Life insurance australia - Life assurance australia

With over 40 years of experience in Australia, AIA Australia Limited is one of the country’s leading independent life insurance specialists.

AIA Australia offers a wide range of insurance products, including:

1. Life Cover, to help protect your family home and livelihood by settling unresolved mortgage obligations.
2. Crisis Recovery, which helps bear the costs involved in recovering from crisis events such as cancer, heart attack and stroke.
3. Income Protection, which provides you with an income stream when you are unable to earn one due to a recent disability or severe illness.
4. Business Expenses, devised to cover self-employed people who need to ensure that their business’s fixed expenses will continue to be paid if they cannot work having recently become disabled or severely ill.

Fast facts about AIA Australia:

• Insures more than 2.5 million Australians
• Is Australia’s fastest growing life insurer
• Paid out more than $2.2m in claims for every working day in 2012
• Has an award winning product able to be tailored to your needs

AIA Australia is part of the AIA Group, a life insurance market leader throughout the Asia Pacific region with more 90 years of experience.

Bundling it up

Superannuation life insurance works like so – when you sign up for superannuation, your fund will provide you with an option to take out a life insurance policy, paid for out of your superannuation savings. For many, this is seen as advantage, as you don’t see the monthly fee come out of your income.

Unfortunately, there are real problems with this system, which I will detail below.

Terrible for teens

Teenagers, who typically only work casual or part time jobs, do not have much income flowing into their super. This is understandable; 9% of a casual, $200 a week income is going to be much less than the same percentage of a full time wage.

However, this is not reflected in the super fund’s life insurance fees, which are generally standardised for everyone. As a result, teenagers and those working fewer hours see a greater percentage of their funds lost, funnelled out to pay for life insurance.

But this is not the only issue with having life insurance bundled in with superannuation. There are a host of other problems, starting from the moment you sign your policy.

Opt out, not in

At most superannuation providers, when you take out your policy you automatically take out a life insurance package as well. If you don’t want to have it, you have to tick a box to ‘opt out’ of the life insurance policy.

This practice is misleading. At the very least, life insurance should be offered on an ‘opt in’ basis, forcing people to choose it, rather than allowing them to sign up by omission.

Joining a superannuation provider can be complex, and though it’s important to read all the fine print, many people skim over sections that they don’t directly have to answer. Having an automatic signup for life insurance is unfair.

Giving medicals a bad name

The Age article points out that when taking out individual life insurance, as opposed to life insurance as part of your superannuation, “a medical examination may be required. With large super funds there is usually automatic acceptance.”

To suggest that automatic acceptance is a benefit is simply wrong, and represents a complete misunderstanding of the reasons for medical examinations.

Life insurance companies require you to have medical exams so they know who you are and what your health is like. In effect, they are assessing you before they take your money. If they find anything they deem too risky to cover, they will notify you of that. That way you can make an informed decision. By having a medical exam, you know exactly what you’re covered for.

Automatic acceptance may seem easier at first, but when it comes time to claim, you might find that cover is excluded because of a pre-existing condition.

Losing interest

Buying life insurance through your super fund costs only a small monthly amount. As a result, it can seem like a worthwhile expense. However, when you buy life insurance this way, you are not only losing the amount that is debited out of your account each week; you also lose the interest this accrues. Though this might seem negligible, over the course of the policy, it starts to add up.

By buying an individual policy out of your disposable income, you avoid this problem. The money that goes into your super fund stays there, accruing interest, awaiting your retirement.

Individual policies are simply the better way to go. They provide you with defined cover and can be purchased for a low monthly fee.  

The views expressed are my own and don’t reflect the views of my employer.

Australians know they don’t have enough Insurance Cover

In order to gauge the perception the Australian public holds towards how comprehensive their existing levels of insurance cover are, TAL recently created what they have named the Australian Financial Protection Index. The index provides a score between 0-100 and is based on the type of cover a person has (life, trauma, income protection etc.) and whether they feel that their current levels of cover sufficiently meet their needs.

The average national score for the index created by TAL came in at a low 24.2. This gives a strong indication that the majority of Australians included in the study felt their current levels of cover were not comprehensive enough should they or their partner no longer be able to work.

30% of participants scored 0 as they currently hold no personal insurance, with only 8% achieving a score of 70 or above.

Jim Minto, managing director at TAL was surprised by the results considering the growth in life insurance cover through superannuation over recent years.

As a Broker it is vital to remain committed to informing your clients of all the insurance options available to them. It is imperative for you to spend time with your clients to ensure they fully understand the entire spectrum of benefits that having personal insurance may provide.

Whilst the survey developed by TAL provides an interesting insight into the ways in which Australians view their need to gain comprehensive cover, it is important to remain mindful of bombarding the public with statistics and facts that do not really resonate or impact on their daily lives.

Communicating effectively with a client means it’s time to move away from the habit of simply rattling off statistics on health.  In an age where we’re constantly bombarded by statistics and figures, it’s vital to cut through the ether and bring the discussion of cover into a more meaningful context.

Through focusing on things like your client’s house, their child’s education and a desired overall quality of life, the need for comprehensive levels of insurance cover become a much more realistic issue and a more important problem to overcome.

Be wary of simply providing your client with literature or pamphlets and expecting them to understand completely all the benefits that comprehensive life insurance can provide. You’ll find you will have much more success with any prospective client if you take the time to work through the information with them, discussing openly any questions they may have. Ensuring your prospective client understands and is comfortable with everything you have spoken to them about.,

To discuss your current insurance cover or to find out what will best suit your needs, speak with one of Lifebroker’s dedicated consultants today. 

Australia Lags Region in Risk Cover

One of the survey’s most striking findings was that, when compared to people in other countries, Australians are much less likely to protect themselves with insurance. Only 35% of Australians say that they carry life insurance, compared with 62% of respondents in Indonesia, 65% in Korea and 80% in Singapore and India.

A similar situation applies to other forms of risk insurance. Only 11% of Australians carry disability cover, a proportion that is half that of the region as a whole. Cover for critical illness is reported at 22% for Australia and 30% for the region overall.

David Mouille, Citibank’s Head of Retail Banking, attributed some of that lack of cover to Australia’s universal health care, social security and superannuation systems, which may leave Australians feeling less mindful of the financial risks they face. "The amount of personal insurance cover people take out is highly correlated to how vulnerable they feel," Mouille said.

The survey found that 41% of Australians thought that they and their families had sufficient insurance in place, but that response was balanced by the 42% who acknowledged that they had no insurance at all.

On the other hand, Australians are hardly optimistic about their finances, with 32%, one of the highest regional scores, saying they were worried about their financial futures and 30% saying that a job loss would force them to exhaust their savings in less than a month.

"It's concerning that many Australians continue to live on month-to-month income, particularly when they are acutely aware of their increasing cost of living and seek a secure financial future for themselves and their families,” Mouille said.

In general, Australia recorded a Fin-Q score of 48.5 on a scale that goes to 100, a drop of 1.4 points since 2011 and the second lowest score in a region with an average score of 53.2. Only 22% of Australians reported that they had formal financial plans in place, 39% had no confidence in the adequacy of their retirement plans and 44% either did not know their retirement needs or had yet to start a plan.

Insurance a Low Priority for Australians

According to TAL, which derived the results from a survey of 1,260 Australians between the ages of 18 and 69, most people would opt to do “almost anything” with additional money before they would consider devoting it to increased financial protection.

On a national basis, 58% of survey respondents indicated that they would build up their savings, while 30% would pay off bills, 28% would pay off mortgages and 25% would pay off credit cards and other personal debt. According to those figures, “deleveraging” remains a priority for 85% of people surveyed. “It is clear that that the deleveraging taking place since the GFC is still a priority for consumers,” said TAL CEO Jim Minto, referring to the consequences of the global financial crisis.

In addition to deleveraging, Australians would apply extra funds to holidays, car and technology upgrades, shopping, dining out and additional study before they spent any money on insurance. Only 5% would purchase or upgrade personal insurance, including life, disability, illness and income protection, and 4% would purchase “another type of insurance.”

“We undertook this survey as part of our efforts to continue to better understand Australians’ perceptions and behaviour towards life insurance and societal changes,” Minto said. TAL noted in its announcement of the results that “95% of Australians have inadequate insurance in the event they could not earn an income.”

TAL also provided results on a generational basis. While only 3% of baby boomers - those between the ages of 50 and 69 - would upgrade personal insurance, 9% of those aged 25 to 34 would make that investment. Even for that younger age group, however, deleveraging was a clear priority.

“As an industry, we need to focus on ways of better demonstrating and communicating the value of the forms of life insurance - income protection, permanent disability cover, lump sum upon death and critical illness lump sum,” Minto said.

TAL, which calls itself “Australia’s major specialty life insurer,” commissioned Galaxy Research to perform the online survey.

 

 

 

Private Health Insurance

TALLAHASSEE – Lawmakers are pushing competing plans that next Jan. 1 would put about one in five Floridians in some sort of Medicaid-like health-insurance plan. Or not.

Lawmakers have two weeks to resolve a battle over whether to draw down $51 billion federal dollars over 10 years to provide private health insurance to 1 million people, as the Senate wants to do. Or they could jump-start a small state-funded health plan for impoverished Floridians and send others to a federal health-care exchange for subsidized coverage, as the House wants to do.

Or, as some are speculating, they could do nothing.

"We're moving. We're always moving," said state Rep. Richard Corcoran, R-Land O'Lakes, who is shepherding a House plan that would have the state pay $2,000 each to 115,700 people to buy private health care.

The House is adamantly opposed to taking the federal money that's at the heart of a plan backed by Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart. And the Senate is unimpressed with the number of people the House plan covers.

That's led to a lot of rhetoric – much of it over-simplified or misleading -- about how and why the state should best approach covering its low-income population as it implements President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act.

Here are some of the statements being made:

Statement: Negron says his plan is not Medicaid expansion. "I think it's important for us to say no to having Washington tell us to expand our Medicaid program," he has said.

Fact Check: Senate and House committees have voted to reject expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, which offers $51 billion over 10 years to provide health insurance to individuals and families earning up to 138 percent of poverty. But Negron's plan would take that money – plus $3.5 billion from the state – to buy insurance for those people from private providers. This is similar to the state's current Medicaid program, which enrolls 3.3 million people today and is transitioning to "managed care" run by either HMOs or provider groups.

"You can call it another name, but simply at the end of the day, this is Medicaid expansion." Senate Democratic Leader Chris Smith of Fort Lauderdale, says of Negron's plan. "They're just trying anything they can not to say 'expanding Medicaid,' but as you can see they're looking to take those federal dollars, they're looking to use those federal dollars to expand health care coverage to Floridians."

Statement: Corcoran says the House plan would insure about 500,000 people using both state and federal money.

Fact Check: That's based on a series of assumptions – and likely wouldn't be true until sometime next decade.

Corcoran's plan assumes that up to 115,700 people earning below the poverty line -- $19,000 for a family of three – would purchase coverage using $2,000 subsidies from the state and $300-a-year of their own money. Those making between 100 percent and 138 percent of poverty – about $26,000 for a family of three – would take advantage of federal subsidies to purchase coverage on an on-line "exchange."

But an updated legislative analysis predicts that only around 55,000 people would enroll in the plan's first year, possibly growing to 125,000 by 2022-2023. By then, the analysis suggests, another 353,545 people are likely to take advantage of the exchange to buy subsidized coverage.

Statement: Corcoran says the House plan would provide "far better coverage through a private market" than Negron's.

Fact Check: Actually, both plans would use private providers. But there's a big difference in what they would cover.

Negron's plan puts all eligible recipients into plans available through the Florida Healthy Kids program, which today provides subsidized insurance to low-income children. These plans offer "benchmark benefits," laid out in state law, that include preventive care, immunizations, vision, emergency services, maternity care and limited mental health and substance abuse treatment. There would be a minimal amount of co-pays or other cost-sharing from recipients.

The Corcoran plan requires recipients to use the $2,300 to buy some form of health plan on a type of online exchange called Florida Health Choices. The plans must have as-yet unspecified preventive and catastrophic care components – but in examples cited by the House would have deductibles of $1,500 or more. Other plans that could be available are not health insurance, but rather discount health plans or prepaid health clinic cards that could purchase specific services for less.

Statement: The House Majority Office says that "Medicaid expansion will hurt Florida seniors," in part because there won't be enough physicians in the state to serve everyone.

Fact Check: This may be an issue, no matter what happens.

Private Medical Insurance

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Governor Mike Beebe has signed the private option healthcare bill into law. A signing ceremony at the State Capitol on Tuesday made it official.

Last week, both sides of the Arkansas Legislature passed the measure which makes healthcare available for more than 250,000 uninsured residents.

The law allows those Arkansans to be able to buy health insurance on exchanges that start January 1, 2014 as part of the Federal Affordable Care Act.

Senator Mark Pryor released a statement following the signing, commending the assembly:

"Thanks to the Arkansas General Assembly's groundbreaking vote, hundreds of thousands of hard-working Arkansans will now have access to affordable and reliable healthcare. I commend Republicans and Democrats for working together to improve access to healthcare and using the funding provided through the Affordable Care Act to benefit the people and economy of Arkansas."

Get Great Instant Auto Insurance With Nationwide

How to buy instant car insurance online for quick coverage

If you need insurance in a hurry, Nationwide can help. Using our website, you can receive an instant auto insurance quote and purchase it right away. That can be handy in a lot of situations – if you realize your car insurance has lapsed or if you’ve purchased a new vehicle and need coverage ASAP.

Whatever the reason, when you get an online insurance quote from Nationwide, you can tailor and purchase a car insurance policy instantly, and even print out your proof of insurance card. Here’s how it works.

Gather some basic information about your cars and drivers

To speed up purchasing instant auto insurance online, have this basic information ready for each driver on your policy:

• Social Security number (optional)
• Driver’s license number
• Driving distance to work
• Driving violations, accidents or claims in the last five years (approximate dates and details)
• Make, model and year of your vehicle.

Get an insurance quote online

Visit nationwide.com, choose your state from the pop-up menu and click Go. Then answer some questions about yourself, the car you want to insure and the people who will be driving the vehicle.

Find the discounts you deserve

As you get your instant quote, Nationwide will help identify discounts on car insurance that might apply to your policy to save you money. Depending on where you live, you may qualify for lower rates when you insure multiple vehicles or have an accident-free record. If your vehicle is equipped with an anti-theft device or passenger restraint system, you may save even more.

Choose the policy that’s right for you

When you receive your instant car insurance quote from Nationwide, you will get three options to choose from, making it easy to select a policy that’s right for you and your budget. You can also change coverage options to create a more personalized policy.

Buy your auto insurance online – instantly

Once you’ve picked a policy, simply choose your payment option to complete the transaction. After that, you can download your proof of insurance card and print it out.

Let Nationwide help

Visit the Auto Insurance Resource Center for more tips and ideas for choosing the car insurance that’s right for you.

Insurance terms, definitions and explanations are intended for informational purposes only and do not in any way replace or modify the definitions and information contained in individual insurance contracts, policies or declaration pages, which control coverage determinations. Such terms may vary by state, and exclusions may apply. Discounts may not be applied to all policy coverages.

Texas Car Insurance Company Launches Online Insurance Comparison Tool to Help Find the Best Car Insurance Quote for FREE

Los Angeles, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/11/2013 -- Texas Car Insurance Company has introduced an online insurance comparison tool on their website Cheap Insurance Online that will enable consumers to find the best car insurance deal from the leading car insurance carriers, offering their insurance coverage to the car owners. A car owner can instantly receive a free quote on the website by just entering the zip code of his or her area. The company maintains that the objective of offering free quote online is to make people aware about the best prices that they can expect to pay for their car’s insurance. The website Cheap Insurance Online searches a number of online insurance carriers before providing with the free quote to a customer. This is the reason why a customer can always rest assured of finding the most affordable insurance deal with them.

The leading Texas Car Insurance Company reveals that the Online Insurance Marketplace is full of a host of service providers, and it’s always difficult for an individual customer to search all of them and get the best deal. They have designed this online tool to help people find the best car insurance deal for a speedy online shopping for an insurance product. They make sure that consumers can be able to pick the best deals and also get the approval as quickly as possible. To make things simple, consumers can also request for their free assistance by phone or via email.

Many consumers, who came to learn about the free online quote tool on Cheap Insurance Online, feel that this will help save them both time and money. One of them happily says, “This is a good use of technology and is a new approach to provide consumers with the most affordable auto insurance schemes.” People feel that because of this innovative approach by Texas Car Insurance, consumers will now prefer to buy auto insurance online, with the kind of affordability and convenience they are going to enjoy.

In the true sense, the company offers consumers the flexibility with which they can now able to compare insurance prices from so many service providers and can choose the insurance options that can best suit their needs. To use their online comparison tool and get a free quote, a consumer can visit the websitehttp://www.cheapinsureonline.com/.

About Cheap Insurance Online
Cheap Insurance Online offers consumers an opportunity to research and compare car insurance deals. All car owners can rest assured that they get the cheapest rates for the auto insurance protection. The online comparison tool has been designed to save money by comparing auto insurance quotes from a number of online insurance providers.

Warner and Blazer, regional ex-soccer executives accused of fraud

PANAMA CITY (AP) — Luxury apartments, a military-style Hummer vehicle and even car insurance for a girlfriend. That’s just part of the lifestyle that former CONCACAF secretary general Chuck Blazer allegedly enjoyed with the regional soccer organization’s money, a report by its ethics and integrity committee says.

Blazer also is accused of violating U.S. and perhaps state and local laws by not having tax returns submitted for the Confederation of North and Central American and Caribbean Football from 2004-10, according to the report released Friday that accuses him and former CONCACAF president Jack Warner of enriching themselves through fraud.

CONCACAF and FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, have not decided what steps to take. But the first political fallout from the report came swiftly.

Soon after the report was released, the leader of Trinidad’s main opposition party said he will seek Warner’s resignation as the island’s national security minister.

Opposition leader Keith Rowley said late Friday that he will present the issue for debate in Parliament next week. “Mr. Warner cannot continue to serve as a minister of government,” Rowley said.

The 113-page report about the activities of Warner and Blazer was presented the CONCACAF congress in Panama City, with FIFA President Sepp Blatter in attendance.

“Our information shows they committed fraud,” committee member David Anthony Cathcart Simmons said. The committee said it based its findings on documents and interviews with dozens of people.

Warner and Blazer have responded to past accusations by denying any wrongdoing.

CONCACAF appointed the investigative committee under the leadership of current President Jeffrey Webb in an effort to get beyond the scandals after Warner and Blazer quit. Simmons said the pair did not cooperate with the investigation.

The 70-year-old Warner resigned as CONCACAF president and his position on FIFA’s executive committee in June 2011 after Blazer accused him and then-Asian confederation head Mohamed bin Hammam of attempting to bribe Caribbean delegates $40,000 each to vote for bin Hammam in the FIFA presidential election. Blazer resigned as CONCACAF’s secretary general in December 2011; his term on FIFA’s executive committee runs until May 30.

Simmons accused Blazer of “misappropriating” at least $15 million by compensating himself with CONCACAF funds without authorization after his last contract expired in July 1998. Simmons alleged that the 67-year-old Blazer, the most senior American official at FIFA for 16 years, also bought apartments with CONCACAF money and failed to have the organization file its tax returns in the U.S., causing it to lose its nonprofit organization tax-exempt status. It said that from 2004-10, CONCACAF and-or its marketing company failed to file returns.

“Blazer went out of his way to avoid engaging the IRS at any level at great expense to CONCACAF,” the report said.

Blazer didn’t respond to an email seeking comment after the report was released. In the past, he attributed money he received to commissions he says were due him for commercial contracts he negotiated.

Warner said late Friday that he had not read the report. “As far as I am aware it is baseless and malicious,” he said in a statement. “I left CONCACAF and turned my back on football two years ago. Since then I have had no interest in any football-related matter.”

Blazer established companies in New York and the Cayman Islands, and his contracts from 1990-98 called for CONCACAF to pay them 10 percent commissions for “sponsorships and TV rights fees” in deals he negotiated, to the U.S. company for the first four years and then to the offshore entity.

The report said that revenue outside the contract’s scope was included in the calculations, including ticket money from the Gold Cup tournament, and that CONCACAF continued to pay commissions after the second deal expired on July 17, 1994 — the day of the World Cup final. The report said Blazer appeared to take a $300,000 commission on a $3 million payment FIFA’s marketing arm made to CONCACAF in 2006 to construct a television studio.

The report claimed Blazer “misappropriated CONCACAF funds to finance his personal lifestyle,” causing the organization to “subsidize rent on his residence in the Trump Tower in New York; purchase apartments at the Mondrian, a luxury hotel and residence in Miami; sign purchase agreements and pay down payments on apartments at the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas.”

It also alleged Blazer used CONCACAF funds to buy a Hummer for his own personal use and pay car insurance, as well as employee health insurance, for himself and his girlfriend.

In addition to Blazer’s administrative and financial dealings, the committee also focused on Warner, who headed CONCACAF from 1990 until 2011.

The committee said it found “fraud” in the management of a training center built in 1995 to help players in the region train and improve their game, Simmons said.

The center, later named in honor of former FIFA president Joao Havelange, was built at Macoya in Warner’s home country of Trinidad and Tobago. Warner at the time was also a FIFA vice president and a member of its executive committee.

“Warner represented to FIFA that funds would be used to support development but never told FIFA that Centre would be situated on land owned by his companies,” Simmons said. One of the companies was named “Renraw” — Warner spelled backwards.

Warner “deceived persons and organizations” into believing the facility was CONCACAF’s and not his, he added. Almost $26 million were invested in that project between 1996-06, with a large portion of the funds donated by FIFA.

Australia’s soccer federation provided $462,200 to upgrade a stadium at the Havelange center around September 2010, according to the report. “The funds, however, were not accounted for in the CONCACAF general ledger or reported as income in its financial statements for 2010,” it added. Instead, the report said the money was deposited into a “comingled” account that included Warner’s personal money.

At the time, Australia was seeking votes in its bid to stage the 2022 World Cup.

“I have recounted a sad and sorry tale in the life of CONCACAF,” Simmons, a former Barbados chief justice, said in a lengthy discourse about the report Friday evening. He called it “a tale of abuse of position and power, by persons who assisted in bringing the organization to profitability but who enriched themselves at the expense of their very own organizations.”

Read more: http://www.voxxi.com/regional-ex-soccer-executives-fraud/#ixzz2R8UB4QId