Over the last 24 hours as reality re the Level 4 lockdown arrives & rightly & expected I have had several questions & this newsletter is really all about giving you certainty in & around your Risk Protection & assurance in & around Covid-19 & I trust the content of my newsletter gives you some clarity & assurance
A few of the questions that have been raised:
**If I am unable to work in my primary occupation due to contracting Corona Virus does my Income/Mortgage protection cover me.
Yes your Income/Mortgage Protection does cover you after the nominated wait period & your illness claim meets the claim underwriting criteria & you are unable to work in your pre-illness occupation due to the illness & the claim is in line with the policy wording then you have claim entitlement (Please refer to your policy wording which would have been sent out to you at the inception of your policy)
**If my company or my business ceases to trade or is grossly affected financially, due to Corona Virus & my employment is ceased or reduced or my company income is adversely affected does my Income/Mortgage Protection cover me.
No it does not as Income/Mortgage Protection is in place to cover you in the event of illness or accident & you are unable to work more than 10 hours per week due to illness, it does not cover the financial health of your employer or business it covers your health & inability to work due to the consequential illness
**If I am self-employed or own a business, does my Income/Mortgage protection cover me should the income of my business/company be adversely affected.
No it does not & the best advice I can offer you is talk with your Fire & General Commercial Broker & I have in this newsletter included some relevant information around that & Business Interruption cover that I hope may assist & I would suggest in this instance you make contact with your Fire & General broker & discuss this with them
**I took Income/Mortgage Protection cover out in January 2020 with Redundancy cover added, can I now claim on the Redundancy cover as I am about to be made redundant on the 20th of April of this year.
Unfortunately no as all Redundancy covers have a 6 month stand-down period from the date of inception of the policy & also the claim is negated as you were advised of the redundancy prior to the expiry of the 6 month stand-down period
**I took Income/Mortgage Protection cover out in 2016 with Redundancy cover, can I now claim on the Redundancy cover as I am about to be made redundant on the 20th of April of this year.
Yes you claim entitlement on your Redundancy cover & providing the claim meets the underwriting criteria & is in line with the policy wording criteria your claim will be paid after the nominated wait period & also after any other redundancy payment you may receive from your employer i.e. If you receive 6 months redundancy from your employer, then your insurance Redundancy cover will commence payment after that period for a maximum of 6 months & that is if you have not commenced a new employment role during that period
**I am concerned over the coming few months I may get made redundant by my employer—Can I purchase redundancy cover now to add to my Income Protection cover.
The simple & quick answer is no that “window” is now virtually closed & already a couple of NZ insurer’s have withdrawn this option from their product suite for the foreseeable future & I imagine all NZ insurer’s & global re-insurer’s will over the next few days totally withdraw Redundancy cover for a yet to be defined timeframe.
**I have contracted Corona-Virus & I have either Living assurance/Critical care/Trauma cover in place can I claim on this cover.
As with all Serious/Trauma illness policies, there is a claims threshold based on the severity of the Illness & the specified health condition/occurrence.
Please note that Corona-Virus is not a specified condition/health occurrence in present industry policies, however, a number of companies in their cover have included a Severe Illness benefit payable which providing your Corona-Virus condition/illness meets the underwriting criteria & fits within a severe illness clause & also the condition reaches the claims threshold, you will most likely have claim entitlement, however, I would urge you to check your policy wording in this instance
**My partner has been advised that due to his/her Coronavirus condition their condition is terminal & has a limited life expectancy & unlikely to live beyond a month, does our life & terminal illness cover allow us to claim.
Yes it does under the full entitlement of your life & terminal illness cover as specified in the policy wording
I trust these “may happen” scenarios give you some peace of mind & insight into the workings of the various covers & as I said in my opening comments to my newsletter, I am here to help, advice & assist during the challenging months ahead.
The best compliment you can give me is to recommend me to your family & friends—Is there anyone you know who would benefit from my services & advice ?—E-Mail me here
Or go to my website www.kevinhickland.co.nz