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It was over 175 years ago when the first life insurance policy was written in Australia by Asteron Life Insurance. Asteron Life Insurance has been writing policies and paying claims in Australia ever since. Fast forward to 2008 and the same company was found to have paid out more than $369 million in that one year to a total of 6,200 policyholders. That figure equates with paying out $1 million a day to Australian families when they needed help the most.
An adviser can help you find cover from trusted life insurance brands.
Maximum cover amount | No set maximum sum insured. Your sum insured will be determined when you apply. |
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Age of entry | 18-75 |
How do I apply? | With an adviser over the phone |
Based on Asteron Life Cover. Sum insured may be subject to maximum sums according to the occupation classes.
Pros | Cons |
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Note: Conditions apply, always consult the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS)
Asteron Life Insurance is sold through an experienced financial adviser. The company's policy is to offer high quality sustainable products with features made to fit in with the needs of the customer's lifestyle. It places much emphasis on fully understanding everything concerning its policyholders health relationship.
Asteron Life Insurance can help you with affordable life insurance options that will guarantee your family's financial future should something happen to you.
There are five types of cover available through Asteron Life Complete—Life Insurance, Total and Permanent Disablement (TPD) Insurance, Trauma Insurance, Income Protection Insurance and Business Expenses Insurance. It’s also possible to apply for additional Child Cover to increase the level of cover provided to your family.
The key features of Asteron Life Complete include:
Asteron Life Complete Life Cover is an affordable and comprehensive life insurance option that pays out a lump sum if you die or are diagnosed with a terminal illness. This payment is designed to help your family cover mortgage payments, repay debts and create an income for their future.
Key features and benefits of this cover include:
Asteron Life Cover also offers a range of additional features, including:
Asteron Life Complete TPD Cover can help ease the financial burden on you and your family if you’re totally and permanently disabled. It does this by providing a lump sum payment that can be used to cover things like medical bills and home modifications, and even generate an income if you cannot work again.
Key features of this type of cover include:
Optional additional benefits of Asteron TPD Cover include:
Asteron Trauma Cover pays a lump sum payment if you’re diagnosed with a serious medical condition, such as heart attack, cancer or stroke. This payment can be used to cover the cost of medical treatments and pay off your mortgage so you don’t have to worry about your finances and can instead concentrate on your recovery.
Key features of this type of policy include:
Optional additional benefits of Asteron Trauma Cover include:
Asteron Income Protection Cover is designed to replace up to 80% of your monthly income if you’re unable to work due to sickness or injury. This acts as a steady stream of income to help you take care of regular expenses and concentrate on getting better. It is available in three forms: Income Protection Plus Cover, Income Protection Cover, and Income Protection—Accident Only Cover.
Key features of this type of cover include:
Optional additional benefits of Asteron Income Protection Cover include:
Asteron Income Protection Insurance is also available for medical professionals who work in a profession that exposes them to unique risks. Income Protection Plus Cover and Income Protection Cover have a number of built-in benefits designed to protect medical professionals against these professional risks. These benefits include:
Asteron Business Expenses Cover is designed to help you pay for fixed business expenses like utility bills or rent by providing a monthly benefit if you’re unable to work due to sickness or injury. Its key features include:
Some allowable Business Expenses under this type of cover include:
Asteron Child Cover can help ease the financial burden on families if a child becomes seriously ill. It covers a list of defined events including serious medical conditions, and can be used to pay for medical treatments, or even let you take time off work to support your child. This type of cover can be accessed through your Asteron Life Complete policy.
Its key features include:
Medical conditions covered under Asteron Child Cover include:
Policy | Age of entry |
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Life Cover | Between 18-75 |
Life Cover Super | Between 18-65 |
TPD Cover | Between 18-62 |
Trauma Cover | Between 18-65 |
Income Protection Cover | Between 18-62 |
Business Expenses Cover | Between 18-60 |
Child Cover | Between 3-21 |
Note: Age of entry is based on the premium you choose and other factors
In late 2013, Asteron launched no medical life insurance, a first for the Australian industry from a major life insurance company. Asteron previously required a "Personal Medical Attendant Report” supplied by a doctor with many applications, but now that this requirement has been removed, the application process is quicker and you can receive cover quicker.
In addition, Asteron eliminated specialist medical examinations and mandatory ECGs (resting and exercise). Other changes included the introduction of Asteron ‘own GP medical' for particular sums insured, the introduction of a new Exercise Echocardiogram requirement at $5,000,001 for Term Life Insurance/TPD Insurance and no mandatory medical requirements for clients aged under 55 and applying for less than a set amount of Life Insurance/TPD Insurance.
Asteron also made significant changes to its Income Protection Insurance. These include the ability for clients under the age of 50 to apply for up to $12,500 cover per month without medicals, while those over 50 have the ability to apply for up to $10,000 cover per month without medicals.
Finally, Asteron Insurance reduced its eligibility period for TPD Insurance from six to three months, meaning policyholders are now able to make claims sooner.
If you’re in good health, you can get substantial discounts and other benefits from Asteron. Fortunately, Asteron has programs to make it easier to get these discounts.
In order receive this offer, you need to qualify for the Healthy Plus bonus by taking a series of tests. If you pass, a 20% premium discount is applied.
These tests involve a combination of health tests, personal information and other evidence of healthy living.
You have the option of retaking the tests each year to maintain the discount or giving it a miss. If you choose not to retake the test, the discount will only decrease by 1% each year. If you skip it for 10 consecutive years, you’ll then be getting only 10% off. However, once you reach this point, Asteron Life guarantees the 10% discount for the duration of the policy.
To make it easier to pass the test and get your discount, Asteron offers the Life Plus program to everyone with an Asteron life insurance policy. This is an online program, personalised for you, that you can join completely free of charge. By following the program, you can reduce costs by dropping some of the premium loadings that might apply to health issues, such as a high body mass index (BMI).
Even if you can’t take the Healthy Plus test, for example because you’re over 55, this program can still let you reduce premiums by getting fitter.
With Asteron, getting in shape can save you thousands of dollars. The Life Plus program makes it a lot easier and lets you get there at your own pace.
In November 2010 Asteron Life Insurance was named CoreData 2010 Life Company of the Year for the second year in a row. This award was based on a survey taken from 840 advisers, financial planners and risk insurance specialists. The CoreData study focused on the strengths and weaknesses of life risk manufacturers against each other as well as measuring their attitudes and commitments to advisers and planners.
On making the award, Kristen Paech, the head of Advice and Superannuation Research at CoreData said Asteron received the award for the second time in two years because if its consistency across all service levels measured in the research, particularly new business submissions, overall end to end business processing, post sale administration, call centres and communications. The CoreData study had looked at risk insurance providers who offered products such as income protection, trauma, term life, total permanent disablement and business insurance.
It’s also possible to hold your Asteron Life Cover, TPD Cover and Income Protection policies through superannuation. This can be arranged through the Suncorp Master Trust or through your own self-managed superannuation fund.
If you choose this option, you will have to satisfy contribution rules relating to super. Government regulations define when contributions can be made, the level of contributions that can be made without penalty and when you can access your superannuation benefits.
Any benefits you receive will then be paid to your super fund and form part of your superannuation account. Benefits can only be released in accordance with ‘release conditions’ provided by relevant legislation. Death benefits may be paid as a lump sum payment or as an income stream.
You can also link covers over two policies if the life insured is the same person. For example, covers on a policy held under superannuation can be linked to a policy outside of superannuation. This added flexibility lets you tailor cover to suit your needs.
Asteron Life Complete Flexible Policy Linking | Split TPD | ||
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Inside Super Fund | Outside of Super | Inside Super Fund | Outside of Super |
Life Cover | TPD Cover
Trauma Cover Child Cover | Life CoverSplit TPD Any Occupation | Split TPD Own OccupationTrauma CoverChild Cover |
Asteron Life Insurance is an important part of Suncorp's total insurance and financial contribution to the Australian and New Zealand public. From its humble beginning 179 years ago Asteron life Insurance has proven the importance life insurance has in the Australian community.
Today Asteron Life Insurance, as part of the Suncorp Group, covers more than nine million policyholders and has assets worth more than $93 billion. Other companies that now come under the Suncorp umbrella include APIA (Australian Pensioners Insurance Agency), Tyndall, Vero, AAMI, Shannons and GIO, making Suncorp a leader in Australian and New Zealand banking, investment, insurance and superannuation matters. Suncorp employs around 16,000 people and is a top ASX listed business.
Asteron Life Insurance is a specialist financial services organisation providing life insurance, risk insurance management, financial planning and trustee services for the Suncorp Group throughout Australia and New Zealand.
You can pay your premiums using the following methods:
Your premiums are determined based on the age you were when you took out the policy, and will remain the same until age 65 or 70, depending on what type of cover you have. It will only change if the following happens:
If your sum insured increases, so do your premiums. The cost increase will be based on how old you are at the time of the increase and on any premium loadings applied at the time you first took out cover.
These are recalculated every policy anniversary and will typically increase each year based on the following criteria:
This is when you have a combination of stepped and level premiums for different cover types on the same policy. The cost of each cover type will be affected independently based on applicable loadings and the premium structure.
Regardless of which structure you choose, your policy will also have set administration fees, which may gradually increase over time in line with inflation. When you take out cover, your policy will show the fees that apply at the time your cover commenced.
Policy fees as of March 2019:
There may also be additional expenses involved in making a claim, such as administrative fees for obtaining required documentation. You or the policy beneficiary will need to pay these and you cannot claim them from Asteron.
If something happens, you have 30 days to contact Asteron and let them know you’ll be making a claim. After 30 days, it is possible that benefits may be reduced or claims declined if assessment was made more difficult as a result of the delay.
For life cover claims, made in the event of death, you will need to include proof of the cause of death. Meanwhile, TPD or trauma insurance claims will need to include medical evidence from a qualified specialist and copies of all medical investigations performed.
Income protection claims will likely require the following evidence:
Asteron may request additional information from you, depending on the type of claim. This may include the following:
Breakdown on Claims in 2011
Asteron assess income protection, trauma, death & terminal Illness claims, which all have different requirements. There is not a set timeframe for assessment because there are so many variables. However Asteron endeavour assess a claim as quickly as possible as they understand the importance of the outcome of the claim.
If there is a beneficiary on the policy it is “generally” a quicker process than if not. Depending on information surrounding the passing of the life insured there can be further requirements needed (or not). If no will is provided this can delay the claims process.
While there can be many variances, many of Asteron death claims are paid within a week.
These are situations where the policy won’t pay out. Some of these conditions may be imposed at the time you take out the policy, based on factors specific to you. For example, if you fly airplanes recreationally, the underwriter might want to write an exclusion into your policy stipulating that you have no cover in the event of an air crash, unless you were flying as a commercial airline passenger at the time.
For death, you cannot claim if it was caused directly or indirectly by self-inflicted acts within 13 months of the policy commencement date, cover reinstatement or an increase to your sum insured.
For income protection and business expenses type cover, the following exclusions apply:
Trauma insurance, and other types of claims, may be rejected if the claimable event is the result of a pre-existing condition not specifically covered by your policy. This can include conditions you showed symptoms of prior to taking out cover if those symptoms would cause a reasonable person to seek medical advice.
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My question is I have been paying for life insurance and wondering if I could transfer the accrued amount to superannuation account. Also, the amount I’m paying is it tax deductible?
Hi Phil,
Thanks for your inquiry.
That is possible, you would need to speak to your insurance company and super fund of your plan. There may be tax implication when you do this so ask as well your chosen super fund. Please refer to this page to get more information.
Cheers,
May