WealthDesign

Any extra cover you can get with no medical underwriting is absolute gold!!

For some clients the main barrier to buying additional cover is the thought of spending time going through those pesky application forms all over again. But ‘special events’ can mean a free pass to additional cover without application forms or visits to the doctor.

Here’s some examples of ‘special events’:  marriage, divorce, buying property or increasing the mortgage, sending a child off to university, having a baby or taking care of a dependent relative. 

A new ‘special event’ has been introduced recently by one insurer.  If you have had a pay rise, you can increase the sum assured on your lump sum covers by five times the amount of the pay rise, with no medical underwriting. For example, if the pay rise is $10,000 you can increase the sum assured by $50,000.  They can also of course increase the sum assured on their income protection by 10% with no medical underwriting.

Keeping your cover in touch with your lifestyle can be easier than you imagine, so call the WealthDesign office to book an insurance review – you’ll be pleased you did!

Regan Thomas

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On opening facebook this morning, I discovered our daughter’s message – her phone has died. Our daughter has been away in Italy for the past year studying at the Luiss University – and her dead phone will involve another travel insurance claim. She’s already needed her travel insurance twice during the year away. Once when her iphone was stolen in a bar, and the other time was for her Mac notebook laptop which fell of her bed, and broke. Life happens. Technology breaks. It is unforeseeable.

But there is relief in knowing that the travel insurance that was set in place prior to her departure will ensure the cost of fixing or replacing her phone won’t all rest on her shoulders (which is good for a poor uni student).

Paying for travel insurance for a year abroad was expensive enough at the time, and there’s always the temptation to limit the time the cover is in place (and hope like mad nothing happens for the rest of the time). However the travel insurance has been invaluable – you just don’t know what life will throw at you.

Our daughter is lucky – she has a dad who is a dab hand at knowing where to find quality travel insurance! Wanganui Insurance Brokers handle our clients’ travel insurance (along with all our other general insurance) needs. Our dealings with them throughout the year have been friendly, efficient and reassuring. They’ve held our hand every step of the way. No stress; just results.

So the ‘take home’ is, don’t leave the country without it!

Kristine Barber

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Financial planning – just for the oldies right?  Not so much!  If you’re generation Y, just finishing university, finished your apprenticeship or starting out in the working world, there are a few financial planning issues you need sorting.

Firstly it’s wise to be in KiwiSaver, as soon as you join the workforce. This is one of the four pillars of financial success. You need to understand the first home subsidy rules and how KiwiSaver works. You’ll be targeted by the bank teller who is trying to meet his/her daily KPIs of selling a certain number of KiwiSaver plans, but it pays to get valuable, qualified advice. You really need to understand what you should invest, and why you should invest in the right fund – and your local bank teller is not qualified to give such advice.

You need to make your first Will and get an understanding around the relationship property rules.  A good lawyer will help educate you on the basics. (As part of our role, we team you up with the right people, to support you on your financial journey.)

Lastly you need to get your insurance in order. If you’re off travelling or working outside of New Zealand, getting insurance set up is vital. The sad fact is, if you work globally and something goes wrong, financially you can be clobbered.  The good news is this isn’t a costly exercise. 

Quality, objective financial planning advice pays dividends.  It’s also empowering you to take control of your own life – getting the basics tidied up to bring you peace of mind – freeing you up to go and live your life, however that looks for you.  An initial chat is always free of charge, so it’s well worth a call to us at WealthDesign, to tee something up. 

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Today we all seem to work in an Australasian job market. Kiwis are often moving back and forth from New Zealand to Australia for short bursts. In New Zealand we have ACC to protect us financially if we suffer an accident. Kiwis working in Australia may not be so lucky.

If you, your children or extended family plan to work in Australia or globally for that matter, please talk to us before you/they go. We hear stories of kiwis coming home with long term injuries and next to no financial support.  For us it is frustrating to hear as often for a small cost, we could have put in plans that would have protected them financially.

Although Australia and New Zealand are very similar in lots of ways, financial support after injury is handled very differently.  Give us a call – we make the complicated simple.

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Some very enterprising b@6&tards decided to steal our caravan last week. We had owned this caravan for over seven years and it was a place of many great family memories.  To lose it was more than a financial issue, but it’s gone and now we need to claim insurance.

After a period of throwing my toys out of the cot, I had to get down to the job of listing all the contents and finding out the value of the caravan and send off all the paperwork to the insurance company.

We have a long standing relationship with Wanganui Insurance Brokers and when things like this happen, it’s nice to know we aren’t alone. One phone call and the claim form turned up. No waiting for a computerized phone system. Once completed, we sent the claim form back to them and someone who understands claims checked the information before sending it off to the insurance company. Guess what –  in two days time they will also be chasing up the insurance company for a response.

I compare this to trying to move our internet. Kris and I have recently shifted, so thought we’d just transfer the original internet provider.  This provider is a large, long standing company but I found myself arguing with a foreign call centre employee, who really didn’t understand what was going on for me. After two weeks of frustration, and hours of time on a phone, we couldn’t get anyone to help and we moved to a local internet provider. Suddenly we had people who showed up, and life became simple, with an outcome that worked.

The lesson in all this – people are important. It’s great to be able to pick up the phone and talk to a real  person. That has always been part of our New Zealand culture and if it means dealing locally, with local people, then I’m all for it.

John Barber

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