So why? Like, what's your view on the benefit period?

Yeah, so we got in a little bit of beef on LinkedIn, which is always fun.

You know, social media arguments, everyone wins.

And so, you know, the argument was why we recommended age 65.

Now, the client is 37 years old.

So if they went on claim and couldn't work until age 65, that's a significant amount of years of loss of income.

So I just did the math and worked out if they did a two-year benefit period, they would receive around $200,000 in total benefits.

grand.

Did any of those victories stand out to you of those players that made it, or were you surprised by any of those guys that made this 53-man roster for the Bears?

Well, let me kind of take one back.

You mentioned Ozzie Trapillo, and I had a conversation with the inimitable Brad Biggs, who you all know, and in this discussion he was pointing out that You know, they put him on IR.

You know, he can't practice.

And it may be a case where they sacrifice that spot.

So he has that ability to slowly ramp up, slowly practice, get his confidence back.

Because his coaches keep mentioning, you know, we want him confident.

Teammates have called it bizarre? Phil, this is serious.

It's not like car insurance where they can actually cook you a little bit.

Exa- it's not like home and contents when they can increase it, because, um, under Life Insurance Act, they're not allowed to, um, charge you a higher premium because of your claims experience if you've got the policy in place.

And so it is really important if you need the stress leave and you've been advised, you've got medical advice to take stress leave, then go and take time off work and use that income protection.

That's the whole safety net that you've paid f- premiums for and that you've set up, so go and use it.

Now, when considering new policies, um- That experience, that mental health treatment and advice and recommendation will impact a future policy.

So if you need to go and increase your income protection in the future, they will consider that advice.

Even if you don't take stress leave, just a doctor advising you to take time off work will have an impact on any future policies.

"Isn't the default coverage in my super enough?"

Do that.

So in terms of...

One thing about insurance, and the thing I love most about insurance is it's all about a puzzle piece.

So one person's experience with the one insurer may be different with other insurers.

Um, and someone's, you know, substance misuse, it very dependent on when it is, how long ago it was, you know, has, has life changed significantly? Like what does that look like? So when it comes to, um, applying for cover with insurance, um, it's sometimes it's about telling a story with the underwriter and especially with substance misuse.

The, you know, insurers do have a pretty strict rule on that.

Anytime in the last five years, they may have a concern or issue.

I'll, I'll be the ba- I'll be strategically the bad cop

Mm-hmm.

And then what we do is we will understand what existing cover, um, a client has, uh, and then determine, all right, is that worthwhile keeping, or is it worthwhile replacing, or is it worthwhile increasing, uh, where it is? So we'll do the analysis and do all the research, and then we'll come back, uh, and present a statement of advice.

Um, and really the three key things that we talk about in the statement of advice is, first of all, based on your health history and your occupation-

Mm

... um, now they have, they have a similar, uh, wording.

Um, so any occupation is a life insurance is reasonably suited, um, for includes suitable alternative occupations where up- upskilling is required, and training, and the training course program can be completed within 12 months.

Um, how rigorous was that testing and, um, what were you put through? And was anything like this raised when you went through or not?

No, [laughs] this, this wasn't a thing, uh, when I went through and, you know, I'm, I'm only thirty-seven.

Um, you know, so, uh, I'm not, I'm not too far, uh, gone from, from the enlistment days.

But you, you go through your basic training, you do your, your, your pushups, your sit-ups.

Your-- If you go to the infantry, you're doing, um, heaves or, or chin-ups and hang testing, two point four runs.

Uh, but the standard was the standard, and there wasn't a, a, a special lever to get out of that or to change that.

And when, uh, they then allowed women to join the infantry, the standard was the standard.

I mean, I would've thought that is really, really important when it comes to our veterans, mate.

But just give us a little bit about a sense of your business and how you do things.

Yeah.

So Sky Wealth, we only provide advice on personal insurance advice.

Uh, so, um, personal insurance being life insurance, income protection, TPD, and trauma.

Um, and so that's all we do, and we're experts at that.

Um, we work remotely with every client, so you don't need to come to an office.

Um, we try and make it as easy as possible for clients, um, 'cause getting insurance is not an easy process.

So do you wanna talk us through this whole lay of the land, what's happening with group covers, all that stuff, and then give some examples of the benefits of going to a financial advisor like Sky Wealth to get your personal insurances sorted?

What would you do?

Well, I'm, uh, Peta, I'm, I'm, I'm heartbroken.

I'm sad that we, we in Australia are, are talking about using potential military [laughs] force to, to...

in our own borders because people aren't safe.

And, uh, hearing that three people, uh, have lost their job, that, that's...

I'm sorry, that's not good enough.

A little girl lost her life.

We're not assisting them." Come on.

What do we look out for?

Um, PSA, just there's a few things to note.

So it says without losing your insurance.

So what that means is if you're not paying premiums and you try and claim, you're not getting paid a claim.

So just be aware when they, when we're talking about not losing insurance, you can't claim on it at the time of which you've, you're not paying the premium.

So that's just something to be aware of, especially when you're going on, you know, parental leave, um, or maternity leave really, you know, having a baby.

I haven't had one myself, um, but it is a big medical procedure that does have some risk, um, with it.

No, you can't

What, what was it like for you in East Timor and then Afghanistan, Phil?

Well, East Timor, I was 18, so I, I'd never been out of the country, never been on a long flight.

Next thing you know, I'm in a country that doesn't speak English.

It was, it w- it was peacekeeping, uh, but it was still real.

You could...

You still saw, um, you know, the, the gangs, you still saw some of the, some of the carnage and the-The, uh, the follow on from, say, the Interfet in 1999, but it really harnessed that kind of mateship and teamwork, which helped me in Afghanistan.

And I was twenty-one in Afghanistan, and I, I remember, uh, thinking about it just recently.

That, that's something that, that, that stays with you forever, Phil.

So I guess let's make it real and, and maybe if there's a, an example that you can talk to us where you've helped a client through a claim, uh, maybe just bring this, um, bring this whole topic, I guess, a bit more to reality, grounded in reality for us.

Yeah.

So I, I...

There's kind of...

I mean, we, we work with clients all the time.

Um, and we've got a clients manager who that's their full-time job, is just helping our clients with claims.

So the first thing that came to mind is, uh, last Monday we had a phone call with a husband and called us up and said his, his wife just passed away, a horrific car accident.

[laughs]

So when should women, especially those who are planning a pregnancy, they're not pregnant right now, but they're planning to be pregnant in the future, look at personal insurances to put themselves in the best position or best position to have a favorable outcome?

Really, as I said, today is the best time, but if you are p- planning a, a family, a part of that conversation and, and discussion is, you know, how much time are we gonna have off work? You know, what's, how are we gonna fund this time? And as a part of that, you should be looking at personal insurance as well, thinking about getting that in place.

So pre-pregnancy is ideal, but that doesn't mean that if you're pregnant, you can't get insurance cover.

There are lots of options.

It just means that there may be limited insurers that we can use.

So some insurers will cover you all the way up until birth, uh, for income protection.

Some will say, "Okay, you've gotta be in the first two trimesters before we'll, we'll offer income protection."

So with all of that in mind, what do you think are the most important things women need to know about income protection?

Is it true with each individual insurance company and the reinsurers that sit behind the insurance companies that their own internal data may be different?

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

So the reinsurers will have their own assessment and use their own medical data, and, and a lot of actually the reinsurers' data is actually, um, global data sets, so not a lot of it is, uh, specific to Australia.

Um, but they use a lot of those assumptions that they gain from claims worldwide, and they bring it to the Australian market, and they make a lot of assumptions on, on what will happen.

So one insurance company will have their own, um, uh, reinsurer, and another insurance company will use another reinsurer, and sometimes those data sets will, will impact.

So, um, really simple examples are, you know, family history of cancer.

Mm.

Why do we need it? What is it? How do we get it? And why should we not just rely on the fact that we have two years cover in our super sometimes?

Mm.

Yeah, income protection's the most important because your income's the most important.

When everyone thinks about their financial goals and objectives that they want to achieve, they need their income to be able to achieve it, and so we need to be able to protect that income if something bad happens.

So a lot of super cover will cover up to two years, and so what that means is if you're injured, ill, sick, can't work for most reasons, then you'll get paid a monthly payment from the insurance provider after that initial waiting period.

So you've gotta wait a certain amount of time, so it's kinda like car insurance excess.

You've gotta pay a certain amount with car insurance excess.

So like when do we try and talk about income protection?

so one of the big questions we often get is to invest inside or outside of super and we touched earlier about the differences between um having insurance inside or outside of super mainly from the cash flow point of view but what about from a tax point of view are there any benefits

Yeah.

So, this is where I'm going to geek out a little bit.

Love it.

So, one thing with life insurance, when that's paid inside a super, your super fund can get a tax deduction for that.

So, effectively, it's 15% cheaper for the life insurance.

If that's paid outside a super, there's no tax deduction.

you got your full 12% going to insurance premiums? No, no.