Meet John and David - first home owners with their Life Insurance sorted (even with an HIV diagnosis).

Meet John and David – they’re about to sign the contracts on their new home, and it’s an exciting and stretching time, regardless of the interest rate

Life Insurance 101- Why is Life Insurance so important?

Meet Tina and Garry - proud new parents of a baby boy

A miracle you might say - because Tina and Garry are officially a serodiscordant couple. (In simple terms, it means one of them is HIV positive).

Deciding to have a baby is a big decision for anyone, but for a couple living with HIV the decision is more complicated. Tina and Garry today join the growing numbers of seroconcordant couples in Australia who have successfully given birth to healthy babies.

Mother to child transmission of HIV is rare in Australia and usually only occurs when the woman doesn't find out she's HIV-positive in time to take precautions to prevent it.

New advances in treatments

Thanks to the medical treatments now available, HIV positive people have a better quality of life, and that’s why it’s common for many couples in this position to consider the possibility of starting a family.

New advances in life insurance

And thanks to the specialty life insurance advisers at unusualrisks.com.au HIV positive people and diabetics can now also qualify for high-quality life insurance too. This was something that for many years was simply impossible.

Getting ready for getting pregnant

Tina and Garry wanted to become pregnant and decided they would learn everything they could before they become pregnant.  As part of their plan, they discussed their dream with their GP who also referred them to a HIV specialist. Tina had questions about whether the antiretroviral meds would have an impact on her fertility and found that for a healthy person with an undetectable viral load gives them the best chance of success.

After many long conversations, they eventually decided to use some reproductive assistance to help them navigate through the process to reduce the risks involved. After a couple of false starts, the good news arrived: they were pregnant.

Ask any new parent (or parent to be) what’s high on their list of priorities and they’ll mention protecting and providing for their partner and their new family.  That’s where the peace of mind or having your own life insurance policy in place comes in – just in case – because we all have someone special to protect and provide for.

Tina’s tips for other serodiscordant couples starting a family

"Sometimes you feel overwhelmed with advice but these are the 4 key things for our family".

• Get as healthy as you can and get happy.
• Speak with your GP and HIV specialist before you get pregnant.
• Where possible plan ahead and get your life insurance sorted before you get pregnant (it’s just easier that way and whatever you can do to feel better and safer is a good thing.)
• Learning about how to look after yourself and keep the baby safe are more complicated for a woman living with HIV. This adds to stress during the pregnancy and afterward so try and build yourself a support network for you, your partner and the baby.

“If you’re already pregnant – Congratulations!  Get your life insurance sorted. If you don’t do it today it can get lost under a pile of other things you have to do and slip your mind.  For us, it was more about feeling and being responsible and the habits of good parents I suppose” – Tina and Garry

Meet Lisa. She's a procurement manager for a busy national corporate and there's nothing she can't find when she puts her mind to it

But when it came to life insurance for somebody with diabetes, that proved a bigger challenge.

Last year while on holidays, Lisa's partner Sandra had to go to the hospital after a problem with her diabetes medication.

Meet Jennifer and Amber - partners for life.

Jennifer has spent the last 8 years climbing the corporate ladder in a busy city law firm and made senior associate last Christmas.

Her obsessive attention to detail means she's particularly good at what she does but the possibility of having to work through the fine print details of a life insurance policy is not something she's looking forward to.

Jennifer enjoys learning about products and services in her own time, doing her own comparisons and research and then preparing her list of hard-hitting questions, before talking to anyone about them.

Meet Terry - a skilled fly-in fly-out mining professional who looked for unusualrisks.com.au

How cheap tattoos can change your life

'My name is Terry and I'm 37 and I married my childhood sweetheart. A few years ago we decided as a family that the only way we could get ahead and save a big deposit for a house, was for me to go work in the remote mines of Western Australia or Northern Queensland. The plan was to work hard for 5 or 6 years and use my high income to save a healthy deposit'.

Meet George - logistics co-ordination ninja

He spends most of his work day chasing boxes, deadlines and freight companies running late.

His partner is the love of his life (and drives him crazy at times). George has a stepdaughter who he adores and a well-earned reputation as a bit of Weekend DIY Tragic, relentlessly renovating his townhouse.

George’s shift-work is often unpredictable, so living closer to work and cafes makes his life easier.

Lately, here's beeing thinking about the hard emotional decision, How much is enough?.

How much is Life Insurance enough?

Meet Leanne and Jenni - experienced professionals

Leanne and her partner Jenni are corporate professionals working in HR and Town Planning. They've been together in a de facto relationship for over ten years now and worked hard to establish their careers and their family.

You’ve come a long way — don’t risk what you cannot afford to lose

Today's families come in infinite varieties, and we celebrate all of them.

Getting married, sending a child off to university, building up a small business, investing in property, becoming an entrepreneur, giving back to the community, leaving a legacy for people you love — these are only a few of the many dreams we aspire to.

Whether your dreams are simple or ambitious, we understand that everyone has them

We also understand that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and their families face diverse challenges when it comes to protecting and achieving their financial dreams.

If you or your partner have been diagnosed with HIV or diabetes or if like us, you simply believe in supporting your freedom to choose, we'd love to be part of your strategy for protecting what’s important to you.

The company behind the people behind the scenes

We believe that good businesses can help good people achieve good things.

The heart behind unUsual Risks Insured is our parent company, Sapience Financial & Investment Services. Sapience is a boutique full financial services practice who certified as a  B Corporation in 2015 and committed to using purpose-driven business as a force for good.

In 2020 they celebrated 20+ years of helping people through understanding, respect and strategic financial advice Australia wide.

Our Claims Management Service

We personally manage all of our client's claims.

No client or their family should ever be left alone to navigate the complex world of paperwork and legal minefields, that an insurance claim will bring. Our insurance claims management service, Priority 1 ensures that nothing is left to chance.

"We saw the pain and frustration that people experienced with fragmented and irrelevant advice and how they often felt abandoned to their own devices during a drawn out insurance claims process.  They needed an advocate - so we decided to be the change in the community that we wanted to see".Drew Browne, Sapience Financial.

No-Surprises No-BS* Guarantee

What we do is all about You.

We value and protect the trust of our clients so much, that we have a No-Surprises No BS* policy for our product providers.

• We understand the effect of every question you might be asked in a typical insurance application.
• We know when certain information might trigger an additional questionnaire or follow up question.
• We want you to always feel in control of your personal information.
• Our client's privacy, respect and information security is of our utmost importance.
• You choose the level of contact you have with an insurance company.
• Our Concierge Application Service means you can have as much involvement with the insurer as you want, or you can have us take care of everything for you.
• We understand that our clients are usually super busy and people who require a greater level of privacy.
• If additional information is required for an application, you get to choose who contacts you when and how.

If you'd like some additional information about our people, visit our Director's LinkedIn profile here.

*And yes we went there.