Recently AMP declined a Life Insurance Policy claim from a client where insurance benefits were part of his remuneration. In an article posted by Newshub, AMP has declined a critical illness claim of $450,000 because when the employee left his employment his insurance benefits stopped. Within two months after he left his employment he was diagnosed with terminal oesophageal cancer and now Andrew Porteous has weeks to live. The hope here is that a company called Litigation funder LPF Group is taking his case on the basis that he did have cancer while he was employed, it just was not diagnosed. I really hope that AMP does decide to pay and compassion reigns over what could be a grey area in the policy wording.
Understanding your Life Insurance Policy
This can involve time and effort to read let alone understand, and even more complex when they are part of an employer package. You’d be crazy to turn down employer subsidised insurance cover or in some terms fully funded by the employer. In my opinion, you should take it but keep the following points in mind.
- Are the premiums paid by your employer or are they just deducted from your pay?
- What benefits are on offer and check to make sure they are not a restricted version of what’s available to the public directly, you may be missing out on benefits you may get if you purchased the cover yourself directly from the insurer.
- If you leave your employment, is your cover automatically cancelled or is it automatically converted to stand alone (non-group) policy where you are now responsible for premium payments?
- If you leave your employment, can you actually take your cover with you?
My advice is, always have your own cover and if an employer comes along and offers you cover that’s great, make a comparative assessment and an informed decision, don’t just cancel your private cover thinking about saving premiums, because it may cost you later. If the cover is like for like and cheaper and you can take it with you when you leave their employment, I’m all for it, but check the facts first. Understanding a Life Insurance Policy takes a professional with some great research tools, so if you have life insurance cover you would like us to take a look at contact us and we can make an assessment for you. Check out the full Newshub story here 