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Welcome to our Special Interest Finance Blog
It can be hard to identify who you are and where you want to go if you don't have the right wording to know what's even possible. This is why a lot of good financial advice looks like education.
Life insurances, Income Protection, and Estate Planning is all design to support what's important to you and safeguard whoever is family to you. It's an important part of modern life, love and business. Be sure to receive the information and guidance you need to make an educated decision. Browse through our Blog, our 100+ FAQs or contact us for a confidential chat.
Managing diabetes can be a challenge: getting life insurance at the same time can feel overwhelming
Diabetes is Australia's fastest growing chronic health condition with 280 Australians developing this condition every day. (That's one person every five minutes)
People living with a pre-existing health condition like diabetes, statistically speaking have a higher risk of needing to make a claim on their personal insurance policy.
Add to this constantly changing assessment standards for getting insurance cover, and finding a life insurance specialist who understand your situation can feel near impossible.
Welcome to Unusual Risks Insured - we get it.
- 🍏 Metabolic & Chronic Health Protection
Straight and living with HIV? It's becoming more common than you'd think
The typical straight guy (or girl) next door who is just living with a chronic health condition called HIV, is increasing
HIV is not a top-of-mind conversation starter for most straight guys and girls so many straight people believe HIV is not a health issue for the straight community, but they would be very mistaken.
- In Western Australia during 2020, more straight men were diagnosed with HIV than gay men.
- Despite new HIV numbers declining nationally for more than a decade, the number of straight men contracting the sexually transmitted HIV virus is on the rise.
- 💬 Life, Law & Community Insights
Happy Mardi Gras!
To all our clients, friends and supporters - have a fabulous time celebrating you!
We're committed to serving the LGBTI Community and its Allies, and we're here for you, all year round. Happy Mardi Gras!
- 💬 Life, Law & Community Insights
Intersex Remembrance Day
'Pink is for girls and blue is for boys. Girls are princesses and boys are pirates. Girls like only boys and boys don’t kiss other boys... — These are just a few restrictive ideas of gender and gender identity that have seen many queer people marginalised and scrutinised for centuries'.
(National Geographic Magazine - Jan 2017 issue)
If there is anything we know, it's that life is not black and white - and not everyone is neatly defined by an Acronym LGBTI.
- 💬 Life, Law & Community Insights
Life is complicated.
Getting on with life is even more complicated; so it's important to talk about what matters most and know where we stand.
- In 2019, around 3.4 million Australians reported using an illicit (recreational) drug in the last 12 months.1
So how does having a history of personal drug use affect your ability to create a safety net for yourself and your family?
Here's what you need to know ahead of time when you're needing to get your life insurances sorted.
- 🛡️ Uninsurability Containment & Asset Insulation
Living with depression or an anxiety disorder doesn't need to stop you from getting your life insurances sorted.
Thankfully, good mental health is now becoming part of the regular conversations for many Australians.
Here are some tips to help navigate the application process.
- About 3 million Australians are living with a form of anxiety or depression (Beyond Blue 2020) and at least 45 per cent of Australians will experience a mental health issue at some point in their lives. (SANE, 2019)
- However, studies have also found that LGBTIQ people face up to twice as much abuse or violence than our heterosexual counterparts and that this prejudice and discrimination adds an additional layer of risk factors that can lead to depression and anxiety.
- Research and real life experiences have found that LGBTIQ people have an increased risk of depression and anxiety, substance abuse, self-harming and suicidal thoughts.
- 🍏 Metabolic & Chronic Health Protection
Be careful what you Google for, when searching for simple answers to complex questions like; Can people with HIV or other complex health conditions can still qualify for life insurance?
Google Search is part of our modern-day lives.
Who hasn’t made a quick Search for the bio of an actor, the secret to a killer Bearnaise sauce or asked, ‘Is there a sequel to Game of Thrones?’
Search is also a growing part of our personal health management. People's tendencies for a late-night search session with Dr Google self-diagnosing potential medical conditions —by searching for symptoms —are known to trigger many an anxious night of misinformation and questionable comparisons.
The reality is many of our late-night search results usually add to our anxiety and uncertainty.
The new skill of knowing ‘when to consult a professional’ is becoming the new 21th Century survival skill to learn.
- 💬 Life, Law & Community Insights
Flatmates, friends or de facto partners - how do you tell them apart
When it comes to romance and relationships, the emotional decision about who you think is your partner, may be very different to the legal decision about who is legally considered your de facto partner.
The questions about who may be a boyfriend or girlfriend or partner and who is a de facto become important distinctions when it comes to Superannuation payouts, Life Insurance nominations and Family Law claims on your finances, investments and property interests.
As Marriage Equality became law in Australia on 9th December 2017, *yay*, who is a married partner is now straightforward. Who is a de facto partner, is not always so straightforward especially for many in the LGBTQI Community.
- 💬 Life, Law & Community Insights
Ever wonder who can make emergency medical decisions for you when you can’t?
Most adults are presumed to have the needed mental capacity to give consent themselves. But what happens when you can’t make decisions for yourself?
Though you may have a large circle of friends, emergencies demand a certain kind of relationship.
Being to answer this question will probably make you stop and consider the quality of your key relationships and whether you have the right legal documents in play today, as part of your backup plan.
The person 'next in line to make decisions' for you is often referred to as the person responsible and it might not be your next of kin.
- 💬 Life, Law & Community Insights
Life still goes on, even in the middle of a Pandemic.
Yes, it makes perfect sense to think about life insurance today - especially today - because life still happens to us all, all the time, even during difficult times.
One of the dangers of living through difficult times (and the LGBTQIA+ Community is no stranger to surviving difficult times) is we can sometimes fixate on the biggest issue and ignore the most important issue - our life, love, and relationships continue regardless.
Our innate adaptability can lead many LGBTQIA+ couples to embrace wildly different financial goals, styles and circumstances in our partners.
- 💬 Life, Law & Community Insights
Getting better at managing our personal risks in our connected world
It's a difficult time, and winter is coming.
But it won't always be.
And we all need to be ready for the Spring; to better understand what we can control now (and who we can take care of today), so we're all getting ready for a better tomorrow.
The current Coronavirus pandemic is going to affect Australian families and businesses - but perhaps not for the reason you suspect.
- 💬 Life, Law & Community Insights
Women living with HIV in Australia
Today, about 10% of people living with HIV in Australia are women; yet they continue to be conspicuously absent in most of the HIV prevention messages.
The reported experiences of women living with HIV can be very different from men.
Many women navigate their treatments and their daily lives differently from their male counterparts.
- 🩸 Clinical, PrEP & Blood-Borne Risk Underwriting
Happy Mardi Gras!
To all our clients, friends and supporters - have a fabulous time celebrating you!
We're committed to serving the LGBTI community and its Allies, and we're here for you, all year round. Happy Mardi Gras!
- 💬 Life, Law & Community Insights
Valentine’s Day means different things to different people
But ultimately it's about Love — and Love Takes Action
What some people miss is that life insurance is really love insurance — by having sufficient life insurance, they're safeguarding the future of the ones they love. Drew Browne
Four thoughtful ways you can act on your love today
- 💬 Life, Law & Community Insights
If you’re part of a gay couple, here’s 6 power money decisions that help LGBTQIA+ couples get on the same page financially, and stay on track together.
Because who wants to spend a lifetime arguing about money, right?
- 💬 Life, Law & Community Insights
And that's great news for everyone who's using PrEP medication to take better control over their health.
- PrEP (Pre-exposure prophylaxis) is an anti-HIV medicine taken by a person who doesn't have HIV to lower their risk of infection.
- The brand name of the drug known as PrEP is Truvada and it's now listed on the PBS and subsided by the Australian Government.
- 🩸 Clinical, PrEP & Blood-Borne Risk Underwriting
Diabetes in Australia is our fastest growing chronic condition
The onset of Type 1 Diabetes mellitus (T1DM) occurs most frequently in people under 30 years, however, new research suggests almost half of all people who develop the condition are diagnosed over the age of 30.
Each day 280 Australians develop diabetes:
- 56% are males
- 44% are females
- 🍏 Metabolic & Chronic Health Protection
Equality and freedom from discrimination are fundamental human rights that belong to all people, regardless of who they love or how they identify
The road to anywhere meaningful does seem to take a while and this has been true for many in Australia's LGBTQIA+ community.
- 💬 Life, Law & Community Insights
Marriage Equality means in Australia you're now free to marry who you love.
If you're a same-sex couple, there might be some unique challenges to meet with your partner for life
While LGBTQIA+ people are as diverse as the rest of the population, their shared experience and expectation of discrimination creates many common financial issues, unique to the LGBTQIA+ Community.
- 💬 Life, Law & Community Insights
A note to our competitors (& those who want to be)
Let’s start this discussion off with an honest fact:
- Every single company out there has competitors.
- So here's a note, just for ours.
A number of our professional colleagues and suppliers (and more than a handful of competitors) continually ask us, 'why we take such a visible leadership stance about diversity, inclusion and belonging in business today?
- 💬 Life, Law & Community Insights
