Month: July 2017

As we grow older, it’s inevitable that our lives will change. Nothing stays the same and neither should your insurance. Your life insurance should reflect your lifestyle, cover your expenses and the payout should be available to the people in your life who need it the most.

So with this in mind, we can all agree that life insurance cover should never stay the same for the entirety of our lives, but how exactly does our need for insurance change over time? In this article, we will explain why you will need life insurance at each stage of your life, why you should be making changes to your policy as you get older, and how it can be done.

 

Growing Older

When you’re young, fit and healthy with not a care in the world, life insurance is probably the last thing on your mind. But as you grow older and your health deteriorates, your priorities start to change. You won’t be alive forever, and you start to ask yourself what you’ll be leaving for your loved ones after you’re gone.

As adulthood creeps upon you, and you continue to spend the money you earn, and debts begin to pile up, who’s going to pay off your debts and mortgage when you pass away? With the right insurance cover, your debts will be taken care of. Even if you’re single and have no dependants, taking out a life insurance policy could significantly help your family if you passed away.

 

Earning More Money

If you’re making more money thanks to a recent promotion or career change, you have probably adjusted your lifestyle to suit your larger paycheck. Because you now have more money at your disposal, you will probably buy a bigger house, purchase a more expensive car or send your kids to a private school.

If you already have life insurance or income protection insurance in place, will it cover the expensive lifestyle you now lead? If not, it might be time to update your insurance details to reflect current earnings and living costs.

 

Getting Married and Buying a House

Having that special someone in your life opens your world up to new possibilities, and it also means you have another person in your life to look after other than yourself. If you already have life insurance in place, you’ll probably want to make your partner the beneficiary of your policy.

Things begin to get more complex when a house comes into the equation. If you and your spouse decide to buy a house together, both of you are likely to contribute towards the repayments. But how would your partner pay off the mortgage on their own if you were to pass away?

This is why buying a house is one of the major reasons why couples decide to take out life insurance; to ensure neither partner is left with the burden of paying off a mortgage. Thanks to the money they receive from the life insurance handout, they should have enough money to get by.

 

Having Children

Once children are brought into your world, your priorities shift in more ways than one. You want to protect your kids more than anything and taking out life insurance has to be one of the best ways to do that. This is especially the case for households that rely on one income.

Raising children is an expensive exercise at the best of times but if you lose your sole income earner, keeping up with expenses can be near impossible. That’s why your current insurance needs to be updated to cover the extra costs that come with having kids such as school fees and additional living expenses required to keep your family happy and healthy.

The death of a parent is a hard thing to overcome, and this is especially so if life insurance is not in place. If you haven’t taken the plunge into life insurance yet, now is the time to do it. With cover in place, you can trust that your children will still be looked after financially if you do pass away unexpectedly.

You should also make sure your children are listed as beneficiaries in case both you and your partner were to pass away.

 

Getting Divorced

If a relationship falls apart, divorce is often the unfortunate result. Both of your lives will head in different directions, and you will be settling into single life again, separated from the commitment and obligations that go along with marriage.

If you do ever get divorced, you will probably want to remove your ex-spouse as a beneficiary from your life insurance policy. Your expenses are also likely to change, so make sure this is factored in and changes are made to your policy if needed so you get adequate cover for your new circumstances.

 

Retirement

Once you reach retirement age, your kids have probably moved out of home, which cuts out a significant expense in your life. Many retirees may also own their property outright or choose to downsize their home or move to a retirement village which also saves on costs.

With all of this cost-cutting in your life, your need for life insurance is likely to decrease dramatically. You will probably want to make changes to your policy to equate for your lower living expenses. If you can afford it, you could choose to keep your life insurance as is to cover estate taxes, general living expenses for your partner and you could even have money left over to give to charity.

 

Why You Should Review Your Life Insurance Policy

If you don’t already have life insurance in place, all of these life stages will probably encourage you to consider it. Once you finally decide to purchase life insurance, it should then be reviewed whenever you experience any significant lifestyle changes.

Your life insurance needs will always fluctuate so you have to adapt. If you have too much cover, you risk paying too much money for a policy that is too excessive for your needs. And if your policy is not up to scratch, you risk having a payout that does not cover your expenses.

The biggest reason to review your life insurance policy is to save money. Take some time out of your busy schedule to look at the features in your policy and whether all of those extras are still needed. If there is anything that no longer needs to be included, take them out and your premium will likely reduce. Same goes with reducing your overall cover amount.

The other major reason to review your policy is to make sure you are not under-insured. You may need to add on some extras and features to cover any additional expenses, or you may wish to include other beneficiaries into your policy. The premium is likely to rise, but at least you know you will have adequate cover.

So whenever you reach any of the milestones mentioned above, remember to take the opportunity to review your cover and make changes where you see fit.

 

Making Changes to Your Insurance is Easier than You Think

Whenever you hit a new milestone in your life, whether it be getting a promotion, buying a house or having kids, it’s worthwhile reviewing your current cover to see if it still meets your needs. And luckily, it’s actually pretty easy to do it.

Reviewing your life insurance is as simple as calling your insurance provider over the phone to ask for details about your policy. Alternatively, if you took out cover through us at Cover Australia, you can contact us for unbiased advice and assistance for the life of your policy. We can also help you renew and make changes to your policy when needed. Just give us a call on 1300 366 817 to discuss any recent lifestyle changes and we can make sure you are fully covered.

Do keep in mind that any changes made to your policy are likely to affect your premium.

The areas of your policy you should be reviewing include:

• Basics of your policy
• Coverage amount
• Policy restrictions
• Policy benefits

Reviewing your life insurance also gives you a chance to shop around and see if another insurance company can offer the right level of cover at a more affordable price. It’s as easy as visiting our website to compare insurers quickly and easily.

In 2016, with so much health advice constantly circulating and ready to be plucked out of cyberspace with a thumb and a smartphone, it can be difficult to know what to believe. Often, it seems like you can “scientifically” justify any health and fitness choice as long as you search hard enough for the right information.

In this article, we shed a little light on some of the most common misconceptions about health. From old wives tales that have mutated into ill-informed Facebook posts, to the latest fitness fads, we’re debunking nine of the most pervasive myths of 2016

 

#1:MSG is Bad for You

MSG, or monosodium glutamate, has got a lot of bad press. It’s been accused of causing everything from headaches to brain damage, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, cancer and more.

However, countless studieshave proven that MSG – which mostly consists of salt and glutamate (a common amino acid that occurs naturally in everything from tomatoes to human breast milk) – is harmless.

The problem isn’t with the MSG itself: it’s with the food that it is usually put in. Generally, the foods that need the umami “flavour enhancement” MSG offers are low quality, highly processed foods that are bad for you anyway.

And, while some people swear that they know the effects MSG has on their systems, scientists suggest that this might just be an allergic reaction to the chemical.

The verdict: MSG is fine.

 

#2: Diet Soft Drinks Cause Cancer

Chances are, you’ve read an email or social media post explaining why a governmental/multinational conspiracy has been covering up the fact that drinking diet soda causes MS, cancer, lupus and more.

However, comprehensive reviews of all of the studies on diet soft drink have proven over and over that the artificial sweetener used in most diet soft drinks – aspartame – is completely safe.

“The weight of existing evidence is that aspartame is safe at current levels of consumption as a non-nutritive sweetener,” one of the most recent of such reviews states.

Verdict: Many studies have shown that diet soft drinks don’t cause cancer. Articles that say otherwise are usually anecdotal, unverified, or misinformative.

 

#3: Drinking Fruit Juice is as Healthy as Eating Fruit

There are a number of reasons why you might think fruit juice is healthy. After all, it has fruit in it, and fruit is full of the vitamins, minerals, fibre and antioxidants our bodies love.

However, there are a few reasons why drinking fruit juice is just not comparable to eating whole fruits, and they’ve all got to do with sugar:

1. The sugar content of fruit juice (and fruit drink, which is often packaged identically to real juice) is often on par with or in excess of the amount of sugar in fizzy drinks like Coca Cola
2. Chewing through multiple pieces of fruit in quick succession would be quite difficult for most people. Drinking large amounts of sugar-laden juice, on the other hand, is quite easy. The liver is the only organ that can metabolise fructose (the main sugar found in fruit juice), and once the liver gets overloaded, it’ll turn that sugar into fat build-ups and may eventually start resisting insulin.
3. A lot of the fibre that should be in fruit juice is in the fruit’s pulp, which is not included in your average glass of juice. With fibre out of the equation, it’s harder to justify the sugar intake vs. nutritional value gained from drinking juice.

Verdict: Fruit juice is a treat, not a replacement for actual fruit or vegetables.

 

#4: It’s Possible to Contract Sexual Infections from a Toilet Seat

Good news! You cannot contract sexually transmitted diseases and infections from a toilet set.

Why? According to doctors, these bacteria and viruses aren’t able to survive out of the warm, moist environment that is the body for very long – and they definitely can’t live on the cold, hard surface of a toilet seat. Plus, the parts of your body that are susceptible to contracting these things aren’t actually in contact with the seat when you use the bathroom.

Verdict: Forget about contracting STDs and STIs from toilet seats. The real concern is getting sick from coming into contact with door handles, flush buttons and other surfaces that have been touched by people with unwashed hands.

 

#5: Sun Protection Makeup Can Replace Sunscreen

This is a tricky one. Theoretically, foundation or moisturiser with SPF qualities (preferably SPF 30) will protect your skin from the sun. However, in practice, most women don’t apply enough of it to be fully protected, nor do they reapply throughout the day.

Sunscreen takes two to three hours to lose its effectiveness, so unless you’re going to reapply your foundation at least twice a day, sun protecting make up just isn’t as good as sunscreen.

Verdict: Chances are, you’re not applying enough makeup frequently enough to get sufficient sun protection. When you consider that so many skin cancers are found above the neck, it makes sense to incorporate regular sunscreen into your skin care routine.

 

#6: Chewing Gum Stays in Your Gut for Years

Most of us were told as children that we’d better not swallow our gum because it will take seven years to digest and/or it will collect with the other gum you’ve swallowed and create a disgusting gum ball that will eventually clog your internal organs and kill you.

Fortunately, scientists agreethat these rumours are completely unfounded. Chewing gum doesn’t “stick” to your insides, and your body can usually pass foreign bodies out of the stomach with ease as long as they’re less than 2cm in diameter. So you can expect swallowed chewing gum to take just as long to get out of the digestive system as regular food.

However, “chronic” gum swallowing (several times a day over a long period of time) can cause constipation, and in very rare cases gum may collect and create blockages.

Verdict: Your body will pass gum just like it passes other indigestible foods (popcorn kernels for instance) – but becoming a compulsive swallower is still not recommended.

 

#7: You Can Burn Fat in Specific Areas if You Target Your Training

On the surface, it makes sense to think that focusing your exercise regime on certain areas of your body will help reduce the fat in those areas.

Sadly, according to exercise physiologist John Stevens (and the vast majority of fitness professionals), that’s not the way weight loss works. Spot training will strengthen the muscles underneath the fat you are trying to burn, but will not, in fact, eliminate that fat. This is because fat is burned evenly throughout the body, and it is cardiovascular exercise – not weights or crunches – that leads to fat loss.

And, before you rush to get liposuction, it’s also worth knowing that fat’s amazing redistribution powers aren’t limited to regular weight loss. Many people who have had localised fat loss surgery (read: liposuction) have been disappointed to see the fat in other parts of their body moved back to the area they got cosmetic surgery on, thus rebalancing the body’s fat distribution.

Verdict: Cardiovascular exercise is the only way to reduce body fat, and the body will remove fat evenly.

 

#8: Yoga Will Help You Lose Weight Quickly

Yoga has long been the wonder child of the fitness industry. Strengthening, toning, improving flexibility, reducing back pain and lessening symptoms of a host of diseases (depression, diabetes, arthritis)… is there anything yoga can’t do?

Yes. Yoga is not great at getting you slimmer – efficiently, anyway. Yoga is not an aerobic workout. It doesn’t burn very many calories. And, in terms of resistance training, it is less effective than a simple weight lifting routine.

Verdict: Yoga has many benefits, but if you’ve got a weight loss deadline to meet, supplement your yoga with cardio and/or weights.

 

#9: Toner Shoes Burn Extra Calories & Tone Your Legs

“Toning shoes” have been touted as a fast way to tone your legs, glutes, and burn those extra calories without really changing your daily routine at all. So, it should come as no surprise that they don’t actually work.

In fact, these shoes can cause foot, leg, and hip pain in wearers that stops them from walking as much as they usually do – having an overall negative impact on their fitness!

What is surprising is that these shoes are still for sale five years after they’ve been proven ineffective, and this is despite the fact there have been so many successful lawsuits against the manufacturers that there are even law firms dedicated solely to toning shoe injury claims.

Verdict: Don’t waste your money on expensive toner shoes. They can do more harm than good.

 

Are you in the market for a life insurance policy?

Looking for life insurance sure can seem daunting and we know how hard it can be to find the right policy for a good price, but getting covered and protecting your loved ones won’t be so tough if you’re well prepared.

By learning a little bit about what life insurance is all about and how it applies to your situation, you will be well equipped to compare all the options out there and find the policy that is right for you.

Compared to other insurance categories, life insurance is actually pretty straightforward. But premiums and conditions can vary, and these factors among many others have to be considered before purchasing a policy.

In this article, we will share with you the key factors you need to know when comparing life insurance so that you can find the most suitable policy for you.

Life Insurance Categories

 When comparing life insurance policies, you want to work out exactly what you want your life insurance to do for you, and the best place to start is by understanding the different life insurance categories available.

The two major categories are permanent life insurance and term life insurance. Permanent life insurance gives you cover for your entire life at a higher premium while term life insurance offers cover for a set period of time.

 

Level of Cover

 ‘Level of cover’ refers to the complete package of features, terms and inclusions found in an insurance policy. A number of factors come into play when choosing the best level of cover for you including your age, gender, health and lifestyle. For example, if you’re married with children and hold a mortgage, the level of cover you need is likely to be vastly different to a young, single person with zero debt.

So consider what you want to get out of your life insurance rather than choosing the first life insurance policy you find, because every policy is unique and is made to suit different people.

 

Cover Amount

 Another important step to take before comparing life insurance policies is to work out the amount of money that you would like paid to your beneficiaries. To work out this figure, consider if the payout will need to cover any of the following areas to help your loved ones after you have passed away:

• Expenses
• Debts
• Income replacement
• Future goals
• Medical costs
• Home modifications

 

Life Insurance Assessments

 Depending on your age and the level of cover you choose, insurance companies often require you to complete a number of medical examinations and assessments when applying for life insurance cover.

However, some people don’t want to go through invasive examinations to get cover, which is why non-invasive assessments are also available. Keep in mind that you will be paying higher premiums for this convenience. If you are healthy and willing to go through a longer assessment, it will be worthwhile for your hip pocket.

 

Pre-Existing Conditions

 If you have a pre-existing condition that could impact on your cover, it’s important to get advice first from an independent insurance advisor so they can point you in the right direction towards an insurer and policy that is most beneficial for you and your condition. Some insurers may look more favourably on your condition than others and some policies may be better equipped to cover you despite your condition.

 

Choosing an Insurer

 You need to trust that the insurer you choose will honour your claim if the need arises. Look at reviews and testimonials for the different insurers out there and use your own judgment when deciding if you can rely on this insurer come claim time.

Some factors that influence the quality of an insurer includes:

• Their level of customer service
• How long they have been in business for
• Who the parent company is
• What their claim processing history is like
• What is their reputation in the market
• Their credit score

 

Extra Features

 Riders are optional provisions that can be applied to your policy allowing additional money to be paid to your beneficiaries depending on specific circumstances. You can add or remove riders as you wish with most insurance providers to create a fully customised policy that suits your needs. A common way you can save money is to eliminate certain riders if you feel they are not needed.

Some of the riders you may find include:

• The accidental benefit rider where beneficiaries are paid if your death was due to an accident.
• The waiver of premium rider which will pay the policy premium if an accident resulted in your total and permanent disability.
• The children’s term life insurance rider which will pay your policy premium if a child that falls under your life insurance policy dies.
• The living benefits rider involves part of a death benefit being paid in advance if terminal illness is diagnosed.
• The payor rider where premiums are waived if you die before a dependent child reaches a certain age that is specified by you.

 

Discount Options

 If you are hoping to get a lower price for your policy, there are a number of ways you could get a discount. You could choose to pay your bill in full annually rather than monthly. Depending on the insurer you go with, you may also be able to save money by having the payment automatically withdrawn from your checking account.

Substantial discounts are also available from certain insurers for multi-policy and multi-life insurance policies. Multi-policy refers to buying more than one insurance policy at a time from one insurer. Multi-life insurance policies often involve more than one person (usually a couple) purchasing life insurance from the same insurer.

 

Flat Fee Policy

 Rather than choosing an insurance policy with a steep commission, making you pay more than you like for cover, you could consider purchasing a ‘no-load’ or ‘low-load’ policy which are less expensive options and are sold at a flat fee. Be aware however that these ‘no-load’ and ‘low-load’ policies offer minimal customer service and they should be thoroughly examined beforehand for financial stability.

 

Ways to Compare and Purchase Life Insurance

 Along with learning more about life insurance policies so you can compare them effectively, it is just as important to examine the different ways you can look into and purchase your policy. The most common ways people compare and purchase life insurance include:

 

Comparing Life Insurance with Cover Australia

 At Cover Australia, we want to make comparing life insurance as easy as possible by being up-front and honest about everything you need to know before choosing a policy.

Once you have taken all of these points into consideration, why not fill in an online quote form or give us a call and speak to one of our advisors. We are more than happy to help and point you in the right direction towards a policy that is the right fit for you.

It can be hard finding time in our busy lives to take care of ourselves. Between keeping up with work, friends, family and our usual day-to-day tasks, it’s easy to forget about booking in regular checkups with our GP.

While it may seem that all is well, you never know if there may be an underlying health condition you’re unaware of. So by making sure you have a routine checkup, any health issues can be picked up on and treated before they become a bigger, more serious problem.

Let’s face it: your health is something you should never put off. It really is worthwhile making that effort to ensure you have a clean bill of health.

 

How Often Should I Have a Checkup?

Your age and health status play a large part in how frequently you should have a health check. If you’re under 45 and in good health, you should have a routine checkup every 2 to 3 years, according to Australian Unity.

As you get older, you become more vulnerable to illness. It’s important to acitvely monitor your health as this occurs by booking in more regular checkups. If you’re over 45, you should have a checkup with your doctor every year.

If you have a medical condition that needs to be monitored, your doctor will advise if you’ll need checkups more regularly.

 

What to Expect from a Checkup Appointment

If you’ve never had a regular health check before, you may wonder how this type of appointment is any different to visiting a doctor when you’re feeling sick. The biggest difference between a checkup and seeing a doctor due to illness is the focus on overall health rather than diagnosing and treating a particular condition.

Because a checkup is very broad, a number of areas can be covered to ensure you’re on the right track with your overall health.

 

Other Regular Medical Tests

Along with regular health checks with your GP, you should also stay on top of other important screening tests for major life-threatening conditions. Depending on your age and sex, some of the medical tests you should take part in on a regular basis include:

 

Why Regular Health Checks are Important

So now that we know what a regular health check involves, you probably want to know why it’s so important. Even though you may not enjoy visiting the doctor, especially when you’re feeling well, it’s something that we all need to do.

According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, it’s vital for everyone to have regular checkups no matter your age, lifestyle or health status. Here are a few reasons why you should keep up with regular doctor appointments:

 

Book a Health Check with Your Doctor

Being in good health is one of the most valuable gifts you could have, and the best way to maintain your perfect bill of health is to lock in a regular health check with your GP.

If there are any particular areas of concern that you would like your doctor to check or if there are any tests you would like to be performed, don’t hesitate to ask your doctor during your checkup. After all, you know your body better than anyone so if you’re experiencing any symptoms out of the ordinary, it’s worthwhile getting them checked for your peace of mind.

Even if you think you’re in good health, don’t put off a health check any longer and book in to see your doctor.

As an alternative to buying life insurance through a provider or adviser, many Australians choose instead to hold their insurance cover through their superannuation fund. While this is a viable option and can offer policyholders some great benefits, the majority of people simply accept this default cover without actually looking into whether it’s the right option for them.

In fact, according to CommInsure’s 2012 Life Insurance Survey, 65% of Australians settle for the default level of life insurance in their super funds – most likely because of its automatic inclusion.

It’s certainly an appealing option for a lot of people because of its low cost and little effort, but it’s also problematic because it’s leaving many people significantly underinsured – and they probably don’t even realise it.

Life insurance and super can work together to protect your livelihood and loved ones, but it requires a little more than just ticking a box on your super forms. Find out below how to make sure you’ll always be adequately covered, no matter what happens.

 

The Life Insurance/Super Relationship

In Australia, we’re lucky enough to have mandatory superannuation as part of our employment benefits, where 9.5% of your salary is invested into a super fund for you to access when you retire. This structure also allows super funds to arrange life insurance for their members, with the premiums paid for out of your super account balance.

Super funds – including self-managed super funds (SMSFs) – will generally offer three different types of insurance for members, which you can choose to increase, decrease or cancel depending on your individual circumstances:

• Life Insurance pays out a lump sum benefit to your nominated beneficiaries after you die.
• Income Protection Insurance provides a replacement income stream if you temporarily can’t work because of an illness or injury.
• Total and Permanent Disability (TPD) Insurance pays a lump sum benefit if you become seriously disabled and are unable to ever return to work.

Life insurance (and its associated income protection and TPD insurance) is a necessity for anyone who earns and relies on an income, and having this default level of cover within your super means that most people have at least some form of financial protection in place.

However, super funds generally only offer the minimum level of cover, so relying solely on your super for a complete protection plan usually won’t be enough. Yes, it’s probably cheaper and easier to just stick to what’s provided rather than taking out a stand-alone life insurance policy, but it comes with the risk that you may not be properly provided for when the time comes for you to claim.

If you currently have life insurance through your super fund, it’s vital that you find out all the details of the cover you have and work out whether it’s actually enough for what you need to secure you and your family’s future.

Check your product disclosure statement (PDS), contact your super fund, or talk to an insurance adviser for an assessment of the amount of cover you have vs. the amount of cover you really need.

 

Insuring Inside Your Super: Yes or No?

There’s no right or wrong answer. As with all life insurance options, choosing a super fund with built-in insurance has its pros and cons and needs to be considered in line with your budget, circumstances and future needs.

Pros

• It can be cheaper: Life insurance inside super is usually cheaper because super funds purchase policies in bulk, allowing them to pass their group discounts on to you.
• You won’t need to take a medical exam: Standard cover will often be automatically accepted without you having to fill in any complex forms or take a medical examination.
• Premiums are deducted from your super balance: You can choose to pay the premiums out of your super contributions rather than touch your take-home salary, so you won’t even notice paying it off.
• There are tax advantages: Paying for your insurance out of your super balance can be tax-effective as it either generates a direct tax deduction or, if you choose to salary sacrifice the cost of the premiums, is paid from pre-tax income.

Cons

• The cover is limited: The types of insurance and levels of cover available inside super is much more limited than stand-alone cover, and may not be sufficient for your needs. Life cover in super is often only for $100,000-$200,000 when realistically you may need something closer to $500,000 or $1,000,000 to adequately protect your family.
• Payout is slower: There can be delays in your benefit payouts because they go to the super fund first, which then distributes them to you or your beneficiaries, making it a more lengthy process.
• It reduces your super balance: On the flip side of paying the premiums out of your super balance rather than your take-home pay, you’ll end up with less money in your super fund for retirement.
• You may not be able to nominate your beneficiary: The Trustee of the super fund makes the final decision about the distribution of benefits, so unless you have the option of making a binding beneficiary nomination, there’s no guarantee that your life insurance payout will go to the people you want it to.
• Tax may be payable on some benefits: Beneficiaries who are not financially dependent on you will have to pay tax on the benefits they receive.

 

Tax Considerations

The way tax is applied to your insurance premiums and payable benefits is also different between insurance policies inside and outside your super fund. According to a Macquarie Life report on insuring through super, the tax treatment is as follows:

 

 

It’s important to carefully consider all the pros, cons and tax implications of life insurance options before deciding whether or not to have cover in your super fund. At the end of the day, it’s different for everyone and comes down to determining what’s best for you and your family’s future.

 

The Bottom Line

Whether you choose to have life cover in your super fund or outside of it, what it comes down to is this: do you have enough?

Any life insurance is better than none, but it’s important to know exactly how much cover you have, what your insurance provider will or won’t pay, and any other special circumstances or conditions relating to claims.

According to the CommInsure Survey, 58% of people insured through super don’t actually know the details of their cover. So if you’re currently covered through your super fund, make sure you ask. And if it’s not enough, there’s nothing stopping you from increasing your cover or taking out a second stand-alone policy outside of the fund.

When it comes down to it, it’s about your financial security and peace of mind. And that’s always worth double checking. 

With so many expenses to worry about in our day-to-day lives, the cost of death is usually the last thing on our minds. But it’s still a very important topic we all need to consider.

Death in Australia can be expensive and the cost your loved ones are likely to pay will vary greatly depending on a number of factors including how they died, how old they are and the financial situation they were in before passing away.

In this article, we’ll discover how much it costs to die in Australia and consider these costs compared to the price paid for life insurance policies.

 

The Process Following a Death

 Before we get into costs, it is important to know exactly what needs to occur after someone dies in Australia. The Australian Government’s Human Resources Department website details the process involved after someone has passed away.

After a cause of death certificate is obtained from a doctor, the deceased is then taken into care by the funeral company. Insurance policies, funeral plans, and wills then need to be considered, and Centrelink must also be informed when someone has died.

This is just the tip of the iceberg however. We recommend downloading a ‘who to notify checklist’ from the Human Resources Department website, so you know everything required.

 

The Cost of Dying in Australia

When a person dies, the resulting costs can vary significantly from person to person. The 2014 Grattan Institute study into death in Australia provides insightful information about the face of death in our country.

Australia has an ageing population. As baby boomers grow older, the number of Australians that die each year will double in the next 25 years.

Here are some more statistics to keep in mind:

• Half of Australians die in hospital
• One-third of Australians die in residential care
• 14% of Australians die at home

Despite these figures, 70% of Australians would prefer to die at home.

The cost of death varies considerably depending on how and where someone dies. The average cost of a person aged 50 and over being admitted to hospital and then dying in hospital in Australia is about $19,000, while deaths in residential care equate to half of this cost on average.

In total, $2.4 billion is spent on dying people in acute inpatient care each year, and care for people aged over 65 during their last years of life take up 5% of the total health budget.

 

Cost of a Working Age Parent Dying

One in five families in Australia are impacted by the death of a parent due to illness or a serious accident, according to the Lifewise/Natsem Underinsurance Report.

The impact of a parent’s death is more serious when the parent is of working age and the family is dependent on their income. The death of working aged parents in Australia is more common than you may think, with 18 Australian families losing a working age parent every day. When a working age parent dies, these families instantly lose half or more of their income.

Unfortunately, this report also shows that 95% of families are underinsured. As a result, the Federal Government is expected to pay $1.3 billion over the next 10 years due to underinsurance. That means it costs Australian taxpayers $131 million annually to provide for underinsured families after the death of a parent.

 

Daily Living Expenses

One of the first things that will likely suffer for your family if you were to die will be daily living expenses. According to most recent census data from the ABS, on average Australians are spending most of their budget on:

• Housing
• Transport
• Recreation
• Household furnishing

And this is just the start of all the living expenses to stay on top of – especially when you have a family to take care of as well.

Next Step Australia statistics show that education costs for school-aged children can range between $200 to $20,000 per year depending if the children attend a state school or private school.

Groceries will cost a family of 4 $220 on average, electricity bills cost $50 to $110 per month, and a telephone/broadband bill costs Australians between $90 and $140 per month depending on the package purchased.

These are all essential living expenses that need to be maintained, so it is important to consider how these areas of life would be affected if you died and your family had to cover these costs without you.

 

Outstanding Debt

One of the biggest dilemmas loved ones are likely to face after your death is covering any outstanding debts you may have after you pass away. To get a clear idea of much debt there is in our country, visit the Australian Debt Clock.

As of May 2016, the total private debt in Australia stands at $2.5 trillion. Digital Finance Statistics has also shown that average household debt had reached record heights at $245,000. With over 150,000 Australians dying in 2014, according to ABS statistics