Life Insurance

If you die while covered for Life Insurance, NobleOak will pay the agreed cover amount as a lump sum to your nominated beneficiaries or estate.

You can apply for cover up to $15 million, although higher amounts will be considered where it can be justified.

NobleOak will quickly advance $15,000 of your cover amount to assist with funeral expenses, upon evidence of age and receipt of the death certificate.

If you become terminally ill, NobleOak will advance the cover amount up to a maximum of $3 million. Any remaining cover will remain in place until you die, when the balance is paid.

To be eligible for this payment:

• You must be diagnosed as being terminally ill by two Medical Practioners, one
  of which is a specialist practicing in an area related to the illness or injury suffered
  by you; and
• Their joint or separate diagnoses certify that you are suffering from an illness, or
  have incurred an injury, that is likely to result in death within 12* months of their certification.

*If the cover is to be owned by a SMSF (as a Trustee Member), then a 24 month certification period applies.

We understand that you or your estate may need some professional advice to ensure that the proceeds of a death or terminal illness claim payment are managed appropriately. That is why we will reimburse the cost of engaging a qualified financial adviser, up to $2,000, to prepare a financial plan if we pay a benefit in excess of $200,000 for death or terminal illness.

We understand that your death or diagnosis with a terminal illness can be a very emotional time. That is why we will reimburse the cost of grief counselling services for you, your spouse or your partner, up to $1,000, if we pay a benefit for death or terminal illness.

You can fix the cost of your cover at any time by writing to us with a request to freeze the premium amount. This means that:

• Your future premiums will be fixed at the amount you were paying on the date of notification
• Each year your cover amount will be adjusted to the amount of cover that can be purchased for the frozen premium.

You can write to us at any time to end the Premium Freeze Benefit and the premium freeze will end on the next anniversary of your cover.

You can increase your cover amount by the lesser of $100,000 or 20% of the original cover amount without the need to provide further medical evidence if one of the following allowable events occurs:

• You marry or register a partnership
• You take out or increase a mortgage on your primary place of residence
• You or your partner gives birth to or adopts a child.

Life Cover pays a lump sum to your loved ones if you die or become terminally ill.

Having this type of cover in place can help ensure your family will not be left with a major financial burden if you die or become terminally ill. For example, a Life Cover benefit may be used to ensure:

major debts such as the home mortgage, credit cards and personal loans can be paid out

• your family will have sufficient funds to cover ongoing day-to-day expenses
• you can provide for your children’s future education needs.

How Life Cover can help

Agnes was 25 years old when she bought her first property with her husband. At the same time she bought Life Cover to ensure the debt could be repaid if she passed away.

Over the next 10 years, Agnes had three children and bought two more investment properties that she hoped her children could one day inherit. She also increased her Life Cover to reflect her growing debts.

At the age of 42, Agnes was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. As she was given less than 12 months to live, Agnes made a claim for a Terminal Illness benefit under her Life Cover.

Agnes received a payment of the full sum insured of $2.2 million. This allowed her and her husband to pay off the loans on all of their properties, and set aside sufficient funds to support their children through university.

Like other Insurances, Life Cover is one of those things that you should have, but hope you never have to use. It’s the ultimate peace-of-mind policy, protecting your family against financial hardship if you were to pass away.

At its most basic level, Life Cover pays a lump-sum benefit to your nominated beneficiary or estate if you die. Of course, there’s a little more to it than that.

Choose the Type of Cover

Life Cover can take many different shapes. At NobleOak, you’ve got the option of adding TPD Insurance and/or Trauma Insurance to your Life Cover.

TPD Insurance provides a lump sum payout if you were to suffer a debilitating injury or illness, and could never work again.

Trauma Insurance provides a lump sum of money if you suffer a medical condition or trauma that impacts on your life for a period – such as being diagnosed with cancer or suffering a stroke or heart attack – yet you can return to work in time.

Choose your insured amount

At NobleOak, you can apply for up to $15 million in Life Cover. Generally, people take a good look at their current and future financial situation – such as the size of their mortgage, any other large debts, and ongoing living costs – in arriving at an amount.

Apply for cover

At NobleOak applying for Life Cover is easy; although sometimes a few extra steps – like medical examinations – may need to be added to make sure that you’re getting cover tailored to your needs.

The application process can be completed over the phone with one of our Insurance Specialists and takes 15 to 20 minutes. You will need to provide answers to a list of medical questions so we can better assess your health and lifestyle. Once completed, you will know how your Life Cover will be tailored to you and how much your premiums will be.

In calculating your premiums, we look at a range of factors that relate to your age, occupation and medical history.

Having the right amount of and Income Protection Insurance is important, and yet, many Australian families are under-insured.

Rice Warner, a leader in providing research and advice to superannuation and wealth management industries, released a report on underinsurance in 2015 which highlights that the median level of Life Cover only meets 61% of our basic needs, which would cover non-mortgage debts and sustain the current living standards till the age of 65.

If the unforeseen were to happen, you certainly wouldn’t want your family to suffer the additional stress of not being able to pay the mortgage or ongoing household bills on top of dealing with the extreme emotional distress. When determining how much Life Insurance you will need it’s important to think about:

Current debt – i.e. mortgages, personal loans and credit cards, and the number of dependents you have.

• Your current income.
• Future education expenses for your children – i.e. school and university fees.
• Ongoing household expenses, including utility bills, groceries and insurances.
• Lifestyle costs – sport and music lessons, birthdays and holidays.
• Childcare and home assistance – if you or your spouse is a stay-at-home parent, you will need to cover the cost of employing a carer for the children, someone who can also undertake home duties.
• We understand it can be difficult to know where to start to work out how much Life Insurance you need and what to consider. But, it’s an important step to undertake to ensure your loved ones are protected.

The cost of Life Insurance depends on a variety of factors, like your age, gender and whether you smoke or not. It also depends on your occupation and lifestyle, your medical history and the level of cover you choose.

Generally speaking, Life Cover costs less than most people think. For example, if you are a 35-year-old non-smoking male, you would pay approximately $30/month for cover worth $500,000. If you are a 35-year-old non-smoking female, you would pay approximately $25/month for the same cover. Females have a lower mortality risk.

Premiums can usually be paid monthly, quarterly, half yearly or yearly to suit your budget. At NobleOak we let you choose the types and amounts of cover you want, and you only pay for what you are covered for.

Because we’ve been winning industry awards for our insurance products and providing them directly to the consumer without the middleman, NobleOak Life Insurance delivers 5-star cover with lower premiums compared with other major insurers.

Does low-cost Life Insurance provide quality cover?

NobleOak is very proud to be able to offer Australians award-winning Life Insurance, without the hefty price tag. Our ongoing goal is to keep costs down while delivering premium Insurance products for your peace of mind.

When you’re shopping around for Life Insurance, what are the most important criteria on your shopping list? If you’re like most, then cost and quality are up there. By cost, we mean the price of premiums; and by quality, we mean the features of the product, ease of making claims, and how likely you are to get paid at claim time.

Some people believe that cost and quality are directly correlated – that is, if one goes up, the other goes up too. NobleOak proves otherwise. Here’s how we keep our premiums low, and our service high.

Life Cover Direct to You

NobleOak is a direct insurer. Our products are not sold through financial advisers; instead, they are made available directly to you. Other insurers who distribute through financial advisors pay upfront commissions which can be up to 120% of your first year’s premiums, adding significant cost to the distribution of their products which must then be built into their premiums.

By dealing with you directly, NobleOak is able to provide you with cover without any upfront advisor fees. In fact, our competitive Life Insurance premiums are on average 20%* lower when compared to other major insurers.

Complete Peace of Mind

Unlike some other direct insurers, our products are of the same caliber as those you’d purchase through a financial adviser. For example, you can access up to $15 million in Life Cover with Noble Oak – this level of comprehensive cover is usually only available through an adviser led product.

All cover offered by NobleOak is fully underwritten. This means that we assess your risk upfront when you submit your application, by asking you a range of medical, health and lifestyle questions and undertaking a free blood or medical assessment if required. We then use this risk assessment to tailor the cost of cover to you as an individual.

With fully underwritten insurance cover, there are no nasty surprises if you ever needed to make a claim (as long as you were completely honest with us when you submitted your application). You know exactly what you are covered for and all terms are agreed with you upfront.

How can I reduce the cost of Life Insurance?

You can reduce the cost of Life Insurance by making sure you are fit, a healthy weight, and a non-smoker. And perhaps exclude risky activities like hang-gliding and quad-bike riding from your cover. Access our Life Insurance cost calculator to find out how much cover you may need.

It is important that you have the right level of cover for your needs and we don’t advise economising by reducing your cover unless your circumstances allow. If your financial obligations have decreased, for example your mortgage is paid off and your children are financially independent, then decreasing your cover is a way of reducing your premiums.

There may be times in your life when you feel the pinch and would like to keep your outgoings steady, including your insurance premiums. With NobleOak Life Cover, you may choose to fix the cost of your premiums at any time by writing to us with a request to freeze your premium amount.

Premium Freeze Benefit means that your future premiums will be fixed at the amount you were paying on the date you notified us. Instead of the premium increasing with age and inflation, each year your cover amount will be adjusted to the amount of cover that can be purchased for the frozen premium using the premium rates applicable for your age. Then, when you are ready to resume insurance cover which keeps up with the rising cost of living, you simply need to write to NobleOak and we will end the premium freeze on the next anniversary of your cover.