self employed small business income protection for people taking PrEP self employed small business income protection for people taking PrEP self employed small business income protection for people taking PrEP self employed small business income protection for people taking PrEP self employed small business income protection for people taking PrEP income protection for people taking PrEP life-insurance small business income protection crisis insurance services total and permanent disability Most Common FAQ faq about hiv faq about PrEP faq about diabetes services

Is there a waiting period before life insurance becomes effective?

If you're thinking about life insurances, chances are you have something worth protecting.

These days HIV or diabetes doesn't have to be a life sentence

But most insurance companies still treat you like it is.

People with pre-existing well‑managed complex health conditions have, up till now, been prevented from accessing quality Life Insurances and Income Protection cover, simply because of their conditions.

Explaining Life insurance cover

Life insurance (also called term life or death cover) is designed to protect against the financial impact of unexpected death and pay a specified amount of money to your beneficiaries, helping to make sure they’re looked after in the event should that occur.

• The benefit payout is either paid to the owner of the policy, your nominated beneficiaries, or your estate.
• High-quality life cover can also payout upon diagnosis of a terminal illness in the final 24 months.

Practically speaking - don't leave your debt to people you love

Why you may need life cover

Most people don't know that 30% of all life insurance payouts have been for terminal illness

Expenses to protect could include:

• How much would be needed to pay off all your debt upon your unexpected death?
• How much would your surviving partner (and any dependents) need to pay living expenses?
• How much do children need to complete education and how will this be funded?
• If you unexpectedly passed away, would you want your partner to need to downsize and move to a cheaper location?
• Would you want them to have the stability of being able to remain in a familiar environment and help any children complete their education with the advantage of having a parent at home to look after them?
• And what are the practical cost for end-of-life expenses and how will this be funded?

Real Life Statistics

• 30% of all life cover claims are for terminal illnesses.
• 43,477 deaths were attributed to cardiovascular disease in Australia in 2017 and kills one Australian every 12 minutes. ^{Australian Institute of Health and Welfare – Injury, June 2017}

This is not just about getting a Life Insurance policy, this is a human rights issue.

We believe that every Australian should have equal access to high-quality Life Insurance products, no matter what their sexuality, gender, race, age or beliefs. We believe this is not just about getting Life Insurance, this is a human rights issue.

Life Insurance can help you be certain your loved ones are provided for; your child's educational needs are taken care of and your chosen family won't have to worry about their future if you’re not there to continue to protect and provide for them.

When does life insurance payout?

Life insurance will normally payout upon the death of the life insured and can help their dependants cope financially after you die.

Many people don't know that high-quality life insurance can also pay out upon the diagnosis of a terminal illness in the remaining 24 months, as well making it a strong part of a backup plan.

A sad but all too-common experience

Often, when a couple establishes a life insurance policy to protect each other, one person has their application accepted, but the other is refused because of a pre-existing health condition.

Both are left feeling that a wedge has been driven between them and that their needs and choices were not understood, honoured or valued.

At Unusual Risks Insured our mission is to change this and be the change we want to see in the world.

Life Insurance and HIV- how the impossible became possible

We understand that today's modern families can be biological or logical

They can also include:

For someone living with pre-existing medical conditions like HIV or diabetes, a family can even extend to a network of close friends.

However you identify and whoever is family to you, we believe no one should miss out.

No one should miss out

While our anonymous online pre-assessment is designed for people with well-managed HIVor diabetes, we understand that you might be here at our website because of different reasons too.

If you're HIV negative or non-diabetic

• you're HIV negative and have a partner, friend or relative who is HIV positive
• you're non-diabetic and have a partner, friend or relative who is a diabetic
• or if you're living with another complex health condition or caring for someone who is

whoever you are, we'd love to work with you too.

How can we help you?

We find that generally, people want to be responsible.

• When given the opportunity and the tools they rise to any challenge and actively look for ways to help protect and provide for their loved ones.

Advice and help for everyone

We can provide helpful advice and strategies about ways to protect and provide for your Modern Family - whoever that is to you - covering:

  Life & Terminal Illness protection

  Income Protection protection

  Medical Crisis Recovery protection

  Total & Permanent Disability (TPD) protection

And a full set of personal insurance solutions for Self Employed people and those with high privacy needs.

Advice and help for those practical issues like

  Transferring & Managing Existing Life Insurance Policies to consolidate and manage for you

  Updating & Managing Beneficiary Nominations for life insurance and super

  Establishing Life Insurances for Intended Parents and Surrogates

  Establishing Key Person Protection for Non-for-Profit registered entitles

Advice and help for business people

Business Ownersand their families often have additional needs not usually catered for in their personal insurance strategies.

We can help you fix that with helpful advice about:

  Specialty Business Key Person and Debt protection

  Specialty Business Fixed Expenses protection

  Specialty Business Owners and Professional Partnerships protection

  Specialty Business Owner and Partnership continuation and succession protection

The information you find on this website will give you a good understanding of insurance and related products and services available for people with pre-existing medical conditions.

My partner is HIV negative so what is the process for them getting standard insurance cover through you?

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.

Many people in professional business use life insurance products but...

Caring for caring professionals. 

Blood Borne Disease Insurance compensates you if you contract HIV, hepatitis B or hepatitis C due to a sharps injury while working in your regular occupation

Hospitals, surgeries, clinics and accident sites are often high-pressure, fast-paced environments where sharps injuries to medical professionals occur all too frequently.

• A needlestick or sharps injury (NSI) can also have a devastating impact on your long-term income earning capacity

White-collar professionals are often highly paid and highly leveraged, so they need a comprehensive insurance strategy to safeguard what they have worked hard to achieve.

Accidents do happen

Watch Donald's real-life story below of how a trauma nurse experienced an accidental needle stick injury.

They met on a dating app and have been good mates ever since.

Simon is a teacher currently completing additional night study at Uni.  Jordan works from home 4 days a week in IT support for a large logistics and distribution company.

Both guys have separate casual relationships and enjoy live music, online gaming together, and following music festivals around the country. They’re both fit and healthy, have packed social calendars and both use PrEP to help manage their own sexual health.

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?

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 Insurances are important financial tools that help us manage the ups and downs of life, love and business. It's an easy way to safeguard our unpredictable futures, just in case.

But delaying important decisions and continually 'waiting for a convenient time' to get these important parts of life in place - is a risk as we all over time can become uninsurable for a variety of reasons.

But some health conditions can be unexpected, unpredictable and then uninsurable - and that can create a significant equally unexpected problem for many people.

The better we protect the people who are important to us, the better our lives are.

Total and Permanent Disability insurance (often called TPD for short) is designed to protect against long-term disability and pay a lump sum(or in some cases by installments) if you become permanently disabled, as defined in the policy.

• Generally, a permanent disability means you can’t work in your current occupation or in a job you’ve already trained or studied for, or previously worked in.
• Importantly the minimum waiting period is 6 months before any payment is available.
• It’s important to carefully read the fine print in these specialty policies because different definitions usually apply to TPD insurance.

Your financial advisor from Unusual Risks Insured is the expert to best help you understand your options and how to ‘sift through the rocks to find the diamonds’.

Practically speaking - "don’t let disability ruin the rest of your life"

Why you may need TPD cover

Our greatest asset is our ability to continue to earn our income.

Most Australians just don't have enough savings or backup resources available to protect their lifestyle if they suffer a permanent disability.

• If you were unable to work, how would you afford to pay your living expenses?
• How would you afford the new and ongoing medical costs associated with serious illness and injuries?

TPD insurance can provide the funds to pay off debts, pay for medical treatments, and maintain your lifestyle while you focus on adjusting to what may be a very different lifestyle after a significant accident or illness.

It’s especially relevant for:

• people with partners (and dependents) - particularly if you’re a one-income-family
• people who are financially responsible for a special needs sibling, aging parents, or managing a long term medical condition
• people with mortgage debt or paying large rent, who have debts that couldn't be paid out from savings alone

Real Life Statistics

• In Australia, a person suffers a stroke every nine minutes and there are an estimated 475,000 stroke survivors living in our communities. ^{National Stroke Foundation}
• Almost half a million Australians are hospitalised each year as a result of injury, and a further 12,000 people die due to injury. ^{Australian Institute of Health and Welfare – Injury, June 2017}

Can we take over the ongoing management of an existing life insurance policy for you?

Yes, we can.

This is one of our most asked about questions.

The next most commonly asked question we're asked is;

'Can you tell me if my existing policy actually covers me for a particular medical condition?'

And Yes, we can do that too. (And we actually do a lot of that by the way).

Are you one of the thousands of Australians who have lost track of their personal insurance policies?

Do you have an existing Life Insurance policy, Income Protection policy, or perhaps a Super account providing insurances you've lost touch with?

• Not sure what your old insurance policy actually covers, if it's still value for money and meeting your needs?
• Maybe you have some concerns about its wording, cover limitations, possible exclusions, and whether it will actually pay out if needed?
• Perhaps your health or personal circumstances have changed since you first took out these insurances and you're not really sure where you stand?
• Maybe you feel it's just time to move on and start working with a Specialty Adviser like unusualrisks.com.au who's more aligned with what you value?

If this sounds like you, it sounds like you could benefit from our second opinion and discrete Transfer & Manage My Insurance Policy Service.

We can manage the transfer of neglected insurance policies when your provider has forgotten about you (or worse still - simply abandoned you).

Sadly, this is a common and frustrating problem for many people. Advisors leave the industry, businesses are sold and closed and people lose touch for many reasons.

It's the cause of many constant low-level irritations afflicting busy people already juggling busy lives and responsibilities.

Relax. We have the solution

Our Transfer & Manage my Insurance Policyservice can take over the day-to-day management of any life insurance policy already in force and manage them all under a single agency for you, with absolute security, privacy, and discretion.

We can also provide additional professional insights and advice on;

• Whether an existing life insurance policy has any special conditions,
• How any new health issues may (or may not) affect the outcome of a potential future claim, and
• Add or update your official nominations about who should be your Life Insurance Policy Beneficiary or Super Fund Account Beneficiarytoo.

Why do people use our Transfer & Manage Service?

Since the last damming report of The Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry, many people are now using our Transfer and Manage Service to get the clarity they need on existing insurance policies and to have us manage them all in one place.

• Citing concerns over potential conflicts of interest, more and more people are moving away from financial services providers who are either owned, backed or franchisees of major financial institutions. 
• People today are simply no longer prepared to support a business with a history of putting the commercial interests of their shareholders before the best interests of the customer.

How to use our Policy Transfer & Manage Service

There are 5 Steps to regaining control over a lost or abandoned policy using our Transfer & Manage Service.

1. If you still have a copy of your original policy statement, grab it and look for the policy number (or member number). If you don't, relax, we can trace it if you provide us some basic information too.
2. Send us the details (or a scan of the document).
3. We'll send you back a pre-completed form to sign confirming you give us permission to make discrete inquiries on your behalf.
4. We'll find out what you need to know and give you some options.
5. When you're ready, we can take over and manage your policy for you.

Can we manage your Life Insurance and Super fund Beneficiary Nomination for you?

Yes, we can.

This is another one of our most asked about questions.

Understanding how to keep track of your insurance policy nominations can feel a little like rocket science.

You probably already know that when you take out a typical Life Insurance policy, you have the option to nominate anyone you like as the beneficiary(s) to the policy, so they can receive any future payout if you unexpectedly pass away.

• Standard Life insurance payouts are usually paid tax free to your nominated beneficiary.

But did you know that if the Life Insurance policy is paid from a super fund, you are restricted to who you can nominate as a beneficiary, and there may be significant taxation complications too?

• Super Life insurance payouts are taxed unless the person you nominate is an eligible beneficiary under the tax laws.

Are you one of the many people who have lost track of their beneficiary information?

Do you have an existing Life Insurance policy or perhaps a Super account with insurance you've lost touch with?

• Maybe you haven’t nominated a beneficiary to your life insurance policy or super account?
• Have you forgotten who you did nominate and now need to update your wishes?
• Did you nominate a previous partner from a past relationship and now need to (urgently) update your nomination instructions?
• Have you recently divorced or separated, or
• You may have forgotten a binding nomination needs to be renewed every three years?

If this sounds like you, it sounds like you could benefit from our Update My Life & Super Beneficiary Nominations Service.

Making a beneficiary nomination is separate to making a Will

Making a beneficiary nomination is something you can do today that will make a significant difference to your loved ones. It can give your chosen beneficiary a level of protected financial security outside the reach of any relatives and biological family members who may try and challenge a Will and seek to erase your partner's rights.

• If you're one of the 76% of Australians who don’t yet have a Will, the government usually appoints an administrator and applies its own set of rules (called Rules of Intestacy) to decide who gets what in your estate – and you probably won’t like those rules.
• To make matters worse these Intestacylaws are not uniform Australia wide so it’s a bit of a hit-and-miss affair and can become a source of heartache and sorrow for the modern Australian Family.

Why everyone needs to make a beneficiary nomination

Most people know that a Will takes care of your estate assets; like a house, vehicle, personal assets and artworks and collectibles etc.

• What many people often don’t know is that Life insurance payouts and Super account payouts are usually considered non-estate assets and therefore do not form part of your Will and the assets it controls.
• This means if something does not form part of your estate, it's not covered by your Will — and cannot be challenged with your Will.

Who can I nominate as my Life Insurance beneficiary?

Anyone you want.

Who can I nominate as my Super Life Insurance beneficiary?

Your super can only be paid out to an eligible beneficiary.

An eligible beneficiary is either a dependent, a financial dependent or your legal representative (ie: the Executorof your Will or Administrator if you have no Will, for your estate).

• Dependentscan include your spouse or de facto partner (regardless of gender), your children (biological, adopted, step and ex-nuptial), or someone (regardless of gender) with whom you have an interdependency relationship. In most cases, siblings are not considered dependents for super purposes unless financially dependent upon you.
• You can also leave your super to a financial dependent, which may include someone who relies on you to meet daily living expenses such as rent, utilities and household outgoings. This also covers anyone who shares your major financial commitments such as mortgage

Pro Tip:
To be able to prove a person is financially dependent upon you and eligible to receive your super death payout tax free, they have to show they are ‘financially dependent' upon you - at the time of your death.

Without expert assistance from the specialists at Unusual Risks, this can be very difficult.

Practical Issues many LGBTQIA+ people face

Not everyone is Out, fully Out or wants to be or safely can be

• So often the most significant people in our lives, are not always legally known and adequately provided for in either our Life Insurance policy or Superannuation account beneficiary nominations. This is usually because nobody has taken the time to show us how to make provision for the people we love and protect our privacy at the same time.

Some people in the LGBTQIA+ Community have complex past relationships

When past relationships have ended, sometimes it can take longer to unwind ourselves from their effects and we simply may have forgotten to update our legal documents and policy nominations.

• Because Life Insurance and Super account payouts are not automatically included with your Will (the technical term is non-estate asset) nominating your Life Insurance and Super account beneficiary directly can be a powerful way to keep funds outside your Will and away from the reach of those who may seek to challenge your Will and estate later.

If you've changed Partners since your last nomination was made and you haven't yet updated your nomination, your former partner (and not your current one), could be entitled to the balance of your super fund payout.

More complex issues LGBTQIA+ people face

• If you're a Co-parent of non-biological children and not living with them, additional legal advice might be needed as the child of a lesbian co-mother or gay co-father will have to prove financial dependence.
• If you're part of a couple who are Living Apart Together you might not qualify under these definitions and additional legal advice might be needed.
• If you're part of a Polyamorous relationship, you might not qualify under these definitions and additional legal advice might be needed.

Let's face the truth about discrimination and intolerance in many biological families

Each LGBTQIA+ person may have differing levels of support from their own biological family.

• Often LGBTQIA+ people need to take special actions to protect ourselves and our partners from our biological families.
• Sadly, many LGBTQIA+ people have biological families who are not supportive or just downright homophobic, biphobic or transphobic.
• Many biological families have rejected their LGBTQIA+ family member (either as a child or adult child) and are selectively intolerant, and even hostile towards their family member's partner and family of choice.

Some may even seek to deny next of kin rights to our partner or even attempt to erase our existence or our partners existence, should we unexpectedly pass away.

Where there’s a Will, there’s a relative

We have seen some straight families who appeared initially supportive of their LGBTQIA+ children, change overnight when opportunistic siblings decided to challenge their absence in a Will, after their LGBTIQ+ relative unexpectedly passed away.

• It’s fair to say, not everyone behaves their best when facing grief, and money.

Why do people need a beneficiary nomination service?

Life is busy and navigating relationships can be complicated.

Add to this the ever-changing tax laws and you can accidentally find yourself leaving a Life Insurance policy payout to someone you no longer want to. And you can also forget to make allowances for the potential tax bill involved.

Relax. We have a solution for these types of problems.

• LGBTQIA+ people are often faced with each partner having differing levels of support from their own biological families and each partner may have a different level of comfort about being Out or not.
• This imbalance can feel particularly uncomfortable when it comes to speaking with biological family members or considering speaking with a Financial Adviser for the first time.

Getting your beneficiary nominations sorted is just one more thing you can do to bring more certainty and equality to your relationships, and at Unusual Risks Insured, we’d love to help you with that.

#LoveTakesAction

Are you using PrEP to better manage your good health?

Good news!
If you're using PrEP to help manage your health and wondering if you can still get high-quality life insurance cover, the simple answer is now Yes!

• The good news is, Australians taking PrEP are now eligible for the full range of Life Insurance products stigma-free.
• The bad news is, not all insurance companies have the same attitude about why it's used, so you'll need expert help to find the ones that suit you best.

Lucky for you you've already found the Australian experts at unusualrisks.com.au who understand what's required to help people who use PrEP to manage their health, get their personal insurances sorted.

We understand PrEP helps to prevent HIV

An increasing number of Australians are using PrEP to better manage their good health but still have uncertainty about how this can affect an application for a life insurance product.

• We've been working with people Australia wide to manage their privacy around their decisions to use PrEP and specialise in understanding complex health management systems.
• This means you don't have to continually be the educator for an insurance underwriter or financial adviser about what they know nothing about.

You shouldn't be disadvantaged for being responsible.Drew Browne Founder UnusualRisks Insured

Here are the questions we'd be asking when you use our services to help get your insurances sorted.

Questions we'll ask when you're making an application for cover

When getting ready for an application for a life insurance product, you'll need to know the following;

• When did you first begin taking PrEP?
• How often do you test for STIs?
• Do you have any other medical conditions that might prevent you from taking PrEP long term?
• When was your last followup with your GP?

And if you'd like to fast-track the application process, if you have the results of your recent blood test on hand, that might enable us to speed up the assessment process for you too.

Why should people using PrEP only use the experts at Unusual Risks Insured to get their life insurances sorted?

We're glad you asked.

• Australian life insurance companies traditionally have not developed and marketed their products with the LGBTI community in mind. This means, whether by design or default, you'll see insurance companies tend not to give the issues of LGBTI people and their families the equal consideration and respect they deserve.
• When it comes to the broader understanding of ‘why responsible people use PrEP to better manage their sexual health’, such concepts don't fit the conservative (some would say blinkered) world of old school insurance underwriting.
• Too many times we have seen personal biases and discriminations - religious or otherwise -  inappropriately affect the assessment of life insurance applications.

If you're tired of continually having to be the medical educator to other people, (we understand your frustration) and would love to help you out

• That's why we say it's critically important to only work with an insurance adviser from unusualrisks.com.au who understands our issues and more importantly, understands in advance how an insurance company we might recommend, will respond to those issues.
• You need a financial adviser who will be your powerful advocate in dealing with an insurance company, and not someone whose own bias may undermine your efforts (and perhaps even compromise) your future ability to obtain coverage.
• In short, when it comes to getting your personal insurances sorted, you need a financial adviser with whom you can be completely forthright and upfront - free of any stigma and discrimination.

And after you've found that person, it's also imperative that you are in fact forthright and upfront about your circumstances.

Lucky you have found unusualrisks.com.au

We’ll help you navigate the life insurance environment safely and keep your dignity intact.

Read more about Life Insurance for People using PrEP.

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

What affects the price of an insurance policy premium?

What are the main reasons people claim on their Income Protection Insurance?

In 2019 over $33 million dollars in claims were paid out each day by the Australian Life Insurance industry.

• Accidentis the top cause of claims across men (24%) and women (28%)
• Mental Healthwas only number 5 on the list for men (10%) but a clear second for women (22%).

Unfortunately the trend for these figures to continue to rise post COVID19 pandemic.

What are the main reasons people claim on their Life Insurance?

In 2019 over $33 million dollars in claims were paid out each day by the Australian Life Insurance industry.

• Cancer is by far the number one cause of death claims in men (39%) and women (61%)
• Accidental Death is much more prevalent in men (20%) than women (7%)