to want to take it on. So one
Speaker 3: of the benefits of having these group policies is that
Speaker 3: you don't need to go through that underwriting process and
Speaker 3: you can access it very quickly. But when you have
Speaker 3: insurance inside supbranuation, which sounds like a really sexy option
Speaker 3: because obviously inside supbranuation it's generally taxed at a lower
Speaker 3: rate than income tax, so you're saving some money. It's
Speaker 3: a bit of a money win. However, they're usually lackluster policies.
Speaker 3: I would say, so if you've got life insurance, instead
Speaker 3: of having the full amount of life insurance that maybe
Speaker 3: Georgia you need, you have the default amount. And a
Speaker 3: good example of this is a client that I recently
Speaker 3: sent to my friend Phil, who a lot of you
Speaker 3: guys in the Shees on the Money community know because
Speaker 3: Phil is partnered with She's on the Money. I mean,
Speaker 3: he doesn't pay us. I just really like his business
Speaker 3: and what he does, and I no longer have the
Speaker 3: capacity to do all of this work, so I send
Speaker 3: a lot of it over to Phil Thompson at sky Wealth,
Speaker 3: who does insurance only. So the thing I love about
Speaker 3: him is that, you know, this isn't meant to be
Speaker 3: like a Phil Thompson thing, but he'll love these g
Speaker 3: He'll listen to this and be like, Wow, you're so
Speaker 3: nice to me, And I'll be like never again, so
Speaker 3: never again. But the thing I like about him is
Speaker 3: it's really affordable to get advice from him. Instead of
Speaker 3: thousands of dollars, he's a couple of hundred dollars to
Speaker 3: do the advice for just your insurances, and that's a
Speaker 3: much better position to be. And if you're like me,
Speaker 3: I can't afford full service financial advice, but I want
Speaker 3: a policy that only a financial advisor can access. And
Speaker 3: I also want a financial advisor's advice on exactly what
Speaker 3: I need or my family needs or whatever that is.
Speaker 3: And I think for like three hundred and fifty dollars
Speaker 3: or four hundred and fifty dollars, I can't remember, that's
Speaker 3: like his total advice fee. Obviously, then you have to
Speaker 3: pay for the actual insurance, but I think that's a
Speaker 3: bit of a money in anyway. I digress, But essentially
Speaker 3: they usually lower policies. So an example of this is
Speaker 3: I sent someone from Cheese on the Money to Fill
Speaker 3: and they had one hundred and fifty thousand dollars of
Speaker 3: life insurance and they're like, that's a lot of money.
Speaker 3: But when we looked at it, they had two mortgages,
Speaker 3: they had two young kids, they've got a husband, and
Speaker 3: when we did their life insurance, they needed two and
Speaker 3: a half million dollars worth of cover because that's the
Speaker 3: stage of life that they're in. And unfortunately the superannuation
Speaker 3: product had a cap and they were like, oh, you
Speaker 3: can only go out to five hundred thousand dollars and
Speaker 3: you can only claim for certain things, whereas a policy
Speaker 3: that made more sense to them, that was set up
Speaker 3: by a financial advisor makes more sense. So inside super
Speaker 3: I love that there's a default, and that means that
Speaker 3: so many of you just have cover already without even
Speaker 3: having to think about it. However, it might not be
Speaker 3: the right fit for you and you might need to
Speaker 3: change it. So inside superannuation, you can hold income protection,
Speaker 3: you can hold life insurance, and you can usually hold
Speaker 3: some level of TPD, which is total and permanent disability.
Speaker 3: G please remind me, but what date did we do
Speaker 3: our personal insurances episode?
Speaker 2: Oh, let me cast my mind back. I think it
Speaker 2: was the eighteen year twenty twenty.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okaymarty pants, but go listen to that episode because
Speaker 3: it really breaks down each and every single type of
Speaker 3: personal insurance and I think it's really important. But essentially,
Speaker 3: insurance inside super is generally not nearly enough cover. It's
Speaker 3: usually a group policy, which means it is not taking
Speaker 3: your personal circumstances into consideration and you're not being put
Speaker 3: in the best possible position. However, it being inside super
Speaker 3: isn't the issue. It's the default cover. Because you might
Speaker 3: go down the road G talk to feel be like, hey,
Speaker 3: Phil need insurance, and he goes, great, you need a
Speaker 3: life insurance policy that's different, and you'll be like, thanks,
Speaker 3: no problems. He'll say, do you want me to just
Speaker 3: put in your super You're like, great, money win, no problems,
Speaker 3: and you can sort that out. However, your default cover
Speaker 3: that you might have with your industry superfund might not
Speaker 3: be enough and it might not be comprehensive enough for
Speaker 3: you to go all right, well, I'm comfortable with this.
Speaker 3: The same is true for income protection. I spoke about
Speaker 3: this on that personal insurance episode. But often income protection
Speaker 3: policies that are held inside superannuation that are default have
Speaker 3: a time cap. So that means that if you go
Speaker 3: of e, I'm fine, I checked, I do have income protection,
Speaker 3: you might actually only have an income protection policy that
Speaker 3: will pay you for two years. It won't pay you
Speaker 3: until the age of sixty five like a policy I have.
Speaker 3: And the reason that's so important is George, if I
Speaker 3: get injured at work and can never return to work again,
Speaker 3: two years of cover is going to do nothing. I
Speaker 3: need to be covered until retirement age so I can
Speaker 3: still meet my financial goals and my life goals and
Speaker 3: still have a life, Whereas if I had relied solely
Speaker 3: on that two year policy that was inside my superfund,
Speaker 3: after two years, I'd be scrambling to work out what
Speaker 3: I was going to do if I was on a
Speaker 3: able to return to work. So I think it's really
Speaker 3: important to understand the semantics around that. The only insurance
Speaker 3: you cannot hold inside superranuation is called trauma insurance, and
Speaker 3: to me that's quite an important one. But again it's
Speaker 3: kind of like the icing on the top. I would
Speaker 3: really prioritize getting income protection because it baffles me here
Speaker 3: in Australia that, g you'll insury your iPhone, you'll insure
Speaker 3: your car, you'll you know, we did a travel episode recently,
Speaker 3: you'll go and insure the camera that you bought. That's
Speaker 3: you know, a couple of grand and I totally get that,
Speaker 3: but you don't look at yourself as an asset like
Speaker 3: you and your body are able to go to work
Speaker 3: every day, g and make money. That is your biggest resource.
Speaker 3: That is your biggest asset. Why aren't we protecting that?
Speaker 3: And that's what income protection does. So I won't go
Speaker 3: on and on, but essentially, insurance inside superanuation can be
Speaker 3: a little bit lackluster and not put you in the
Speaker 3: best possible position. Holding an inside zuper is not a
Speaker 3: bad idea. It can be a bit of a money
Speaker 3: win when it comes to tax and what you pay.
Speaker 3: But it's all about being proactive and having a look
Speaker 3: at it and going is this serving my needs and
Speaker 3: what I actually need to get out of an insurance policy?
Speaker 3: And if you haven't reviewed it, I guess now is
Speaker 3: the time to do that, my friends? All right?
Speaker 2: Next one under this super umbrella V. It comes from Ariana.
Speaker 2: I ditched insurance from my super in my early twenties.
Speaker 2: Now I'm thirty five and I'm wondering where to start.
Speaker 3: This is a really common one for our community. I
Speaker 3: would start by having a look at your super fund.
Speaker 3: I've said it before. Call your super fund, have a
Speaker 3: chat to them about what they offer, so you know
Speaker 3: what that looks like. But in all honesty, if you're
Speaker 3: thirty five and do not have any insurance, i'd go
Speaker 3: talk to a financial advisor, absolutely straight out of the gate,
Speaker 3: go and organize your insurances. It will be one of
Speaker 3: the most important things you do for your financial future.
Speaker 2: All right, let's move on now. V two Income insurances,
Speaker 2: which I know you just encover. Protection extremely important.
Speaker 3: I will talk about this all day if you guys
Speaker 3: will listen, bab grab a drink. This is not Friday drinks,
Speaker 3: but this is what I talk about with my friends
Speaker 3: at Friday drinks in real life. Gee, exactly right. No, really,
Speaker 3: it's a bit sad.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: The first question here comes from Beck as a sole trader.
Speaker 2: What options do you have for income protection?
Speaker 3: You have a lot of options. The important thing here
Speaker 3: is proving your financials in the same way that you
Speaker 3: would have to apply for a mortgage. So sole traders
Speaker 3: obviously get the raw end of the deal when it
Speaker 3: comes to getting approoved for anything. Let's be honest, however,
Speaker 3: it's about having clean bookkeeping and clean financials and going
Speaker 3: to an insurance provider and saying, hey, cool, I want
Speaker 3: to apply for income protection. I'm a consultant, I am
Speaker 3: an engineer, I do whatever I do, and then going
Speaker 3: this is my income and this is how I've proven it.
Speaker 3: So usually you can't go straight out on your own
Speaker 3: and go, oh my gosh, I'm out on my own
Speaker 3: and I've organized my insurance. It's very unlikely that they'll
Speaker 3: accept that because they'll honestly, they'll just see you as
Speaker 3: unemployed at that point. However, if you've got a couple
Speaker 3: of years of tax returns and you've proven you our
Speaker 3: ability to generate income, they're very likely to consider it. Obviously,
Speaker 3: you need to make sure that you're not a sole
Speaker 3: trader in an industry that doesn't have a good time
Speaker 3: when it comes to income protection. However, I would again
Speaker 3: be talking specifically to a financial advisor and working out
Speaker 3: what actual insurances you need as a small business owner,
Speaker 3: because if you're a soule trader, you're a small business
Speaker 3: owner basically, and working out what other insurances you need
Speaker 3: because you might need like public indemnity insurance or any
Speaker 3: other types of insurance that are necessary for your industry.
Speaker 3: So it really would be important to talk to a
Speaker 3: financial advisor or an insurance broker.
Speaker 2: Nice all right, let's move on to Katie. Now, Kai, Katie,
Speaker 2: I'm nervous about income protection due to pre existing conditions.
Speaker 2: Do you have any tips? So I'm assuming that means
Speaker 2: health conditions, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So a pre existing condition is something that will
Speaker 3: either limit your ability to get income protection to its
Speaker 3: full capacity or it will stop you from getting it completely.
Speaker 3: So in our industry, g this is cooked. And a
Speaker 3: few people that are very close to us have recently
Speaker 3: gone through this, and it makes my blood boil. Drink COVID.
Speaker 3: We had a pretty pretty hard time right rough time.
Speaker 3: Rough time, really isolated. People were going online and getting
Speaker 3: telehealth appointments and organizing psychologists to talk through that because
Speaker 3: arguably we went through a traumatic event together, right. It
Speaker 3: was not easy. However, recently, I've had a few people
Speaker 3: put in insurance applications for income protection and it has
Speaker 3: come back from the insurer and they've said, look, because
Speaker 3: they saw a psychologist and had quote mental health issues,
Speaker 3: we're not able to give them cover for mental health.
Speaker 3: So they give you what's called an exclusion, which is
Speaker 3: where they exclude a part of you from being insured.
Speaker 3: So they will say, look, gee, I'm not going to
Speaker 3: ensure your mental health, but I will ensure everything else.
Speaker 3: So if you stop work because you broke your leg
Speaker 3: and you no longer can come into the studio, we'll
Speaker 3: cover that. However, if you have to take time off
Speaker 3: and you're not able to work due to your mental
Speaker 3: health health, we won't be covering that, and you go, well,
Speaker 3: that's a bit unfair. Exclusions do suck. They are very common.
Speaker 3: The insurance industry is getting so strict. Honestly, they are
Speaker 3: so behind from my perspective, in understanding mental health and
Speaker 3: understanding medication and what people go through. I mean, they're trying.
Speaker 3: It is a very dated industry in a way, but
Speaker 3: a lot of people are trying a lot of things. However,
Speaker 3: I think it's really important to understand that the earlier
Speaker 3: you get insurance, the less likely you are to have
Speaker 3: an exclusion on your policy. So the older you get,
Speaker 3: the more likely you are to break things or have
Speaker 3: a bad back, or you know, twist your ankle at
Speaker 3: netball like I've done before. And I'm in the very
Speaker 3: grateful position where I got my income protection when I
Speaker 3: was quite young, So it was when I was first
Speaker 3: in the industry, like maybe twenty two year old. Victoria
Speaker 3: was like rearing to go. She got her income protection
Speaker 3: and had absolutely no exclusions. However, I'm telling you right now,
Speaker 3: if I to apply for income protection, that would exclude
Speaker 3: my back because I sit at a desk all day
Speaker 3: and I go to a physio relatively often for massages
Speaker 3: and making sure that I stop getting these random headaches
Speaker 3: that I get. I also have a mental health care
Speaker 3: plan and I see a psychologist more regularly. I'm not
Speaker 3: saying I didn't need it. At twenty two, I was
Speaker 3: just a lot poorer and couldn't afford my mental health
Speaker 3: care plan, so I wasn't doing it. But now I'm
Speaker 3: in my thirties, I see a psychologist regularly. But because
Speaker 3: I see a psychologist regularly, and the reason I see
Speaker 3: a psychologist is, you know, noted down as depression and anxiety,
Speaker 3: I know for sure that I wouldn't have got income
Speaker 3: protection on that, which is really disappointing but so important
Speaker 3: to talk about because it's a really disappointing thing to
Speaker 3: happen when you've been working with a financial advisor and
Speaker 3: they come back and be like, hey, gee, so we
Speaker 3: reviewed your circumstances and your application, and they spoke to
Speaker 3: your doctor and they're not willing to cover your ankle
Speaker 3: or you need or your back or this certain part
Speaker 3: of your back, or your mental health, and I just
Speaker 3: think it's it's a bit sucky. But essentially, if you're
Speaker 3: worried about income protect for pre existing conditions, the best
Speaker 3: thing you can do is actually talk to a financial
Speaker 3: advisor about it. See what insurers are the best options
Speaker 3: for you, because different insurers have different policies. So I
Speaker 3: know that if I'm talking to a client and they
Speaker 3: have a higher BMI, I know that there are a
Speaker 3: few insurers I'll go down the road to instead of
Speaker 3: others because I know the breadth of what they will
Speaker 3: and won't accept just from experience, and a financial advisor
Speaker 3: is going to guide you through that. And then if
Speaker 3: you do have an exclusion, one of the most important
Speaker 3: things I would ask my financial advisor is, hey, Georgia,
Speaker 3: I see I've got an exclusion. Is it ever going
Speaker 3: to be reviewed? Is this blanket? Like, is this something
Speaker 3: that's going to exist for the entire policy or at
Speaker 3: what point in time are they willing to review it?
Speaker 3: Because often I ask that question, like every single time
Speaker 3: I've gotten an exclusion, and sometimes the underwriter will come
Speaker 3: back and be like, oh, well, actually we can review
Speaker 3: that in two years if she has a clean medical record.
Speaker 3: So then in two years you'll come back and be like,
Speaker 3: haven't had any issues with my ankle, haven't had to
Speaker 3: do anything. Can you guys please remove it? And they
Speaker 3: very likely will. So I think it's about just knowing
Speaker 3: what you can and can't do. But the biggest thing
Speaker 3: I would say there is it is not a bad
Speaker 3: thing to have exclusions because you're still getting access to
Speaker 3: the rest of that income protection policy. So you're covered
Speaker 3: for cancer and you're covered for everything else that might
Speaker 3: potentially go wrong. And I think sometimes people throw their
Speaker 3: hands in there and go, well, if I'm not covered
Speaker 3: for mental health, like, what's the point, Like, because mental
Speaker 3: health is not the only reason. Yeah, my how to
Speaker 3: stop works. Yeah, there's a lot of other things that
Speaker 3: are included.
Speaker 2: This could be a silly question, but say God forbid,
Speaker 2: tomorrow I get diagnosed with cancer. I can't then apply
Speaker 2: for coming yet.
Speaker 3: That would be a pre existing condition, and they would say, George,
Speaker 3: I like, you already had this, We're not covering you,
Speaker 3: And so that's why just get it while you're healthy.
Speaker 3: So many times we say Oh my gosh, I don't
Speaker 3: need it, Like I'm not going to waste my money
Speaker 3: on that because I'm healthy and young. Like things happen
Speaker 3: to people every single day, and unfortunately in my industry
Speaker 3: because of what I see and what my actual job is,
Speaker 3: like I'm a part of that claims process, Like I
Speaker 3: have seen people in their late twenties be absolutely wiped
Speaker 3: out financially and their working capacity from things they never
Speaker 3: foresaw coming. Like I had a client, and you know,
Speaker 3: he's a really good client of mine, one of the
Speaker 3: fittest guys you will ever meet, late twenties, was riding
Speaker 3: his bike through the Melbourne CBD got hit by a bus.
Speaker 3: He's okay now. That broke his pelvis, both his legs,
Speaker 3: a whole heap of ribs, and was not able to
Speaker 3: work for a good eight months because you couldn't. Income
Speaker 3: protection saved him because he had a mortgage and two
Speaker 3: young kids, and that's the thing that enabled him to
Speaker 3: one take sickly from work but also be able to
Speaker 3: provide for his family. So for me, it is really important.
Speaker 3: It doesn't matter how healthy you are, because bad things
Speaker 3: happen to good people, all right.
Speaker 2: Last one here before we had to a little break.
Speaker 2: It comes from Nicole. How do I choose a provider
Speaker 2: for income protection insurance? It's overwhelming?
Speaker 3: I feel like this is I sound like a broken
Speaker 3: record age. Go see a financial advisor. I have a
Speaker 3: chat to Phil Thompson from Sky Wealth. I am obviously
Speaker 3: a big fan of him. But that's because I trust
Speaker 3: his advice and I trust that that she's on the
Speaker 3: money community know that, like I'm not making money from
Speaker 3: pheel Like there's no referral arrangement or anything like that.
Speaker 3: I just think it's so important to put you guys
Speaker 3: in the best possible position. And how good is it?
Speaker 3: G Like she's on the money has meant that my
Speaker 3: business can't take on any more clients at this point,
Speaker 3: So why wouldn't I promote the best financial advisors that
Speaker 3: I know? So it makes sense, but I would talk
Speaker 3: to a financial advisor. But I also believe this is
Speaker 3: so lame. But I believe that an income protection policy
Speaker 3: kind of chooses you because it's like a funnel. Right,
Speaker 3: we set out to understand what we need. We go
Speaker 3: all right, well, what do we actually need? We might
Speaker 3: need a certain amount of cover that might push a
Speaker 3: lot of policies off the table because there are you know,
Speaker 3: a limited number that off of the amount that you need,
Speaker 3: it might be pre existing conditions. So you need to
Speaker 3: work with an insurer that actually will accept that or
Speaker 3: give you terms that make sense to you and your
Speaker 3: personal circumstances. In our insurance industry, BMI is a really
Speaker 3: big thing. I hate talking about this because I think
Speaker 3: it's ridiculous. BMI I don't believe is a good indicator
Speaker 3: of health. However the insurance industry does. And if you've
Speaker 3: got a higher BMI or even a lower BMI, there
Speaker 3: are particular insurance companies that I would use over and
Speaker 3: above that. But you need to take your personal circumstances
Speaker 3: into consideration before you actually look at a company. You
Speaker 3: can't just head to a company's website and be like, oh,
Speaker 3: these guys look good. I'll look at their pds and
Speaker 3: make sure they're fine. Because some policies have really good
Speaker 3: guynecological care. Others don't have that at all. There are
Speaker 3: other insurance policies g that only cover one type of
Speaker 3: breast cancer and not the other. So if you have
Speaker 3: the Bracker gene, which is the gene that is hereditary
Speaker 3: in your system. That means if you carry that, they
Speaker 3: might say absolutely not, We're not going to ensure you
Speaker 3: at all for breast cancer. However, there are other policies
Speaker 3: that might consider that. So I think it's not necessary
Speaker 3: about which insurance policy should I pick, but more one
Speaker 3: of my personal circumstances that genuinely need to be taken
Speaker 3: into consideration here, because for me, I'm in my thirties.
Speaker 3: I've spoken about this honestly and openly. At some point,
Speaker 3: I would love to have kids. I want my reproductive
Speaker 3: system to be insured. I want to make sure that
Speaker 3: I'm okay in those circumstances. No, it doesn't pay for
Speaker 3: IVF and stuff like that, because I know that question
Speaker 3: is coming. However, what if something goes dramatically wrong during childbirth?
Speaker 3: Am I covered for that? Or am I not? Because
Speaker 3: there are some policies that don't cover for that because technically,
Speaker 3: if you're giving birth, you're on maternity leave, and if
Speaker 3: you're not at work you're not covered.
Speaker 2: Oh what the devil.
Speaker 3: So from my perspective, the best possible thing you can
Speaker 3: do when sorting out your insurances is actually get some
Speaker 3: advice and put yourself in the best possible position.
Speaker 2: Perfect great advice before the break. On the other side,
Speaker 2: we'll be chatting health insurance. We'll be chatting about general
Speaker 2: insurance questions. We'll were talking about life insurance. We're gonna
Speaker 2: do it all sexy, stick around, straight back into it,
Speaker 2: Victoria Divine. We're going to start with some general insurance questions,
Speaker 2: which I'm quite excited about. The first one that comes
Speaker 2: from Hannah in your opinion be do you think people
Speaker 2: are over insured?
Speaker 3: No such thing as being overinsured or over educated? Is
Speaker 3: that the from Oscar wild or did I just make that?
Speaker 2: I mean I've not heard it.
Speaker 3: Actually, Georgia King, I think we're wildly underinsured. And I
Speaker 3: don't think we are. I know we are because Australia
Speaker 3: is the most underinsured country in the entire world, or
Speaker 3: the first world country in the entire world, and that
Speaker 3: is not a good thing. But I mean it's a
Speaker 3: trusting thing, right. We discussed this in our Travel Insurance podcast,
Speaker 3: which was a really good one, where I explained that
Speaker 3: all of us as Australians are just so trusting that
Speaker 3: we just don't see it as a priority. We're like, oh,
Speaker 3: nothing's gonna happen, it's fine, or I'll just move back
Speaker 3: in with Mum and dad if something happens, or huh,
Speaker 3: I'll just go into Centlink. And I mean, do you
Speaker 3: know what, there are some circumstances where you might do
Speaker 3: the pros and cons, and with your income, it might
Speaker 3: actually be less than what Centerlink is. So if you
Speaker 3: can't work, a disability pension might actually be your best
Speaker 3: port of call. But that's a circumstance. You actually need
Speaker 3: to do the maths on and work out whether that
Speaker 3: works for you or not. But no, I don't think
Speaker 3: people are overinsured. I think they're underinsured. However, I think
Speaker 3: that we prioritize the wrong types of insurance, like yeah,
Speaker 3: we so likely to take out additional iPhone insurance, or
Speaker 3: like I went and bought new headphones the other day,
Speaker 3: and I really wanted some air pods because I've been
Speaker 3: using like fake air pods until now, which are terrible.
Speaker 3: The quality is insane, Like, oh my gosh, it's insane
Speaker 3: that twelve dollars eBay headphones are not nearly as good
Speaker 3: as the two hundred and fifty dollars AirPods that I purchased.
Speaker 3: But I splurged, right, and a checkout they're like would
Speaker 3: you like to extend Apple Care insurance for another two
Speaker 3: years for like this amount of money, and I was like, no,
Speaker 3: I would prefer to spend I think it was like
Speaker 3: sixty nine dollars or something, whereas I'd prefer to spend
Speaker 3: that on a trauma policy or on something that protects
Speaker 3: It's me. I don't need to protect my headphones. And
Speaker 3: I totally get if other people see the value in that,
Speaker 3: and like you do you However, I just think that
Speaker 3: we prioritize the wrong things, Like it doesn't make sense
Speaker 3: to me that someone will go and insure their air
Speaker 3: pods and not insure their person.
Speaker 2: Well that's where it gets confusing, though, isn't it, Because
Speaker 2: there are gimmicky insurances out there that make it really
Speaker 2: confusing because.
Speaker 3: You're like, will ensure anything you can, and you.
Speaker 2: Can, and you can kind of conflate that and think
Speaker 2: that it's equal to income insurance when it's when it's
Speaker 2: a little different and you don't need it, which leads
Speaker 2: me v to our next question, which comes from Jess.
Speaker 2: How do you know if you're being overcharged or paying
Speaker 2: for things you don't need?
Speaker 3: Just in general when it comes to insurance, when it
Speaker 3: comes to insurance, so that's where you want to understand
Speaker 3: exactly what you're getting to be blunt. Insurance can be
Speaker 3: really expensive, and it's a bit like health insurance, right.
Speaker 3: The more you pay, the more you get or the
Speaker 3: more access you have to different things and opportunities. I
Speaker 3: think it's just about being educated and understanding exactly what
Speaker 3: your policy is and what it's made up of, and
Speaker 3: understanding what the market's doing, and talking to your advisor
Speaker 3: and saying should I do this or shouldn't I do this? However,
Speaker 3: you know, if you're in a position, gee where you've
Speaker 3: had hysterectomy for some reason, I wouldn't want to be
Speaker 3: paying for reproductive health if I had gone through that.
Speaker 3: I think it's just important to have a look at
Speaker 3: something and understand what benefits you and what doesn't. Because
Speaker 3: hysterically g I have seen people come into our office
Speaker 3: sit down and I'm like, oh my gosh, what have
Speaker 3: you got? And they've got like these epic policies. This
Speaker 3: was a fair few years ago, and it wasn't my client.
Speaker 3: It was a financial advisor in my officer's client and
Speaker 3: he reviewed these client's insurances and he had maternity cover
Speaker 3: and like full like childbirth cover and all of this
Speaker 3: other stuff, and we were like, buts mail, Like this
Speaker 3: makes no sense, and like, obviously I'm not being insensitive here.
Speaker 3: We knew for sure that this client was mail. It
Speaker 3: wasn't a question of like, oh my gosh, is there
Speaker 3: something that you know we're not privy to, because you're
Speaker 3: very sensitive to those things. However, we're like, no, this
Speaker 3: bloke does not need this and called the insurance company.
Speaker 3: They're like, oh, yeah, it was default, Like, we can
Speaker 3: remove it. You're right, it would reduce his premiums and
Speaker 3: we're like, yeah, do that, but also please refund us
Speaker 3: for the entire time he has had that, because he
Speaker 3: shouldn't have been paying for that, and you guys know that.
Speaker 3: So it was kind of funny at the time, but
Speaker 3: also really cheeky. So I think it's just about understanding
Speaker 3: what you're getting, having a chat to your advisor, and
Speaker 3: then like, what's the harm in giving your insurance company
Speaker 3: a call and saying, hey, guys, just got my premium
Speaker 3: statement in the mail. Any chance you can do a
Speaker 3: better deal than that? Otherwise I might look elsewhere and
Speaker 3: they might say yes or no or explain to you
Speaker 3: why your premium is such. But I think it's important
Speaker 3: to always ask questions, but always be educated as well.
Speaker 3: But also on that g be really careful about changing
Speaker 3: your insurance company, because, for example, I could today go
Speaker 3: and get rid of my income protection policy and go
Speaker 3: get a cheaper one. It's a no brainer when it
Speaker 3: comes to the semantics of like what's cheaper. Right, However,
Speaker 3: I have an insurance policy that has no exclusions, has
Speaker 3: a whole heap of benefits for me personally. You know,
Speaker 3: it was written a long time ago, so I'm actually
Speaker 3: completely covered. If I went and got a new insurance
Speaker 3: policy today, there would be exclusions, there would be a
Speaker 3: whole heap of things that, to be honest, is not
Speaker 3: worth changing. Like I'm not going to go get a
Speaker 3: cheaper policy because with insurance, it's actually about the quality
Speaker 3: of the insurance, not necessarily getting the cheapest cover, because
Speaker 3: that's not going to put you in the best possible position.
Speaker 3: So would I go out and get the cheaper policy. No.
Speaker 3: Would I try and negotiate a better rate on my
Speaker 3: existing policy. Absolutely. So I'm in that tricky position where
Speaker 3: I don't want to change mine because I do have
Speaker 3: a financial advisor written policy that is in my best interests. However,
Speaker 3: that's where you want to have those conversations around is
Speaker 3: this what's best for me? Because we all know that. Mate,
Speaker 3: that's like, oh, I don't need insurance. I just canceled it,
Speaker 3: like I don't need it in my souper and you're like,
Speaker 3: oh my gosh, like that was such a valuable thing
Speaker 3: to have. And even and if you don't want insurance
Speaker 3: inside super like another recommendation. If you want to save
Speaker 3: some money and you're just not sure about the super,
Speaker 3: lower the amount instead of being covered for half a
Speaker 3: million dollars, the call up and see what's the lost amount.
Speaker 3: I can be insured to keep that policy so that
Speaker 3: I save some money. But also I'm not putting future
Speaker 3: me in a worse off position. So I think it's
Speaker 3: just important to know that you can dial things down
Speaker 3: and then later you can dial them back up. But
Speaker 3: if you cancel them completely, you could find yourself in
Speaker 3: a sticky situation.
Speaker 2: Brilliant V. I feel like I have so many more
Speaker 2: questions to pepper your ways. So I'm making an executive decision.
Speaker 2: Here are we gonna press pause? I love, so we
Speaker 2: can all take in what we've learned today and then
Speaker 2: we're going to do a part two to this episode,
Speaker 2: so can I that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, great idea, So let's let's do this. And I
Speaker 3: feel like people could be like, this is really dry, V,
Speaker 3: but like it's important for you to know, right, all right,
Speaker 3: why don't you wrap the boring but important stuff and
Speaker 3: you guys can get on with your day.
Speaker 2: It would be a pleasure already. Guys, please remember that
Speaker 2: the advice shared on She's on the Money is general
Speaker 2: in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's
Speaker 2: on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should
Speaker 2: not be relied upon to make an investment or a
Speaker 2: financial decision. And we promise Victoria Divine and She's on
Speaker 2: the Money are authorized representatives of in Focused Securities Australia
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Speaker 2: three See You're on Friday, Guys, by Guys