People insurance

Insuring yourself and your employees in the event of a workplace accident or illness is essential for protecting your business against costly compensation claims. Consider the following workplace insurance obligations:

Workers Compensation

You must provide accident and sickness insurance for your employees - workers compensation - through an approved insurer. Workers compensation is covered by separate state and territory legislation.

Personal accident and illness

If you are self employed you won't be covered by workers compensation, so it's recommended by law that you cover yourself for accident and sickness insurance through a private insurer. This policy will compensate you for loss of revenue while you or your employee(s) recover.

As a business owner, you may also wish to consider personal life insurance. There are several types of life insurance available. Some are investment-type funds where you contribute over a certain time and get back your investment plus interest earnings at the maturity date. Others are designed to cover things that could happen to you, such as:

• Income protection or disability insurance - covers part of your normal income if you are prevented from working through sickness or accident.
• Trauma insurance - provides a lump sum when you are diagnosed with one of several specified life threatening illnesses.
• Term life insurance or whole of life cover - provides your dependents with a lump sum if you die.
• Total and permanent disability insurance - provides a lump sum only if you are totally and permanently disabled before retirement.

The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) considers complaints from policy owners of Australian life insurance companies. The service also assists with superannuation inquiries or complaints if your super fund is administered by a life insurance company. Phone FOS on 1300 780 808.