BT Life Insurance

BT offers a range of life insurance products that can help you plan for the unexpected turns of life.

BT Life Insurance has a long and interesting pedigree in Australia, running back to 1969. Today it's a well known fixture of Australian financial services, offering a range of insurance, investment and advisory services.

As a large provider it can offer a range of flexible options, and products to meet a diverse set of needs. If you're looking for an insurer that can help you closely tailor your cover, and offer a range of other services alongside life insurance, you might want to consider BT.

• Summary of BT Life Insurance
• Pros and Cons
• Recent awards

Types of Insurance Available from BT

Term Life Insurance

This type of insurance provides a lump sum payment to beneficiaries on your death. It is meant to cover expenses such as ongoing living expenses including mortgage or rental payments. It can give you peace of mind knowing that if you were to die your family could continue living in the style they have been accustomed to while you were there to provide for them.

• Keep your family protected for years to come with a lump sum payment in the event of death or critical illness. Customers will enjoy loyalty benefits and the ability to upgrade their policy into the future.
• 24 Hour worldwide coverage.

Total and Permanent Disability Insurance

This insurance cover pays out a lump sum while you are still living but are suffering from an injury or illness that has left you totally and permanently disabled and unable to work to earn an income.

• Receive a lump sum payment if you are unable to work again in the event of a permanent disability. Can be added to your term insurance plan or as a standalone policy.
• Cover rehabilitation expenses and any features needed to make your home accessible.
• Policy offers guaranteed renewability. As long as your premiums are paid, your cover will remain until the end of the term even if your health, employment or other circumstances change.

Income Protection

If you become injured or sick and can't attend to your work, income protection insurance will ensure that you will still receive a monthly income until you recover.

• While many policies will only replace 75% of your income, BT Income Protection Insurance will replace 80% of your wage to help you cover rent, mortgage repayments and living and medical expenses.
• This policy comes with rehabilitation expense coverage and the option to contribute to your super.

Living Insurance (Trauma Protection)

A cover against a specified serious injury or illness such as stroke, heart attack or cancer. The money you receive from living insurance will help you manage your financial affairs while you are suffering from one of the specified events listed in the policy document. It can be added to your life insurance policy or purchased as a standalone document.

• Receive a lump sum payment after suffering from a selection of specific medical conditions including;
  • Cancer
  • Heart Condition
  • Loss of limb
• Protection from over 50 different injuries.
• More comprehensive cover with Living Plus Option

Business Overheads

Business cover is similar to income protection in that it provides a monthly benefit when the policy holder is not able to take part in his or her business activity due to injury or sickness. It will assist you in maintaining your cash flow that could be the difference in your business surviving or not.

• Receive a monthly benefit to cover expenses if unable to work to your full capacity due to sickness or illness.
• Can provide cash-flow to cover everyday expenses such as;
  • electricity
  • gas
  • mobile
  • rent
  • rates

BT Flexible Linking Plus and Income Linking

BT Protection Plan ownership can be structured in many ways to suit your needs, either inside or outside superannuation.

With BT's "Flexible Linking Plus" and "Income Linking Plus" you can combine your options, and hold different cover both inside and outside of super.

This has the potential benefits of:

• Letting you pay for some of your premiums through superannuation contributions, and others out of pocket. This might let you get more comprehensive cover more affordably.
• Letting you find tax advantages by arranging different cover types inside and outside of super.

Is BT Life Insurance tax deductible?

Whether certain cover types are tax deductible depends on your situation, what cover types you hold and whether they're held inside or outside of superannuation.

By offering a full range of options, BT might be able to help you get tax deductible life insurance where other providers can't. It can be worth finding out how life insurance and tax works to get an idea of how much you might be able to save.

Super and Retirement Insurance Products

BT Super for Life

• Enjoy easy access with 24 hour online access to help keep your finances in order and top up your super from your savings account with the click of a button!
• Competitive fees;
  • 47% lower than the average retail personal super fund
  • Management fee of just 0.99%
  • $5 monthly fee
• Range of investment options to suit your lifestyle.

BT Lifetime - Personal Super

• Manage your super fund over the course of your working life so you can enjoy your retirement free of stress.
• Employer can make regular contributions to your account.
• Over 20 investment options to choose from.

BT SuperWrap

• Access to over 600 managed funds and your personal insurance combined in one account.
• Simple to organise and contribute to with 24 hour online access.
• Access to TPD, Term Life and Income Protection Insurance.

BT LifeTime Super Employment Plan

• Super plan set up by employers, giving employees numerous benefits including reduced insurance premiums and administration fees.
• Plan can be maintained throughout entire working life.
• Access to following insurance options;
  • Death Only
  • Death & Total and Permanent Disablement (TPD)
  • Death & TPD and Salary Continuance Insurance

BT Business Super

• Future employers able to make contributions to your original super fund.
• Over 40 investment options to choose from to suit your lifestyle.
• Access to
  • Death Only
  • Death & Total and Permanent Disablement (TPD)
  • Death & TPD and Salary Continuance Insurance

• BT Lifetime Flexible Pension

There are additional benefits that you can have added to your life insurance cover with BT Life Insurance. These include a children's benefit that can pay up to $200,000 per child, if your child was to suffer one of the specific conditions listed in the policy document.

How much does BT Life Insurance cost?

The cost of your policy will depend on a range of factors, including:

• Your age and chosen cover types
• Your health, occupation and situation
• How much cover you're taking out

It can also be affected by factors like pre-existing conditions, or whether you opt for medical testing before getting cover.

Do I need medical testing before taking out life insurance?

You can take out cover with BT with or without undergoing medical testing first. However:

• A higher sum insured, or certain circumstances might mean you can only get cover with medical testing.
• If you're in good health, then "proving it" with medical testing might make you eligible for lower premiums with some insurers.
• If you have pre-existing conditions, a medical assessment might be needed to get cover for them.

Can I get cover for pre-existing conditions with BT life insurance?

Whether or not an insurer covers pre-existing conditions may depend on the cover types you're looking at, and the nature of the condition. Typically these will only be covered by life insurance if you disclose them to the insurer, and it has a chance to medically assess it.

If you do not disclose pre-existing conditions that you're aware of, or if you otherwise opt out of cover for it, then your policy might not pay out for injury, disability, death or other loss that occurs as a result of it.

BT contact and customer service

BT takes pride in the way they interact with their customers. They are conscious of the importance of listening to customers so they can obtain ideas on how to improve customer relations. For this reason the company has put together a Quality Group which monitors the company processes and its manner of dealing with its customers.

BT insurance has its own phone line, available 8.00am to 6.30pm Mondays to Fridays (Sydney and Melbourne time).

Awards Received and Claims Paid by BT

Where and how to buy BT life insurance

If your interested in investing in life insurance or would like more information on any of the products discussed, BT financial group provides access to licensed financial advisers to discuss the best options to match your lifestyle.

The wide range of options, and different ways you can tailor the insurance for different value and cover, means it might be best navigated with the help of a financial adviser.

If you're interested, want a no-obligation quote or just want to learn more, you can get in touch with a BT Life Insurance adviser below.

Receive a quote for BT Life Insurance from an adviser

BT's International Recognition

BT Financial Group is a subsidiary of the giant Westpac Banking Corporation, one of Australia's Big Four banking establishments, and the second largest bank operating in New Zealand. Following its merger with the St George Bank in 2008 it amassed a total of 10 million clients who were serviced with a network of over 1,000 branches as well as around 2,800 ATMs. The Westpac group was officially regarded as being the world's most sustainable bank for five years in a row in the early 2000s.

Westpac is Australia's second largest provider of wealth producing platforms of funds under administration. An investment in BT Super for Life is not however, an investment in the Westpac Banking Corporation, nor are the Westpac Group finances in any way affected by the performance of BT Super for Life. BT Super for Life is a product of the BT Financial Group which in itself is one of the largest wealth management institutions in Australia. BT Life Insurance is available through all the Westpac Group outlets such as Westpac, St.George, Bank of Melbourne and BankSA as well as through many financial advisers.

A Company With a Corporate Conscience

It is a company that encourages its staff to be passionate about its customers, as well as that of the wider community. For this reason the whole BT Financial Group gets involved in many community organisations such as Clean up Australia Day, Earth Hour, and Australia's Biggest Morning Tea. Besides having a local community conscience the BT Group also follows global best practice in that its corporate policy solidly supports the following causes:

• Climate change. BT Financial supports carbon and water markets as well as the funding of renewable energy, energy efficiency and clean technology.
• Tread lightly. The company leads the sector with its indirect and direct environmental footprint targets.
• Social sustainability. BT has high ideals in relation to its responsible banking and investment goals.
• Sustainable principles. BT Financial Group incorporates sustainable principles in its products as well as in the service it provides.
• Speaking out. BT is stepping up its efforts in encouraging the acceptance of business practices that are sustainable.