Frequently Asked Questions

Q.1 Which insurance companies do you use?

A. AIA
AMP
Asteron/Suncorp
AXA/AC&L
CommInsure
Macquarie Life
MLC/Aviva
OnePath (renamed from ING)
Tower
Zurich

Q.2 What is your authorisation to advise on insurance products and structures?

A. We are qualified financial planners who specialise in life insurance. This means we are able to help you with the levels of cover you need whilst establishing the most optimum way to set your cover up.

Q.3 What will this cost me?

A. EZI Protect does not charge a fee, we are paid by the recommended insurance company/s. This allows us to provide the service we do without additional charges to our clients.

Q.4 Am I locked into a contract?

A.No, you can cancel your cover anytime or amend the cover whenever your needs change. (Remember that underwriting criteria apply if benefits are added at a time of amendment.)

Q.5 Why can't I search the internet and easily gain a quote?

A.Unfortunately life, disability and income insurance are not as easy to quote as say a house or car

Q.6 I hear a lot about no medicals, will I need a medical and what does this mean?

A.Generally most people won't require a medical, however some will! In most cases if the insurance company asks for a medical, they will pay the cost of the procedure. The types of situations that can trigger a medical include things like; uncontrolled blood pressure or cholesterol, age, height and weight or the amount of cover you have requested ( the examples are given as a guide only). In any case investigating a persons health at time of application is actually a good thing and can assist in preventing disputes at the time of claim.

Remember, often times when a company offers cover with no medicals the client ends up paying a higher premium for that convenience. It may sound good at the beginning but could prove very costly over time.

Q.7 I don't want a cheap and nasty insurance! Is more expensive better and why the difference in premiums between companies?

A.Insurance companies are businesses like any other, they have income and outgoings. Income is in the form of premiums, outgoings other than the cost of running the business is in the form of claims. Often companies will select certain types of clients as more favourable than others, Ie company A may feel the building trades are the type of business they want whilst company B may want the medical industry. In response to this they may choose to structure their products accordingly (cheaper for the type of business they want to attract). Among other things as well companies may have particular claims experience with certain types of clients that dictate the price they are prepared to offer insurances to those clients for.

Q.8 What happens if i need to claim?

A.Fortunately most people will never need to claim, a little like car insurance, most of us have it but we don't drive around looking to have an accident. However, if we do need to claim what happens.

Firstly the client usually notifies either EZI Protect or the insurer of an event they feel may be a claim or lead to a claim.

Secondly a claim form is completed by the client, or clients representative in the case of a life insurance death claim. The claim form often has a section for the client and a section for the treating doctor to complete. The claim form is then returned to the insurer.

Thirdly, upon receipt of the claim form the insurer will assess the information with the view to paying the claim.

This is all fine, but why do we hear so much about claims that don't get paid particularly with the recent floods?

It is important to realise that life insurance is fundamentally different to general insurance. Life insurance deals with our lives, health etc. General insurance deals with the things we have (cars, houses, contents etc). From that point a life insurance application will want to identify a persons health history along with any activities they are involved with (both work and pastimes). If important information relating to these areas is omitted from an application it can cause a hold up or in some cases the denial of a claim. We wouldn't expect to insure our cars after we had an accident, if we attempted to it would be considered fraud. Therefore, so the insurer can get a clear picture on who they are insuring they need to be made aware of the general state of health and activities of the client.

Q.9 How do i pay for my insurance?

A. Generally companies will take credit card, direct debit or cheque. Most companies offer different payment cycles Ie monthly, half yearly or yearly. Some companies offer quarterly payments or BPay but not all do. You can choose what is convenient for your situation. Also mobile payments & premium SMS are new ways to pay for your insurance policy