Partners Papers
Each month more and more New Zealanders are entrusting their
life risk protection to Partners Life. The premiums you pay us are
a ‘peace of mind’ investment, and we take our responsibility to
you and your adviser very seriously. Our goal is to provide you
with ‘best in class’ options, and back that up with exceptional
support if you need to make a claim.
The premiums you pay for your cover are carefully calculated.
In this issue, we outline some of the components of that make
up your premiums. Many people are surprised at how little
they pay for comprehensive coverage. That’s a message
we’d like to get out to the many Kiwis who have little or no
risk protection. The Financial Services Council estimates that
nearly a million households have no income protection
in place, and that around 288 households each week are
becoming financially vulnerable.
The sickness benefit is unlikely to allow most households to
maintain their lifestyle if the principal income earner is unable
to work.
The financial position of your household can also be affected if
a child or other dependent needs extra support. We’ve thought
about the options we would want as parents if, for example, we
had a seriously ill child that needed all our time and attention.
That’s why you’ll find many of our products have special features
to support you in your role as a parent or caregiver. These are
explained in our article below ‘Being there – the challenge of
childhood illness and injury’.
Naomi Ballantyne Managing Director
The what, the why, and
the how of your premiums
Ever wondered how we arrive at that premium
you pay for your insurance? Here’s an overview
of what’s involved.
The premiums you pay cover the costs of your
insurance, from setting up and maintaining your
policy, to paying your claim if you need to make
one. Setting premiums is a complex business.
We consider many issues including the type of
Feedback
Being there:
We have received huge amounts of
feedback from our last Partners Papers –
thank you to everyone who took the time
to pass on their comments and feedback.
Direct feedback from our customers is
something that we value very highly – it
helps us to shape and grow our services
and products in a direction that works
for you.
greater than when they are sick or injured. Most
children will get through childhood without any
major incidents. They’ll get the coughs and colds
their friends get, and they may break an arm as
they explore their world. When events like these
happen you may need to take a day or two off
work, but the disruption to your family routines
Your options
Six months of care
If you have Trauma Cover on a policy with us, we
We’ve added a Dependant Caregiver Benefit
provide $50,000 of complimentary trauma cover
optional benefit under our Income Cover. If you
for your children from age four months to their
select it, this benefit allows you to step out of
19th birthday. If your child is unfortunate enough
paid employment for up to six months to care
to be diagnosed with a covered condition, you can
for your child (or another dependent relative) if
be there for them during their recovery, without
A child’s need for your love and support is never
they become so ill that they need you to become
having to worry about your finances. We also
a full-time caregiver. We will pay the lesser of
allow your children to convert this to full cover at
$3,500 per month or 75% of the Income Cover
19 years old, without underwriting. If you think
you may require more than this free amount of
cover, speak to your adviser about the ways you
can increase this cover.
Free medical cover
sum assured for up to six months.
Take a break
If your child suffers an illness or injury and you
have to leave employment to care for them on
a full time basis, speak to your adviser. We may
If you have Private Medical Cover with us and you
be able to offer you additional assistance, such a
have or adopt a baby we will cover the new-born
Premium Holiday. In some circumstances we will
A few unlucky children though will get seriously ill
during the first three months of their life free
even waive the entire premium for all benefits
or injured. If that happens to your child, you want
of charge, no questions asked. Once they reach
under your policy for up to six months, while you
to be able to give them as much time as they
three months of age you can keep them covered
spend time looking after your child.
need. That’s why we put our ‘parents’ hats on
by paying the applicable premium. You can add
when we designed our insurance products.
children who are older than three months onto
will generally be minimal.
As parents, we thought about what practical
support we would want if we had a child who had
a major health problem. We narrowed it down to;
•
We’d want our children to have the best medical
care available.
•
We’d want to be able to take time off to spend
with our child, without having to worry about
money.
There will be times when you have a health
to assess their health first. If a child with cover
or disability issue that means that you are not
is required to undergo treatment outside of your
able to provide all the support you want to your
residential region and you need to accompany
children. When that happens, you may need
them, we will reimburse you for the cost of
to pay for extra 6