Do you have a risk strategic? Are appropriately insured?
Most Australians are under insured or have no insurance at all. Most Australians don’t even have, or given thought to, an appropriate risk strategy. We believe whatever your personal circumstances, it is important that you have an appropriate risk strategy, and like any strategy, it needs to be reviewed and updated frequently to meet your current circumstances.
If you plan on increasing your level of debt, or the size of your family changes, we believe the ideal times to complete a review of your risk strategies and insurances, are at certain age milestones i.e. 40, 50 & 60.
Failing to be appropriately insured or discuss and implement a strategy of any kind is one of the most common and costly mistakes we make. Illness or a tragic life event can happen at any time and throw you off course when you’re well on the way to reaching your destination.
When considering the amount to insure yourself, we encourage you to ask some pretty tough questions. For example, if you died, what debts would need to be paid? If you lost your ability to earn an income, how much money would be needed to replace your lost income and retain the standard of living you want for yourself and your family?
We recommend that you consider other “what-if” scenarios apart from death, for example, what if you had an accident or suffered an illness and couldn’t work for 6 months or more? How would the mortgage be paid and could you afford other expenses? Could you be at risk of losing the house if the loan repayments were not met? Perhaps, even worse, what if you could never work again? Appropriate insurance can cover you against these and many other “what if” scenarios which may keep you awake at night.
Most Australians are grossly under insured and are heavily leveraged with debt, and loss of income is one of the main reason people lose their family home. Are you under insured or appropriately insured? If you are unsure as to whether or not you are appropriately insured then we would recommend you speak to a Certified Financial Planner.
We would be more than happy to make recommendations to a couple of Financial Planners with whom we work closely.
Declan Hanratty – Managing Director
M: 0409 089 456 F: 03 9416 1916 ABN: 19 880 907 430 POSTAL: PO Box 1551 COLLINGWOOD Victoria 3066 MFAA Membership No. 50217 Australian Credit Licence No. 383120 Credit Ombudsman Service No. 412201
