Insurance affordability. You're in control

Reducing your cover or making changes to your insurance is one way to keep your policy affordable. We recommend speaking to your financial adviser before making any changes.

• Reduce how much cover you have: Your insurance needs may change over time. For example, if you’ve reduced your mortgage or your kids have finished their education, you may not need as much cover as before.
• Income Protection – increase the waiting period: A waiting period is the period between becoming disabled or ill, and when an income protection benefit starts being paid. You may have accumulated extra sick or holiday leave that can provide an income buffer if you are unable to work due to sickness or injury. By increasing your ‘waiting period’ for example from 30 days to 60 or 90 days (longer waiting periods are available) you may reduce your premium.
• Income Protection – reduce the benefit period: A benefit payment period is the maximum length of time your income protection or benefit is paid for while you remain disabled. As you get older or your financial situation changes, you may not require the same benefit payment period you chose when you took out your policy. Reducing your benefit payment period may result in a reduction to your premium. For example, moving from a Lifetime benefit to an aged 65 benefit or reducing your period from an aged 65 benefit to being paid a benefit for 5 years.
• Removing additional options: Your insurance policy may include additional cost options – like premium waiver, Life Cover buy back, which carry additional costs. Removing an option that you no longer require can help reduce your premiums, but it does remove the benefit of the option. You can ask us to remove any additional options. But remember that if you do cancel these, you will not be able to claim under them and may not be able to add them back in the future if you change your mind.
• Restructure your insurance from standalone to linked: If you have life, total & permanent disability and/or trauma insurance, you may be able to choose to make the covers either standalone plans or link them under the same plan. Standalone plans usually have a higher premium than linked cover, as with linked cover any claims on one type of cover generally reduces the sum insured for the other linked cover. For this reason, standalone plans are more expensive.