We are Canterbury and Nelson based specialising in providing sound advice on insurance for businesses and families. We ensure and make insurance easy to understand with clear comparisons and well thought out reasoning to ensure that your cover will act just as you expect it when you need to claim.
Specialties:-
personal insurance, business insurance, income protection, insurance reviews, shareholder cover, buy sell cove, debt protection, Acc Cover Plus Extra, and first home buyers
An example:
Kiwisaver
Next to your home, KiwiSaver is most people’s largest investment, so it is important that it is set up in a way that maximises returns to allow you to live the retirement that you want.
Why use an insurance broker/adviser?
Like insurance, we can give you options. Rather than going to one provider who only has their line of products, we are able to suit the best fund to you, from a variety of options.
We are also there as things change, so that we can assist with first home buyer withdrawals, changing your funds as your needs change, as well as transferring an overseas pension.
Why Join Kiwisaver?
Many small contributions add up to a lot. When this is combined with compound growth (interest being earned on interest), the returns are significant.
Without KiwiSaver, what is the plan for retirement? Government Superannuation is currently 672.22 per fortnight after tax per. This is for a person living as a couple.
Balancing risk and return
When determining the type of KiwiSaver fund that suits you, it is important to consider your own attitude to risk and volatility and that the most important aspect is time. Specifically, how long it will be before you are able to withdraw your funds out?
Essentially there are two times when you can withdraw your money – when you are buying your first house, and at age 65.
This means that for a lot of time there are many years until you can withdraw your money. Therefore it is inconsequential whether your funds go up or down during this time, it only matters when you need to take them out.
As a general guideline, based on your needs, you would chose:
Withdrawing funds within two years, you would choose a defensive fund.
Withdrawing funds within two to five years, you would choose a conservative fund.
Withdrawing funds after more than five years, you would choose a balanced or aggressive fund.
Although the prospect of volitile balances may be daunting, the difference in the end result can be huge.
The above figures are based on a 30 year old earning $70,000pa and contributing 3%.
The lower figure of $494,969 is based on a moderate fund returning 3%.
The higher figure of $1,129,575 is based on a geared growth fund returning 6.6%.
These figures are from KiwiSaver provider Booster, are inflation adjusted, and are net of fees and tax.
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ACC and private income cover
What does ACC cover?
ACC is a world-class scheme for accident compensation. If you do suffer from an injury as a result of an accident, you are entitled to treatment, rehabilitation, and compensation until you return to work.
However it is important to remember that it is just that – accident cover.
This means that ACC provides no cover for;
Diseases
Illnesses
Most gradual onset conditions
Degeneration
Mental illness
This is where private income protection cover comes into its own.
ACC and private income cover
With personal income protection cover, you may be able to make changes to your ACC cover (for self-employed people). This may mean you can reduce you ACC levies and fill the gap with private cover, or choose to take more accident cover through ACC.
We can help you through this process and advise how ACC works with private insurance benefits so you can receive what you are entitled to in the event of a claim for injury or illness.
Benefits to combining cover
In most cases where income protection cover and ACC are combined, the savings made in reducing your liability with ACC can cover or significantly contribute towards the total cost of the income protection cover.
Insurance is a product that you can buy to protect you against some risks.
When you purchase insurance, you transfer this risk to your insurer. Your insurer charges you a premium for providing cover for that risk. This is formalised in a legal contract known as a policy.
If an unexpected event occurs and it is covered by your policy, your insurer will either repair or replace the items that are lost or damaged, or pay you a sum of money.
When you take out a policy you will agree an excess. An excess is the amount of money you pay when you make a claim. Think of it like the small piece of risk you hold onto, with your insurer covering the rest.
You can insure yourself, your property, and your legal liabilities.
There are three main types of insurance:
- health insurance
- life insurance
- general insurance (such as property or liability insurance; sometimes known as fire and general insurance).
ICNZ only represents general insurers so the resources on this site are specifically about general insurance.
Insurance only covers sudden, unexpected and accidental events.
Unexpected events may include floods, earthquakes, a car accident, a house fire or theft. Insurance only covers things that happen suddenly, not gradually and is the biggest area of confusion for people.
