Financial protection a barbecue topic?

Financial protection a barbecue topic?

The impact of injury or illness and how that can disrupt our lives and our entire future is not a barbecue conversation topic we usually identify with.

But research by TAL, Australia’s largest life insurer, shows that stories of how financial protection helped save a friend or family in such a time of need motivated them to ensure they had their own life insurance in place.

In fact, one in five people said they had heard a story of someone close who had been saved from financial hardship by one or more types of their life cover (life, disability, critical illness and income protection see Note 1 below for definitions).

While those surveyed said this was not the key reason for taking out their life insurance, it was still a motivator for many, along with getting advice from professionals, partners, families and the workplace.

But the main reason given by people for taking out one or more forms of life insurance was that they simply made their own, independent decision, unprompted.

The second main reason was because financial protection cover was already part of their superannuation and it was a decision effectively made for them.

The third most popular reason for taking out life cover was being prompted by a family discussion, followed by a discussion with a financial adviser and then being motivated by a real-life story of death, illness or accident.