Types of Asteron Income Protection Insurance

Now that you know why income protection insurance is so important for your family’s security and your peace of mind, your journey to protecting your family isn’t over yet. To make sure your family are truly taken care of when you are no longer able to provide for them, you need to

Asteron offers four income protection insurance policies, these are:

• Income Protection Plus Cover
• Income Protection Cover
• Income Protection Cover Super
• Income Protection – Accident Only Cover

Each of these types of policies will aim to ease your family’s financial burden if you are no longer able to earn your regular income, but they will do so in different ways to meet the needs of different families. Therefore, consider the features and inclusions of each of the four Asteron income protection insurance policies, to help you choose coverage which is right for you.

1 – Income Protection Plus Cover

With income protection plus cover from Asteron, you can choose your benefit period once you have made a successful claim, and can choose to receive benefit payouts for two years, five years, until you are 65 or until you are 70. The waiting period on your policy is also your choice of 14 days, 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, one year or two years depending on your occupation.

There are also built in benefits to this cover for medical professionals, these include coverage for:

• Blood borne diseases.
• Needlestick and medical hazards benefit.
• Return to business benefit.
• Business rehabilitation benefit.
• Overseas assist benefit.

Other built in benefits include:

• Totally disabled benefit. This benefit will pay a monthly benefit amount if you are totally disabled as a result of illness or injury, and you have served your waiting period.
• Partially disabled benefit. Will pay a monthly benefit if you are partially disabled due to illness or injury after you have served your waiting period.
• Death benefit. If you die or you are declared terminally ill, you will receive a benefit pay out of six times the monthly benefit amount.
• Increasing claim. On the anniversary of the commencement of your policy, the total monthly benefit amount will be increased, to allow your benefits to keep up with inflation costs.
• Recurring disability. If you suffer from the same or a related illness or disability after having received a total or partial disabled benefit payout, you can begin receiving benefit payments without having to serve a new waiting period.
• Premium benefit waiver. If you are receiving a benefit payment from your policy, you will not have to pay the premiums for your policy during that time.
• Premium and cover suspension. You can apply to have your premiums and coverage suspended for up to 12 months if you are unable to afford your premiums because you are unemployed, are on sabbatical, are on maternity or paternity leave or long term leave.
• Pregnancy premium waiver. If you become pregnant while covered under your income protection policy, your premiums will be waived for up to six months.
• Concurrent disability. If you are suffering from two or more disabilities at the same time, you are entitled to claim for more than one benefit, and you will be paid the higher benefit.
• Waiting period conversion. If your previous insurance from your employer or superannuation fund no longer applies, you can reduce your waiting period.
• Temporary extended waiting period. If you want to temporarily reduce your premiums you can temporarily extend the waiting period of your policy.
• Elective surgery benefit. If you transplant part of your body to someone else or undergo cosmetic surgery under the advice of a registered doctor, these procedures can be covered by your policy.
• AIDS cover. You will be covered for disability due to AIDS related illnesses.
• Specific injury benefit. If you suffer one of the specific injuries stated by Asteron, you can receive a total disability payout without serving the waiting period.
• Crisis benefit. If you suffer one of the medical events as stated by Asteron you are classed as totally disabled and will receive the total disability benefit for up to six months. Your monthly benefit will also be increased by one third during this period.
• Overseas assistance benefit. If you become disabled while overseas and your claim is eligible, you can receive a benefit amount of up to $10,000 to allow you and your family to return home.
• Accommodation benefit. If you’re confined to a bed which is more than 100km from your home as a result of total disablement you can be paid a benefit amount to reimburse a family member’s accommodation costs or staying with you.
• Bed confinement benefit. If you are confined to a bed for more than 72 consecutive hours because of a total disablement you will receive 1/30th of the total monthly benefit amount for each day you are confined to a bed during the waiting period.
• Family assist benefit. If you have been receiving the total disabled benefit for more than 30 consecutive days and you are still totally disabled, Asteron will pay for either a family member or a registered nurse to care for you.
• Transport benefit. If you are totally or partially disabled and require emergency transport within Australia your policy will reimburse you the cost of the transport.
• Childcare reimbursement benefit. If you’re totally disabled and need additional help with childcare, you can be reimbursed the cost of childcare during your illness or injury.
• Unemployment benefit. If you become involuntarily unemployed you can waive your premiums for up to six months, reducing the financial pressure.

The Asteron Income Protection Plus Cover doesn’t just take care of you in the days and weeks after your illness or injury, but also includes the following built in rehabilitation benefits:

• Rehabilitation benefit. If you are totally or partially disabled you can be reimbursed any retraining and rehabilitation fees.
• Return to work benefit. Is a benefit paid if you return to full time work immediately after you have been paid the total disabled benefit for six months or more.
• Return to business benefit. Is a benefit paid if you return to full time work within your business immediately after you have been paid the total disabled benefit for six months or more.
• Business rehabilitation benefit. Is a benefit specifically tailored to the self employed, and will reimburse you the costs of business coaching or consulting fees if you are totally or partially disabled.

There are also several optional benefits you can add to your Income Protection Plus Cover policy from Asteron:

• Day 1 Accident option. Means you don’t have to wait to receive your benefit payout, because if you are totally disabled for more than 72 consecutive hours as the result of an injury, you will receive 1/30th of your total monthly benefit amount for each day you are totally disabled during your waiting period.
• Child cover. Allows you to insure the lives of your children too, and will pay the child cover amount if the insured child dies or suffers one of the medical events as stated by Asteron.
• Booster option. You receive an additional one third of your monthly benefit amount otherwise payable for the first three months if either the totally or partially disabled benefit is payable.
• SuperSaver option. Allows you to insure an additional 5% of your income to allow for superannuation contributions.

2 – Income Protection Cover

Income Protection Cover from Asteron also allows you to choose a benefit period of two years, five years, until you are 65 or until you are 70. You can also choose a waiting period of 14 days, 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, one year or two years depending on your occupation. The choices you make will in turn affect how much you pay in premiums.

The Income Protection Cover policy also has many of the same features and built in benefits of the Income Protection Plus Cover, while removing some of the extras which could help the policy fit better within your budget. For example, the benefits for medical professionals under the Income Protection Cover policy include just cover for:

• Blood borne diseases.
• Needlestick and medical hazards benefit.
• Return to business benefit.

When it comes to the built in benefits you will be getting many of the same features too, including:

• Totally disabled benefit.
• Partially disabled benefit.
• Death benefit which will be three times your monthly benefit amount.
• Increasing claim.
• Recurring disability.
• Premium waiver.
• Premium and cover suspension benefit.
• Pregnancy premium waiver.
• Concurrent disability.
• Waiting period conversion.
• Temporary extended waiting period.
• Elective surgery benefit.
• AIDS cover.
• Specific injury benefit.

The built in rehabilitation benefits included in the Income Protection Cover are the:

• Rehabilitation benefit.
• Return to work benefit.
• Return to business benefit.

Plus you can add all of the same optional benefits to your Income Protection Cover, to include:

• Day 1 accident option.
• Child cover.
• Booster option.
• SuperSaver option.

3 – Income Protection Cover Super

With the Income Protection Cover Super policy which you can take out through your superannuation with Asteron, you can choose a waiting period for your policy of 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, one year or two years.

Taking out Asteron income protection insurance inside your super can be an easy and affordable way to get cover, as your premiums are paid directly from your super balance, so you don’t have to worry about the premiums being another bill you have to pay. Plus, you don’t have to worry about your premiums eating into all of your super savings, because if you pay your premiums from your super account, Asteron will apply a 15% rebate.

Income protection insurance through your super is also a tax effective option because you are paying your premiums with your before tax dollars. Even your superannuation contributions are only taxed at 15% inside your fund when they are deposited, but your income tax rate could be as high as 45%.

Your Asteron Income Protection Cover Super policy will also be inclusive, as you can like your policy with total and permanent disability cover, trauma cover and split your linked ‘own occupation’ total and permanent disability cover. Plus you will receive interim cover for up to 90 days and limited acceptance cover for up to 30 days.

4 – Income Protection – Accident Only Cover

With an Income Protection – Accident Only Cover option from Asteron you can choose a benefit period for your policy which lasts for two years, five years or until you are 65. You can also choose a waiting period of 14 days, 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, one year or two years depending on your occupation.

The built in benefits of the Income Protection – Accident Only Cover policy include:

• Totally disabled benefit.
• Partially disabled benefit.
• Death benefit which will be three times your monthly benefit amount.
• Increasing claim.
• Recurring disability.
• Premium waiver.
• Premium and cover suspension benefit.
• Pregnancy premium waiver.
• Concurrent disability.
• Waiting period conversion.
• Temporary extended waiting period.

To aid with your rehabilitation, the Accident Only Cover policy includes the built in rehabilitation benefit to reimburse you for any retraining and rehabilitation fees you incur while you are totally or partially disabled. The Accident Only Cover policy from Asteron will also allow you to add the Day 1 accident option to your policy, so that you can start receiving your benefit payout during your waiting period.