Do I need insurance?
The Answer:
If someone will suffer financially from you dying or not being able to work.
Under-insurance
- 83% of Australian’s have insurance for their car
- Only 31% insure their greatest asset… their ability to earn an income
- Most Australian’s think it won’t happen to them… “She’ll be right mate, won’t she?”
“She’ll be right – Nothing will happen to me”
A typical day in Australia:
- 220 people will be diagnosed with cancer
- There are 132 major coronary events, of which half are fatal
- 47 people will undergo coronary artery bypass-surgery
- 53 people will undergo coronary artery angioplasty procedures
- 34 people under the age of 65 will have their first stroke
What a difference a day makes!
Source: Australian Institute of Health & Welfare
The Problem is……
If you don’t have adequate insurance how will you be able to pay for:
- Medical expenses
- Food, utilities, living expenses
- Schooling
- Funeral expenses
- Credit cards, personal loan debts
- Mortgage
You can’t plan how to invest your income before you haven’t created certainty and protected your income.
Mortgage… what do people do when they’re going to miss a payment?
We don’t think about personal insurance
Recent survey of young families with household income/assets (excluding the family home) of over $50,000 found that only:
- 48% had life insurance
- 22% had critical illness (trauma)
- 19% had income protection
BUT
- 78% had car insurance
- 80% had home & contents insurance
The Problem is……
- 31% of Australians aged between 18-59 do not have life insurance
- 80% believe they are adequately covered, but usually have only 29% of what they actually require!
- Why do so few people have life insurance?
Why?
- I’m covered by the life insurance in my super fund
- It’s waste of money
- I don’t think I need it
- I don’t like to think about death or serious injury…
Under Insurance
- A recent Rice Warner study estimated the underinsurance gap in Australia is a staggering $1,811 billion.
- 5.4 million families at risk of financial hardship if either parent dies.
- $680,000 is the amount of life insurance needed for a typical middle-income Australian family with two children… $258,000 is the current median level of life insurance.
- 4,400 parents with dependent children die each year.