Sunshine7

Does anybody know if it's possible to take out a life insurance policy in Australia when still living in the UK?

Our life insurance policies here in the UK become void once we move to Australia, and we can't get a policy with any other company here which will continue once we move (in about 5 weeks )

Is it possible to take one out now in Asutralia, or would we have to wait until we get there? I know that if we wait we will only be left un-insured for a week or two, but sods law and all that ............

LINZI

I have just got Life insurance and both Nib/Real insurance asked me about 3x if i was a resident of australia so im not sure if any other companys will just check with them.
Im not sure if it helps or not but we where covered straight away.
Good Luck

elice_in_oz

You need to be permanent resident to get life insurance. If you're only coming on a temporary visa, you won't be able to get it here. I know, we tried a few different insurers. As Lindzi says, they will repeatedly ask you.

My OH has a life insurance policy through his superannuation fund (the default one from employer) and AFAIK, they didn't need him to be PR as long as he was employed by the company. Worth checking with you employer's super of choice...

JAJ

That's unusual ... does it say so in the terms and conditions?

Andrew Williams

Some life companies in the UK will void the policy if you are living/working outside of the UK/EU. It all depends on when the insurance was taken out. I would ask them to give you that in writing though just to be sure.

It is possible to get life insurance, critical illness cover etc as a temporary resident in Australia, there are not many companies that offer it but I do have quite a few temporary resident clients that I have arranged life insurance for.

There is a territorial exclusion applied though which means that it becomes void if you move outside of Australia.

Regards

Andy

LINZI

Yes i forgot about the superannuation fund that the employer pays into, my partners death/disability cover is about $100,000 cover and we arrived on a 457 visa so i would check with that first maybe?
I have just found my sunsuper statement and when i started working my cover was $228,000 for death/permanent disability.

Dreamy

We obtained life insurance through our bank (issued by Colonial Mutual) while we were on a temporary visa

James516

I still have 2 UK life insurance policies, with Scottish Widows and Norwich Union, which are valid while I live in Oz. Check with your insurance provider again.

Sunshine7

We do have PR visas so I know we will be able to get something set up once we are in the country, but like I said I just feel uneasy about the couple of weeks we won't be covered.

Our insurance company, Fortis, definitely won't cover us once we move. I have phoned round loads of other insurers (including Tesco) who won't cover us either, even if the premiums come out of a UK bank account. Tesco actually told me twice, on two separate occasions, that they would cover us, but when I (luckily) re-checked yesterday they looked it up in their terms and said no it can't be done.

I then went to a broker and asked him to check with everyone he could think of - and he came back with the same story - no chance.

We don't have any health concerns or anything, it's purely because we are moving abroad. I suppose for all they know we could be moving to a very high risk country, a war zone or something, and then they would be more likely to have to pay out? That's the only reasoning I can think of.

elice_in_oz

How about taking out travel insurance for that period? That would cover accidental death at least...

Sunshine7

Ah, I didn't think of that. We do have annual travel insurance anyway so I must go and check to see if it has death benefit - thanks.

shiels

Yeah we have one with Norwich Union, which I think is now called Avia (sp) and we've been here 3 years but have it in writing that it is still valid as long as the payments are being made from a UK bank account, which they are

paulry

I'm with Axa and Aviva (previously Norwich Union) and both have sent me letters recently stating that any claims will still be honoured provided the payments keep rolling in.

kjj

I have a slightly different problem.
Have just been refused life insurance on the basis that we are going to Australia.
Currently we have just been using the life cover available through our occupational pension schemes as these are quite good and we don't yet have children. We also have a small policy that covers our mortgage although we have not updated this as our mortgage has increased.
I want to get a policy that will cover us for a few years until we get settled and will cover the shortfall between our current occupational scheme and the reduction in the benefits of these schemes when we become a deferred member. It seems that if you already have a policy then they will cover you when you move but will not provide new cover if they know your are migrating. Any suggestions anyone (not lying)?
KJJ

paulry

Surely you wont be lying if you take out insurance while you're still resident here? Choose one of the companies that you know are okay with people subsequently moving to Australia.