Life Insurance Direct Press Release: Trauma and TPD Insurance Getting Left Behind

Australians are dangerously leaving themselves under insured when it comes to critical illness and total and permanent disability, according to Life Insurance Direct, Australia’s No.1 in Life Insurance Comparisons.

In a recent survey of 500 of their clients over the past 12 months, Life Insurance Direct found that while almost 60 per cent of their clients took out life insurance, only 7 per cent took out trauma insurance with 10 per cent taking out Total and Permanent Disablement (TPD) Insurance.

While acknowledging that the majority of people were in the market for life insurance and that trauma insurance was generally more expensive, Russell Cain CEO of xLife, owner and operator of Life Insurance Direct, said that while the findings were not necessarily surprising, they were was still quite alarming.

“In the seven years we have been operating, we have always found that life insurance was by far and away the most popular type of insurance we compared, followed by income protection,” Mr Cain said.

Trauma Insurance typically covers a range of critical illnesses, including heart attacks, cancers and stroke Mr Cain said, while TPD Insurance provides a benefit if you become totally and permanently disabled.

“So while people are focused on insuring their lives and protecting their income, they are tending to neglect financially protecting themselves and their families from critical illness and total and permanent disability – despite the statistics!”

Those statistics (courtesy of the Heart Foundation and the Cancer Council) are quite alarming:

Cardiovascular Disease

• Affects one in six Australians or 3.7 million
• Causes 1.4 million people to suffer from a disability
• Caused 482,000 hospitalisations in 2009-10
• Claimed the lives of over 45,000 Australians in 2011

Heart Attack

• Each year around 55,000 Australians suffer from a heart attack
• It is estimated around 380,000 Australians have suffered from a heart attack
• 9,811 Australians died from heart attacks in 2011 – that equates to 27 per day

Cancer

• It is estimated that 124,910 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in 2013
• Cancer costs more than $3.78 billion in direct health system costs
• 15,000 more people die from cancer each year compared with 30 years ago, but the death rate of cancer has fallen by 16%

Mr Cain urged people to speak to their adviser about trauma and TPD insurance and specifically ask them about combined policies.

“Of our clients who took our trauma and TPD insurance in the last 12 months, only 2% took out stand alone trauma insurance and less than 1% took out stand alone TPD, showing how popular a combined policy is,” Mr Cain said.

“Combined policies are a great way to take out fully comprehensive policies across Life, Trauma and TPD insurance but in a cost affective manner.”

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LifeInsuranceDirect.com.au is Australia’s No.1 in Life Insurance Comparisons: a leader in providing policy comparisons, education and customer experience for those seeking life insurance policies.

The information in this press release (including taxation) is for Australian residents only and is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances or needs. Do not act until you seek professional advice and consider a Product Disclosure Statement. We recommend that you speak to (Phone Number 1300 882 762) a Life Insurance Direct specialist financial Adviser before you make any decision regarding life, income protection, trauma & funeral insurance

Lifeinsurancedirect.com.au is owned and operated by xLife Pty Ltd, a corporate authorised representative of Millennium3 Financial Services Pty Ltd, AFSL No. 244252.