Income Protection Insurance to protect your earning power
From software engineers to medical professionals and high-income earners, our income protection plans guarantee to replace lost income when you cannot work due to illness, accident, depression, or burnout.
What is Income Protection Insurance?
Income protection insurance covers a portion of your monthly income if you suffer from an injury or illness that prevents you from working. It provides financial security for you and any loved ones who may depend on your most valuable asset — your ability to earn a paycheck.
Without income, even temporarily for six months, the majority of Millennials and
Gen Xers say they would feel a significant financial burden.
And while many people believe that disabilities are mainly caused by injury, the majority of disabilities are caused by illness. Another common myth is that most disabilities occur at work, but only 10% of all disabling accidents or illnesses occur at, or are related to, work.¹
Thus, most disabilities are not covered by ACC (Accident Compensation Corporation.)
Income protection insurance key points:
- It replaces part of your income if you can’t work because you become ill or disabled.
- It pays out until you can start working again – or until you retire, die, or you reach the end of the policy term – whichever is sooner.
- There’s often a waiting period before the payments start – you generally set payments to start after your sick pay ends, or after any other insurance stops covering you. The longer you wait, the lower the monthly premiums.
- You can claim as many times as you need to – while the policy lasts.
With income protection insurance, everything depends on getting the right policy – so it’s best to get advice from an independent financial adviser or broker.
Income protection insurance is not the same as critical illness insurance, which pays out a one-off lump sum if you have a specific serious illness, or life insurance, which pays out a one-off lump sum if you become terminally ill or die.
Most recent Income Protection Claims
What does income protection cover?
Disability insurance covers injuries and illnesses that limit your ability to do what’s expected of you at work. Seems pretty straightforward, right? Well, many misconceptions exist about what is considered a disability and what isn’t.
For example, what comes to mind when you hear the word “disability”? Often times it’s freak accidents and rare birth defects. All of those unlikely, tragic events that we believe just can’t happen to us.
But this simply isn’t the reality.
More than 25 percent of today’s 20-year-olds will experience a disabling event that prevents them from working for at least three months before retirement. And when you consider the most common causes of long-term disabilities, it’s really not all surprising. Take a look for yourself here:
- Arthritis
- Back pain
- Cancer
- Depression
- Diabetes
- Heart disease
- Stroke
You read that right. 90% of claims filed for long-term disability benefits stem from medical illnesses, not physical injuries.
This doesn’t mean injuries such as fractures, sprains, and strains of muscles and ligaments are not disabling. What it does mean, though, is that the scope of disabilities that can prevent you from earning an income is a lot broader than most people realize.
How does income protection work?
Income protection insurance pays you a monthly income protection benefit amount if you suffer a disability that affects your ability to work.
Having this type of cover means you can still meet your financial obligations — paying bills, covering household expenses etc — even while you’re unable to work.
Your Income protection insurance policy will spell out:
- How much your premium will cost.
- How the policy defines disability. Some policies will pay out a monthly benefit if an injury prevents you from working at your normal job but allows you to do other types of work that will nonetheless reduce your income.
- How much you will receive as a monthly income protection benefit.
- How long your benefit payments will last. The benefit period may be 2 or 5 years, or until age 65 or 70.
Key features & benefits
Maximum benefit amount
Your policy can cover up to 75% of your monthly income. For financial advise, please call us on 0800 259 925 to speak with a Financial Adviser.
Waiting Period
Choose a waiting period that suits you. The waiting period starts when you first become unable to work due to a sickness or injury. The Income Protection benefit only starts after the end of the waiting period and is paid one month after the end of the waiting period.
Benefit Period
Select a benefit period to meet your needs – this is how long you will receive payments for if you are unable to work. Choose from a period of one, two, five years or up to age 65.
Premiums could be tax deductible
You can claim the cost of income protection insurance if the insurance payout would be taxable. Check with your accountant or read what IRD says about tax deductions
Top industries where people take out income protection
Income protection cover is available for everyone, but there are certain industries where it’s more popular. These include:
- Self-Employed such as builders, plumbers and small business owners
- Medical Professionals such as doctors, dentists & nurses
- Qualified Professionals such as CEO, Accountant, Architects
Do I need Income Protection Insurance?
Sickness, injury or an accident are just a few of the things that can quickly and unexpectedly impact your income.
Loss of income is one of those things we dread to think about. Nevertheless the importance of taking care of your family and the financial commitments.
Are you eligible?
To get cover, you must be:
- a citizen or permanent resident of New Zealand and currently residing in New Zealand
- Work-visa holder
- Aged between 2 and 70
How does Income Protection Insurance work?
Income protection insurance is a policy that protects you against loss of income due to sickness or accident. An optional policy add on is Redundancy cover.
Income Protection Features & Benefits
Indexation Protection
To help protect you against inflation, Your monthly benefit will increase every year by the same percentage as the New Zealand Consumer Price Index (CPI). Your premiums will be adjusted accordingly with these increases.
Dedicated Claims Support
If you need to make a claim, you’ll be assigned a dedicated claims consultant who will support you throughout the claim process - to help make the claim as easy as possible. You'll be able to focus on what really matters to you, and we'll help take care of the rest.
Income Protection Insurance in New Zealand is flexible. Here are the most common features and benefits that you can choose from, when applying for cover:
How much income protection insurance get I get?
You can choose a monthly benefit up to a max 75% of your current pre-tax income or max $360.000 per annum.
What is Waiting Period?
Waiting period is the length of time between you becoming disabled and when you start receiving benefit payments.
Most income protection insurers in New Zealand offer a waiting period of 4, 8,13, 26 and 52 weeks. Some also offer 2 weeks waiting period and 104 weeks.
What is Benefit Period?
The Benefit Period is the length of time that your Income Protection monthly benefits will be paid to you and begins once the Waiting Period has expired.
You can choose a Benefit Period of 2 or 5 years or until age 65 or 70.
Why LifeCovered?
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Income Protection FAQ's
Income Protection (IP Cover) is a Life Insurance product which is designed to pay regular monthly payments for a specified period to replace max 75% of your income when you can’t work due to a serious illness or injury.
Income Protection premiums are generally tax-deductible.
The IRD allows you to claim the cost of income protection premiums, if the monthly benefit is taxable.
If you have a policy that includes another life insurance product, you may only claim a tax deduction for premiums paid for the Income Protection component.
Each policy defines how long you can be on a benefit. Usually 2 or 5 years, or until you are 65 or 70 years
You can apply for IP Cover by obtaining a quote online or by speaking to one of our registered financial advisors over the phone for personalised advice.
What to expect
Three easy steps to see what's possible
Matters of family and wealth are always deeply personal. The same goes for how we work with you.From our first meeting to the reviews we do regularly, every touch feels human, even when discussing numbers, financial protection and retirement. We don’t beat around the bush when we talk to you; our goal is to make life easier with one plan.
Discover
Just a conversation about what you want insurance to do for you so you can have peace of mind today and tomorrow.
Design
Together, we explore insurance options that might fit you and your budget.
Deliver
Once a financial protection plan is chosen, we’ll activate the plan and schedule annual follow-ups to make sure the plan stays on track.
What other insurance can I include in my Income Protection plan?
Life Insurance
Protects your family’s future and gives them options if you are no longer around.
Trauma Cover
When you are diagnosed with a critical illness, the insurer pays you a tax-free one off lump sum.
Mortgage Protection
Mortgage protection insurance pays a monthly tax free benefit if you are medically unfit to work.