You can take advantage of your products flexibility and built-in features to make sure your insurance remains affordable.
Please speak to your financial adviser regarding your specific cover needs. You can get a quote to find out how much your insurance cover will cost if you make any changes.
Opt out of inflation adjustments
To make sure your cover keeps up with the cost of living, we often apply an automatic increase to your amount of cover without you needing to provide medical or other details. This is called and ‘inflation adjustment’’. Each year we increase your sum insured by either a fixed percentage or the increase to the consumer price index (CPI). We’ll apply whichever of these is higher, which means you’ll get more cover. As your cover increases so does your premium.
With some Resolution Life insurance policies, inflation adjustments are an included feature. Depending on the product, you can choose to switch it on and off.
It’s a good idea to speak to your financial adviser about how inflation may impact your personal circumstances, so you can decide whether inflation adjustments are right for you.
You can learn more about inflation adjustments here. You can opt out of the increase for any particular year or permanently and this change will take effect from the next policy anniversary. This can be done in My Resolution Life, just search for ‘inflation adjustment’.
Change your cover
Reducing your cover or making changes to your insurance is one way to keep your policy affordable. We recommend speaking to your financial adviser before making any changes.
Reduce how much cover you have
As we move through different life stages, the amount of insurance required may change. For example, if you’ve reduced your mortgage, or your children have finished school, etc, then you may not need as much cover.
Speak to your financial adviser regarding your specific cover needs. You can contact us for a quote to find out how much your insurance cover will cost if you reduce it.
Income protection – increase the waiting period
A waiting period is the period of time between first becoming unable to work because of injury or sickness, and when an income protection benefit starts being paid.
You may have accumulated extra sick or holiday leave that can provide an income buffer if you are unable to work due to injury or sickness. By increasing your waiting period, for example from 30 days to 60 or 90 days (longer waiting periods are available), you may reduce your premium.
Speak to your financial adviser regarding your specific cover needs. You can get a quote to find out how much your insurance cover will cost if you reduce it.
Income protection – reduce the benefit period
A benefit period is the maximum length of time your income protection, or benefit is paid for.
As you get older or your financial situation changes, you may not require the same benefit period you chose when you took out your policy. Reducing your benefit period may result in a reduction to your premium. For example:
- Moving from a Lifetime benefit to an aged 65 benefit period
- Reducing your benefit period from an aged 65 benefit to a 2- or 5-year benefit period.
Speak to your financial adviser regarding your specific cover needs. You can get a quote to find out how much your insurance cover will cost if you reduce it.
Removing additional options
Your insurance policy may include additional cost options – like premium waiver, which carry additional costs. Removing an option that you no longer require can help reduce your premiums, but it does remove the benefit of the option.
You can ask us to remove any additional options. But remember that if you do cancel these, you will not be able to claim under them and may not be able to add them back in the future if you change your mind
Restructure your insurance from standalone to linked
If you have life, total & permanent disability and/or trauma insurance, you can choose to make the covers either standalone plans or link them under the same plan. Standalone plans generally have a higher premium than linked cover.
If a benefit under a linked option (such as a TPD or trauma option) is paid, that payment reduces the sum insured of each linked cover (such as a life insurance plan) for that insured person.
For example, you have $1.25 million in a Life Insurance Plan and $250,000 on a linked trauma option. If you made a trauma claim and the full benefit of $250,000 is paid, your Life Insurance Plan will be reduced to $1 million.
Alternatively, under a standalone plan, if a benefit is paid it does not impact any other insurances you may have. For this reason, standalone plans are more expensive.
Speak to your financial adviser regarding your specific cover needs. You can get a quote to find out how much your insurance cover will cost if you restructure it.
Switch to a less comprehensive product
Some insurance products are tiered – top tier products include all the bells and whistles but are generally more expensive than lower tier products.
Change how you pay
The premium structure or premium frequency you choose on your plan may affect the premium you pay. Reviewing these may help reduce your premium.
Change your payment frequency
Most insurance products charge a fee if you pay your insurance premiums more frequently than annually. Additionally smaller more regular payments may help with budgeting than larger one off payments.
You can request a change of payment frequency within My Resolution Life.
Paying for your insurance premiums through your super
Life, total & permanent disablement, and income protection insurance can be held inside super. This means your insurance costs are paid from your super not your after tax take-home pay – but keep in mind, using your super to pay for your insurance that this will reduce the amount you have available for your retirement savings.
It’s important to note consider that a condition of release, under super law must be met before any insurance benefit proceeds can be paid to you out under super law, so it may be harder to get a payment. For example, if you have income protection in super and are not working at the time you suffer an injury or illness or injury you may not be eligible for paid an income protection benefit. And if you have life insurance inside super, there may also be tax implications for your beneficiaries.
If you want to start paying premiums through your super, you may be able to transfer your policy to super. Speak to your adviser about structuring your policy through your super and whether it is suitable for you.
Review your health and past time loadings
Your smoking status, medical history, pastime and occupation all contribute to how your insurance cost is calculated. If you have changed your occupation, stopped smoking, or had an improvement in health, you may be able to review your cover and reduce your premium.
Changing your smoking status
Smoking puts your health at risk – which is why it will impact the amount of your premiums. If you change from a smoker to a non-smoker status, it may reduce your premiums.
If you’re not a smoker, check your policy schedule to ensure your smoking status is correct. You can also check your smoking status in My Resolution Life.
If you have stopped smoking or using nicotine replacement products and haven’t smoked any other substance, including vaping for more than 12 months, and have no illnesses caused or made worse by your smoking habits, you can be reassessed as a non-smoker.
You can find the Digital Non-Smoker Declaration form here.
Changing to a less hazardous occupation
Some insurance policies for dangerous jobs include a loading, which is a percentage increase in the cost of the premium. If you worked in a dangerous occupation and you have changed to a less hazardous one, we may be able to reassess your occupation, subject to underwriting.
Request a reassessment of health loadings
For certain medical conditions and injuries, a health loading can be applied. A health loading is a percentage increase in the cost of the premium.
If you had health concerns when you originally purchased your insurance, such as high cholesterol or high blood pressure, and your health has since improved, we may be able to reassess your health loading, subject to underwriting.
Request a reassessment of pastime loading/exclusion
Certain sporting and recreational pastimes, such as football, motor sports and scuba diving are considered risky and may result in a premium loading or exclusion. If you are no longer participating in these types of pastimes we may be able to remove the loading or exclusion, subject to underwriting.
Helping our customers through tough times
With an industry leading claims track record1, we help you and your family through the tough times. In fact, in 2021 we paid over $970m to 8,233 Australian customers, including $330m in Life claims and $323m Income Protection claims.
Find out how we take the stress out of the claims process here.
Other affordability considerations
Premium Freeze
Some products offer the option to freeze your premium in exchange for a reducing benefit amount. This means your premiums won’t increase each year, but your sum insured, or monthly benefit will reduce each year.
Before making any changes, you should check your policy carefully or speak with your financial adviser.
*Applicable for some Resolution Life retail insurance policies with a stepped premium. Premium freeze is not available on a FlexiLink plan, PremierLink TPD option, PremierLink IP option or the plans/options to which they are linked.
Supporting you through financial hardship
If you're experiencing financial difficulty, contact your financial adviser or call us to talk about how we may be able to help you.
We understand that everyone’s circumstances are unique, so we'll assess your situation and discuss your options to help you through this period.
These options could include:
- Accessing features within your policy that may reduce or waive your premium.
- Altering your options or cover levels to make your premium more affordable.
- If your employment circumstances have changed, such as experiencing a reduction in income or unemployment, please contact us to talk through the impact this may have on your insurance cover.
Customer examples
Example 1
Paul is a 45-year-old single father with two children living at home, aged 12 and 15. He is working full-time on a salary of $100,000 a year and is paying $95 a month for his income protection insurance cover.
A long-term smoker who has been trying to quit for some time, Paul finally succeeds in quitting. After 12 months of not smoking, he asks Resolution Life to have his smoking status reassessed, and as a result his premiums for life insurance cover are reduced to $73 per month. Paul also decides to reduce his benefit period until his children are out of school, in order to help him stay on top of his premiums.
When Paul and his family move house, his finances are squeezed even tighter. To make it easier to keep up with his premium payments, Paul decides to change his waiting period from 30 days to 90 days. This gives Paul the time he needs to cover his extra costs and get himself into a better financial position and reduces his monthly premium further to $46. That’s a total saving of $49 per month for Paul.
Example 2
Renee is a 41-year-old high school teacher with 10 year old twins who attend a private school. Renee earns $94,000 a year and is paying $230 a month for her income protection insurance cover with a benefit amount of $5,900 per month until the age of 65.
When Renee’s husband is made redundant after only 3 years at his employer, they need to reassess their finances so that they can continue to pay their mortgage and their daughters’ school fees. They contact Resolution Life and speak to them about reducing their income protection benefit period from up to age 65 to 5 years. As a result, their monthly premium is reduced to $149 – saving them $81 per month. Updating their insurance cover based on their needs allowed them to still remain covered whilst taking some pressure off their financial situation.
Renee is aware that she will need to be underwritten again if she wants to reinstate her insurance to its previous levels.
Please note these examples are illustrative only and are not an estimate of the investment returns you will receive or fees and costs you will incur. These examples are based on the following assumptions (a) The cover amount remains the same through-out the period and the policy is not cancelled or suspended.; (b) No waiting period applies to the policy; (c) All figures are gross of tax. No allowance is made for tax circumstances, the taxation and Medicare levies on insurance benefits, or social security benefits; (d) The example does not take into account any fees and costs associated with insurance.
Contact us
- Login to My Resolution Life to chat to us
- Submit an online enquiry
- Call us on 133 731
Monday to Friday 8.30am - 5.00pm (Sydney time) - Contact your financial adviser
Important information
The product issuer is Resolution Life Australasia Limited ABN 84 079 300 379, AFSL No. 233671 (Resolution Life). The information on this webpage is applicable for Resolution Life Retail insurance policy holders only. Resolution Life has provided this advice, which is general in nature only and does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Therefore, before acting on this advice, you should consider the appropriateness of the advice having regard to your objectives, financial situation and needs, as well as the relevant product disclosure statement or policy document, available from Resolution Life at resolutionlife.com.au or by calling 133 731, before making a decision about whether to acquire, or continue to hold, the product.
Read Resolution Life’s Financial Services Guide available at resolutionlife.com.au/financial-services-guide for information about our products and services, including the fees and other benefits that Resolution Life Group companies and their representatives may receive in relation to products and services provided to you.
The Target Market Determinations (TMDs) for our financial products can be found at resolutionlife.com.au/target-market-determinations, which describes the key features and attributes of a product that affect whether it is likely to be consistent with the objectives, financial situation and needs of consumers in the target market.
Resolution Life is part of the Resolution Life Group and can be contacted on 133 731 or askus@resolutionlife.com.au.
"AMP" and any other AMP trademarks are used by Resolution Life under licence from AMP Limited ABN 49 079 354 519.
