The Insurance Mistake Most Women Don’t Realise They’re Making

Most people see insurance as boring, optional, or something they’ll deal with “later”.  But the truth is, insurance is one of the very few things that can completely change the trajectory of your life, not when things are going well, but when they aren’t.

In this episode of Get Rich, Molly Benjamin is joined by insurance advisor Trish Gregory from Hayes & Co Insurance Services, to break down what insurance actually does, the mistakes people don’t realise they’re making, and the real-life moments where having the right cover makes all the difference.

They unpack income protection, life insurance, total and permanent disability (TPD), and trauma insurance, why so many women are underinsured (even when they earn good money), and why waiting until something goes wrong is often the most expensive mistake of all.

Molly also shares why she only updated her own insurance recently, what she assumed was covered through her super, and the moment she realised she was only protected for two years, not decades.

This is a practical, honest conversation about protecting your income, your future, and your choices, before you need to.

In this episode you'll learn:

• The real difference between life insurance, TPD, trauma, and income protection, and what each one actually covers
  
• Why so many women are dangerously underinsured, even if they earn “good money”
  
• The most common insurance mistakes people make, and why fixing them later can cost more
  
• Real-life examples of when insurance becomes life-changing, not just “nice to have”
  
• How insurance inside super works, and when it’s not enough on its own
  
• When and how to get insurance set up properly, before health or life changes make it harder
  

If you want to connect with Trish, Click here.

CHAPTERS

00:00 – Welcome to Get Rich
01:16 – Why insurance isn’t optional (even if it’s boring)
01:41 – What we’re covering: life, TPD, trauma & income protection
02:38 – Meet Trish Gregory, insurance adviser
03:14 – “If you rely on your income, you need to secure it”
04:26 – Real claim story: burnout & mental health income protection
06:24 – Real claim story: stage 4 cancer & trauma payout
07:25 – Trish’s personal story: 10 years on income protection
08:44 – The 4 main types of insurance explained
08:54 – Life insurance (aka death cover) simplified
10:15 – Total & Permanent Disability (TPD) explained
11:16 – Trauma insurance: cancer, stroke & heart attack cover
12:32 – Income protection: waiting periods & benefit periods
14:07 – What people actually claim on (mental health is #1)
15:00 – Is your super insurance enough? Probably not.
17:08 – “I don’t earn enough to insure” myth busted
17:54 – The biggest mistake women make in relationships
19:29 – Why you must lock insurance in while healthy
20:54 – How the insurance process actually works (step by step)
22:24 – Fact find meeting explained
23:24 – Choosing coverage amounts & cost trade-offs
25:22 – The Statement of Advice & application process
26:08 – Over-disclosure mistakes people make
27:36 – Real story: breast cancer & income protection payout
28:32 – Final reminder: put insurance at the top of your admin list
29:17 – How to connect with Trish (plus the quail update 🐣)

LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

Get in touch with Trish Gregory: https://directory.ladiesfinanceclub.com/listing/trish-gregory/
 

CONNECT WITH TRISH GREGORY

Website: https://hcis.com.au/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trish-gregory-finance/
Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@MoneyTalkRealTalk
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moneytalkrealtalk/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@chickenfinance5

CONNECT WITH LADIES FINANCE CLUB

Join our free Facebook group - Ladies Finance Club Money Chat
Website: https://www.ladiesfinanceclub.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ladiesfinanceclub/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ladies-finance-club/

TAKEAWAYS

• Insurance is essential for financial security in uncertain times.
• Women often undervalue their income and insurance needs.
• Real-life stories illustrate the importance of having insurance.
• Different types of insurance serve various purposes and needs.
• Income protection can cover a significant portion of your salary.
• Many people have insurance in their superannuation without realizing it.
• Common mistakes include underinsuring or relying solely on a partner's income.
• It's crucial to lock in insurance while in good health.
• The insurance application process can be complex but manageable with guidance.
• Proactive insurance planning can prevent future financial stress.

SOUND BITES

"Trauma has to be paid outside of your super."
"Mental health is about 40% of the claims."
"The first meeting was a fact finding one."

TRANSCRIPT

[00:00:00] MOLLY: Welcome to Get Rich, the podcast that helps you do just that. Get rich and stay rich. Hey, I'm Molly Benjamin. I'm the founder of Ladies Finance Club, one of Australia's largest financial education platforms for women. But before I started helping thousands of women take control with their money, I was a hot financial mess when it came to my own finances and not the fun kind of hot, more like crying in a supermarket, wondering where all my money went, kind of hot.

[00:00:29] But here's the thing. If I can go from financial mess to owning a share portfolio, investing in property and building wealth, then you can too. My mission is simple to make women rich because when we have financial freedom, we have choices, confidence, and control over our future. Every week on Get Rich, I sit down with some of the best experts.

[00:00:51] In the industry to break down how we can all start investing, growing our money, and creating long-term financial security without the jargon, boring bits or overwhelm. Because when women get rich, we don't just change our lives, we change the world. So if you're ready to start making some smart money moves, hit that subscribe button and let's get rich together.

[00:01:16] Most people see insurance as boring, optional, or something they'll get to later. It's always on the bottom of the admin to-do list, but the truth is insurance is one of those very few things that completely change the trajectory of your life, not when things are going well, but when they aren't. So in this episode of Get Rich, I'm joined by Trish Gregory, who is an insurance advisor to break down what insurances do we actually need.

[00:01:41] The most common mistakes people make without even realizing. And the real life moments where having the right cover makes all the difference. Now, I know we have been going on insurance a lot lately at Ladies Finance Club, but it is so important to understand like, what cover do you have? What cover do you need?

[00:01:59] So in this episode, we're gonna be talking about the real difference between life total, permanent disability insurance, trauma and income protection insurance. Why so many women are dangerously underinsured, even when they earn good money. The real life moments where insurance becomes genuinely life changing and how to get into it properly before it's too late.

[00:02:21] Now, if you wanna connect with Trish, I've popped her details in the show notes, but this is one of those life admin tasks. Unfortunately, you can't afford literally to keep putting off. So let's jump into today's episode. Excited to have you on and talk insurance.

[00:02:38] TRISH: Woo-hoo. The most exciting subject. Thank you for having me, Molly.

[00:02:41] I'm very excited to be here.

[00:02:43] MOLLY: It is a very important topic. I know some people go, oh God, insurance, skip. But literally is like, it's that riddle of like it's the thing you want but never wanna use. But you, if you do have to use it, you wanna make sure you've got, you a hundred percent have got it.

[00:02:59] TRISH: Exactly.

[00:03:00] That's right. Much like all insurances in our life, we hope we never have to use it except for like health insurance with our massages. Always love that one.

[00:03:07] MOLLY: My God. I love that. I guess kicking off, why is it important that we have our insurances sorted?

[00:03:14] TRISH: Oh, very good question to kick off, and it's because we don't know what's gonna happen in life.

[00:03:19] That's simply it. And for anyone who is reliant on their income in order to continue to live and pay their bills and eat food and pay their rent or their mortgage, it's essential because until you hit the point that you are able to finance. Your life without doing actual work. Like say from your investments or a trust fund or something like that.

[00:03:42] Until you hit that point, you are reliant on your income and therefore you need to make sure that income is secured for yourself. And we do find that as women, we tend to undervalue how much our income is needed, especially if we're in heteronormative relationships where maybe we're not there. Higher income earner, but if you look at everything you do in your life, you may find that you actually do a lot that you would have to pay someone to do if you were unable to do the things that you do.

[00:04:13] Like, for example, myself, I have kids, Molly, you've got one on the way, which is very exciting. So you'll get to figure out just how much actual work that you don't get paid for, you actually do, let alone actually getting the job you're getting paid for.

[00:04:26] MOLLY: Oh my gosh. Absolutely. And I guess, can you just share a couple of stories of any of your clients where they've actually needed to claim on their insurance and how much of a life changing decision that was for them to get that insurance?

[00:04:41] TRISH: Yeah, exactly. I can talk about too, and then I also wanna talk about my own personal experience, if that's okay. Of course. So last year I helped a lady. With a mental health claim now. She was completely burnt out from work. She was not okay. They were trying to performance manage her out actually, and she ended up going on a mental health claim.

[00:05:00] She was on that claim for about six months, which meant that she was continuing to get income coming in while she was just dealing with recovering from this burnout and this chaos. The good thing is because she had that time, she knew she didn't have that pressure. She was therefore able to focus just on recovery.

[00:05:19] And after six months she was able to find a lovely job and go back onto that job. And in the meantime, you know, her income kept coming in. One of the big things for her is that when she found a new job, I said to her, now it's okay if you go back into that new job. She wanted to go back full time. It's okay if you end up very shortly after, or you know, within six months feeling like, oh God, I'm overwhelmed again.

[00:05:44] Life is not okay. You can talk to me and we'll just go back on the claim. That's okay. That's not the end of the world. So it gave her comfort to jump into that new role as well, because then she knew that she had that fallback.

[00:05:55] MOLLY: Yeah,

[00:05:56] TRISH: so that was lovely. I have another lady who I actually used to catch the bus.

[00:05:59] To school with many, many, many years ago, and so we're the same age in our sort of early forties and a couple of years ago, she actually came to our business and said, Hey, I think I need insurance. I'm in the public service, but I might not have enough. Can we sort it out? You know, we helped her with all of her insurances, and then two years later, she ended up having stage four bowel cancer that was found in the emergency room due to some symptoms.

[00:06:24] Now, fortunately, she has income protection. She got payment for her trauma insurance, 250,001 really key thing. With her coverage. So income protection is regularly coming in. She has small children, she has a mortgage. Her partner's still working. So all of that is covered, which is wonderful. But when she was going through the process of figuring out which medication was best for her,

[00:06:49] MOLLY: hmm,

[00:06:50] TRISH: the immunotherapy that she was looking at for her bowel cancer treatment was actually had just been put on the PBS.

[00:06:58] A couple of months beforehand, and that was gonna be the best one for her treatment. Thankfully it was on the PBS, which is great, but if it hadn't have been, if it had have been delayed by a year or two years or something, it was gonna cost her about $150,000 for two years,

[00:07:14] MOLLY: and

[00:07:15] TRISH: that would've been the best treatment for her.

[00:07:17] So luckily it was on the PBS, but those are some of the realities of why do we have insurance?

[00:07:23] MOLLY: Oh, I'm sorry. And you were gonna share about your own story?

[00:07:25] TRISH: Yeah, and with my own story, so my partner was actually in the military, so a little bit different with the insurance, but still insurance. He was injured and unable to work and that has enabled him to be the stay at home parent by having sort of the military income protection type thing, which has meant that I've been able to pursue my career in financial advice.

[00:07:45] He's definitely been working, but he's been off paid work, just been on an income protection claim for 10 years. Wow. Which has enabled him to look after our small children. It meant that we were able to buy a house. It meant that we were able to move back to Canberra to be with family and have our, also have our third child.

[00:08:01] And it also enabled him to study and start a new job, which should be happening very, very soon, next month as a lawyer. So he's been able to take that time. To really get better in all the ways that you need to get better, not just physically, but also emotionally, family wise. So he's now feeling really confident rather than stressed about starting this new career.

[00:08:23] MOLLY: Yeah, and that's just like life changing, having that protection verse, not having it.

[00:08:28] TRISH: For sure.

[00:08:29] MOLLY: So what I was keen to do is you touched on a couple on, like we've talked about income protection, trauma, let's go through, 'cause there's kind of four main insurances, insurance types when it comes to our life insurance.

[00:08:44] So life insurance, which sometimes gets called. Death insurance. So that one is a lump sum if you get paid out. If you pass away,

[00:08:54] TRISH: correct? That's right. So, well, it can get paid out in two sort of ways. So life insurance, beautifully rebranded from death insurance. Life insurance is the whole of the insurances.

[00:09:05] So life total and permanent disability, income and trauma, it's the bulk and it's also that individual insurance. Most people don't claim on it because most people don't die. And so you get to a point where you either retire and you don't need insurances or you're financially independent and then you cancel it 'cause you're like, I don't need to keep paying for this.

[00:09:21] Yeah, but for the people who do claim, there's sort of two, about 50% of people claim because someone has passed away and that money is just a lump sum payment that's used for the people who are left behind. And then the other 50% of people who claim, actually claim because they are terminally ill and have less than 12 months to live.

[00:09:40] So they can use that money to pay off the mortgage, to support the family. And also we like to include some money for the. Just go and have fun in your last months or year together. So very simple. It's a lump sum. You get it. You can do whatever you want with it.

[00:09:56] MOLLY: All right, so that's life insurance. What comes next?

[00:09:59] TRISH: Next is your total and permanent disability, and these two are often linked. So when you look at your superannuation statement or your insurance statement, you'll often, most people will see that they are the same amount. So you might have 250,000 of life and 250,000 of total and permanent disability.

[00:10:15] This is, again, a lump sum payment, so you get the money and you can use it however you want. Most people tend to use it to pay off the mortgage because if you are. Totally and permanently disabled. It means that two doctors sign have signed off that you are never working again for any job for which you have education, training, and experience.

[00:10:33] And insurers are a little bit different depending on the definition, but broadly, that's the case. You're not working again. Now, it could be an invisible. Illness or injury, or it could be a very visible illness or injury. So it's not just I'm a paraplegic, therefore I get the money. It could be a huge variety.

[00:10:48] So people use that generally to pay off the mortgage, to cover expenses that from a medical perspective, and then also often cover the difference of their income between what their income protection will provide and what they might actually need. Of course, after the mortgage is paid off, you might find that you have a lot more money available to cover yourself.

[00:11:09] Okay, so that's total and permanent disability, which is correct.

[00:11:12] MOLLY: TPD. What comes after that one?

[00:11:16] TRISH: Then, if we stay within the lump sum payments, then there's trauma, which we mentioned previously. Now total and permanent disability in life can be paid through super. Trauma has to be paid outside of your super from your cash flow because there's rules around superannuation and it does not meet any of those rules.

[00:11:34] What that one is used for is, uh, the main claims are cancer, stroke, and heart attack. Mm-hmm. And the idea being that you're using that money to pay for medical expenses. And yes, we have a great medical system. We have Medicare, we have private health, we have the NDIS. But as I mentioned before, sometimes there are the best medicines for you and they are not on the PBS and they can get quite expensive.

[00:11:59] Or there's other therapies that you wanna do or doctors that you wanna see, and they cost a whole bunch. That's a lump sum and that comes to you. Again, you can do whatever you want with it. We tend to do a calculation on what's most important for you. So yeah, that's trauma insurance. Nice and simple.

[00:12:16] There's no tax paid on trauma. There is potentially tax paid on total and permanent disability.

[00:12:23] MOLLY: Mm-hmm.

[00:12:23] TRISH: And from a life, a life insurance perspective, it depends on who the money's going to as to whether there's tax or no tax.

[00:12:31] MOLLY: Awesome.

[00:12:32] And then our final one is income protection insurance.

[00:12:36] TRISH: Yes, income protection most claimed on because it can be for a short period of time, or it can be for a long period of time.

[00:12:42] Like those two stories I talked about before, income protection is a little bit more complex, so it can cover up to 70% of your salary. If you're receiving the money, it's 70% of your salary, then that money is taxed like a regular income. Mm-hmm. So let's say you're on a hundred thousand dollars, you can be insured for $70,000, but you don't actually get cash in hand.

[00:13:06] $70,000. It's like you're paid, your salary is 70,000, and then tax comes. You can include superannuation, you can keep superannuation out of it. You have waiting periods and you have benefit periods. So how long do you have to wait before the income will start coming through from the insurer, and for you still be to unwell the longer you wait.

[00:13:28] The less of a cost. Mm-hmm. But also the longer you're waiting, so it's all very individual as to how much money you have, how much debt you have, how many savings, what your partner's income is, all those sorts of things. Then the benefit period is how long the money will be paid for. Mm-hmm. And so the most common are.

[00:13:45] A two year benefit, a five year benefit, or all the way through to age 65.

[00:13:51] MOLLY: Mm-hmm.

[00:13:51] TRISH: Now, the good thing is that most people who end up on an income protection claim don't go more than two years of needing the payments. Like the large majority of people, I think it's 93% or so, or 83% of people actually finish their claim within two years.

[00:14:07] So if you look at that statistically, you'd say, well, I only need a two year income protection policy. The challenge is if you end up like my partner and it ends up being 10 years, or you end up like my stepmother and you can never work again, you'll be really glad you have that money coming through all the way through till age 65.

[00:14:25] Mm-hmm.

[00:14:25] MOLLY: And what are the most common things you see people claim on when it comes to income protection? Is it mental health?

[00:14:32] TRISH: Mm-hmm. Mental health is about 40% of the claims. Okay. And they tend to be, you know, those shorter claims. Then it tends to be your, sort of your back or, you know, neck, knees, depending on your job.

[00:14:45] The second most common, and then cancers is, or cancers and strokes would be the third most common.

[00:14:52] MOLLY: So you mentioned before, so we can have life insurance, income protection, and permanent disability in our super.

[00:15:00] TRISH: Correct.

[00:15:01] MOLLY: In your experience of talking to women, time, women and men all the time about insurances, how often do people have insurances in their super and they don't even realize, and of that.

[00:15:12] Is it enough?

[00:15:13] TRISH: Yes, people often do, although the rules changed a couple of years ago, which meant that people may have had their insurances canceled. But generally speaking, people probably have some insurance in their superannuation unless they've opted out. And usually they will have a couple of hundred thousand dollars of life and total and permanent disability, and they'll have an income protection policy, which might have a 60 day waiting period or a 90 day waiting period, and it'll go for two years.

[00:15:41] Now, is it enough? Well, you have to think about how, what it costs to live these days. So if you are totally and permanently disabled and you are never working again, is $250,000 enough to pay off your debt? Probably not for the majority of people. Is it enough to pay for medical? Is it enough to make sure that you're okay for the rest of your life?

[00:16:02] Probably not. And with income protection, if it's default insurance, it may cover your. Full salary based on the first superannuation guarantee payment that got put in, or you may have got the right amount. Sometimes I see people with a thousand dollars a month of income protection and that is woefully inadequate for where they're at.

[00:16:23] So what I find most people do is either they'll say, oh, I do have insurance in my super. I didn't even realize. Or they'll say, yeah, yeah, I have enough insurance in my super, and then I'll go and look at it and say, oh no, we've talked about. What would happen if the worst things happen and this will not get you there?

[00:16:41] MOLLY: Yeah.

[00:16:42] TRISH: So what we tend to do is have a look at what people have, have a look at their medical situation and see whether we should add insurance on replace or you know, mix and match.

[00:16:56] MOLLY: Yeah. Awesome. And I guess around mistakes. See particularly women make with their insurances and I hear quite often is, but I don't earn that much.

[00:17:08] Am I even worth insuring? And I'll be like, how much are you earning? They're like 75,000 a year. And I'm like, well, number one, that's. A great salary, but if you've got 20 years left of working, that's $1.5 million. Like that's worth. Like, that's worth it. Definitely. Protecting, I guess, what are other mistakes you see people make when it comes to their insurances?

[00:17:28] TRISH: Uh, a big scary one that I see people make is when you're in usually a, you know, heteronormative relationship and the male will be the higher income earner and the female will be earning, like you say, like a, you know, good income but not. You know, maybe 200,000 or 500,000 or whatever the male is. And what they will say is, well, if I couldn't work, it's okay because he'll support me because his income covers our lifestyle.

[00:17:54] MOLLY: Mm.

[00:17:55] TRISH: And what I often see is the women who have then divorced.

[00:18:00] MOLLY: Mm.

[00:18:00] TRISH: And then they've got kids and their ex is being an a-hole, and they suddenly realize that it is all on them. If they cannot work, there's no money. Yeah, it's gonna be a hard slog, and what I find is because the women will say, well, I'm gonna cancel my insurances because we've got him insured, and therefore if he can't work, I'll be fine.

[00:18:23] Once they come to me and we try and get some insurances in place, usually they've had kids, they've had a couple of medical things happen, and they start getting exclusions or loadings, which means that you won't be able to claim on certain things. Like most people post 2020 have a mental health exclusion, for example, which means you can never claim on that.

[00:18:42] So that is such a common mistake. And the other one I see, and I had a client. At the end of last year with this, she went and got tried to get her own insurance and the insurer said to her, oh, we can see you had some mental health issues recently, so we're going to put a 75% loading on your income protection, which means that she would pay 75% more so frustrating, but from my perspective, amazing.

[00:19:08] Fantastic. You're still gonna be covered and we can review that in a year. Right? But she didn't know that she did it herself. Then she came to me a year later and she said, Trish. In that year, I have been diagnosed with this, this, this, this, and this. What can I get? And that is then a really tricky conversation where she's tried to do the right thing for herself.

[00:19:29] She's balked at one little hurdle that I could have explained away and said, this is still in your best interest. And helped her figure that out. And then life happened to her. And now I'm getting her a hodgepodge of insurances. But it's not exactly what she would like, but it's the best we can do. And I see that happen quite a bit because the most common mistake people make is they think about their insurances when something happens to them.

[00:19:55] And the ideal scenario for everyone listening is go and get your insurances now. Especially if you are well because you're locking in that good health. And then if anything happens to you along the way, and I, as I, I can tell you as a lady in her forties stuff just definitely happens that just like nothing claimable yet, but it would be an exclusion if I went for insurance now.

[00:20:18] So if you can lock it in early, you are avoiding that mistake that I see so many people make that I then have to put a lot of pieces in place instead of just making it easy and going, here's your

[00:20:28] MOLLY: insurance.

[00:20:29] Yeah. And insurance is one of those things that just has to go on the life admin task list.

[00:20:34] Mm-hmm. And you've gotta do it. So I guess the process for people who are like, well, what is the process? Yeah. Can I just go online, Google a few, or do I need to sit down with an insurance broker like yourself? And actually. Like figure out what do I need? I guess, what are your thoughts on that? And then let's chat through actually, what is the process and the process we went through.

[00:20:54] Because you're my insurance broker.

[00:20:56] TRISH: Yes, exactly. So the first thing is there's a couple of different ways to do it. So you can go direct the insurers. Not all insurers allow that, but a bunch do. The challenge for that is it's kind of like going to your bank to get a mortgage or going to a bank to get a mortgage, right?

[00:21:11] They're gonna tell you their thing. You don't know what the rest of the market is doing. So you can absolutely do that if you'd like. The second thing you do can do is go to insurance broker, which is not someone who gives personal financial advice, but has a chat with you, explains the concepts, and then gives you, and then helps you to understand things and lets you pick so you don't know the nuances of all the insurers.

[00:21:35] You don't know that this insurer is gonna be best for. 'cause you are pregnant and you're gonna have a baby. And therefore where this insurer is helpful if these risks happen or you don't know if that insurer is gonna be best because they won't give you a cervical cancer exclusion and this insurer will.

[00:21:50] But that is also a possibility. And then you can go for personal financial advice. But like myself, where the advisor asks you personal questions, they talk about your medical history, they take you through how much insurance is enough and the pros and the cons, and then they help you apply for the insurance and manage that entire process for you.

[00:22:12] And it was lovely to take you through the process of Molly, of getting your insurance done. So you have a bird's eye view of it, of, of exactly how it works. Um, did you want me to go through the steps of how we did it or?

[00:22:24] MOLLY: Yeah, I think it's helpful 'cause the initial one was, we had three meetings in total.

[00:22:29] The first one was where we kind of did a bit of, was it that, the fact finding one?

[00:22:34] TRISH: Correct. Yes. Yeah, fact finding. So in the first meeting we had already sent you out some quick questionnaires for some basic information to help me prepare for the meeting. And we went through and we checked what's your information, make sure it's all correct, how much insurance is enough, and asked you a bunch of questions about your life and it's really personalized.

[00:22:52] Mm-hmm. And then talked about any medical situations, because like I said, some insurers are better than others on certain medical. And obviously choose the insurer that's best for you. For us, that meeting is complimentary. Then the second meeting that we go through is options because nobody ever knows how much insurance they want and how it compares to what the cost is like I'm sure all of us would love to have $10 million of life insurance and total and permanent disability and a million of trauma so that we can make that sure that everything absolutely is covered.

[00:23:24] And if we die or something happens, we are good, but there's a cost component to that. And it can be different between couples on how much you want to ensure depending on your assets. And so we will show you, for example. If you say, need $2 million of life in total and permanent disability to cover all of your everything, all of your needs.

[00:23:45] MOLLY: Mm,

[00:23:46] TRISH: we would show you $2 million. And then I might say, well, if we don't wanna cover medical expenses, for example, we might take out 400,000 and show you what 1.6 would cost like. Yeah. And then show you what maybe 1.3 or 1 million would cost, like. So that you can feel like you're really informed on the costs versus the benefit.

[00:24:06] How did you find that, Molly, with the, which insurance amounts should we choose?

[00:24:11] MOLLY: Well, I like to have the options because I had a certain budget in mind that I wanted to spend. And so for some of them I was like, I don't feel like I need all that, but it'd be great to have this amount and that fits in my budget nicely.

[00:24:22] And then it was great as well where you could say, okay, well that can come from your super and that will pay outside of super just 'cause I think what stops people as well is the, like the cost. It's gonna cost so much, but I was actually surprised with how reasonable it was.

[00:24:37] TRISH: Yeah, absolutely. It can be quite reasonable.

[00:24:40] It all depends on you, your personal circumstances, your medical situation, and how much you're insuring for. And I do find that sometimes when people who are quite cost conscious, but they know they need insurance, will put more into superannuation so that you know, you've got insurance, you know it's affecting your superannuation a little bit, but it's kind of when you earn more money or you get a bit older or the kids are a bit older, you can switch things around.

[00:25:04] So that you can still be covered.

[00:25:06] MOLLY: So just to recap on those meetings, the first one is you sit down, we do a fact find. The second one is you show the options, we go through what we want, and then the third one is actually going ahead.

[00:25:18] TRISH: That's right. So the third one is that final, the statement of advice.

[00:25:22] And so every advice. Financial advisor needs to give you a statement of advice that tells you exactly what they're recommending, the final costs, the risks, the benefits, making sure they've got all your details correct, and then we apply with you. And I find that a lot of clients, I've done insurance applications a number of different ways throughout my career, and I think this is the best way where we take you through it, we share the screen, you're answering the questions because it's terrifying.

[00:25:49] As someone who's applying for insurance, just to think I'm gonna say the wrong thing. Yeah. Should I be saying this? Yeah. Is it lying or is it not something to worry about? Whereas I can help people understand. That process and because one of the biggest problems with insurance and all insurers acknowledge this is over disclosure.

[00:26:08] MOLLY: Yeah.

[00:26:09] TRISH: So if I might say, oh yeah, my calves were a little sore today to the insurer over the phone, that then might trigger to them, they have to go down this rabbit hole of, well, why are your calfs sore? Have you gone to the doctor? Have you seen a physio, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And they then have to know things.

[00:26:27] Whereas if you say to me, my calves are sore when I woke up this morning. And I'm like, did you go for a run yesterday? Like were you, what was going on? And I'm like, yeah, that doesn't count. You haven't gone to the doctor. You haven't gone to the physio. That's just life being in your thirties or your forties.

[00:26:44] Yeah, it means it's. Much more precise and then after that we wait for the insurer's outcome. There can be outcomes as quick as instant. Yeah. I've had some instant outcomes for people who are, don't really have any medical issues all the way through to a couple of months if there's quite complex medical things and the insurer might need reports and the doctor might be delayed.

[00:27:07] But generally it might be a couple of weeks to find out what the insurer has. Said to find out if your insurance is going through with no issues or if you're having exclusions or loadings or a decline. Those are really the options. Awesome.

[00:27:22] MOLLY: I remember I was on a podcast, it was for our UK podcast, um, a few years ago, and we had a woman in who'd had to claim on her income protection insurance, and she was a single mom of two.

[00:27:36] She had twins. And she just went for a routine checkup, found she had breast cancer, needed to start treatment immediately, and she said, I made two phone calls. I made the first phone call to my brother, and then I made the second call to my insurance broker, and the insurance broker said, you are covered.

[00:27:55] Your lifestyle doesn't need to change as far as like what you are spending, what your expenses. And she was like, like my life would be completely different if I didn't have that.

[00:28:04] TRISH: Yeah. She

[00:28:05] MOLLY: was like, I would've had taken my kids out of school. Like, 'cause they're in private school, she's like, I would've had to like, you know, move into like social housing.

[00:28:12] Like, it just changed her life completely. And again, like I've had friends who've been, you know, received cancer diagnosis that they never thought they would ever receive. And because they didn't have income protection, it meant they had to rely on family and friends. And we don't want any woman to be in that position.

[00:28:32] So ladies, please, if anything, this year, 2026, get on top of your insurances. And Trish, where can people find you?

[00:28:42] TRISH: Oh, they can find me on LinkedIn. I'm very, um, big on LinkedIn. Trish Gregory, they can find me on TikTok, which is chicken finance five. I've recently got quail, so it's. Quail talk instead of chicken talk, but I talk about insurance finance and then show my quail a lot.

[00:28:59] And then also they can email me trish@hcis.com au, or they can go to the website hcis.com au. If they're like, alright, I'm gonna get this done. We can book you in and get your insurance sorted. Just let us know. You've come from Ladies Finance Club and we'll look after you.

[00:29:17] MOLLY: I love that. And sorry, did you say you have a quail?

[00:29:20] TRISH: I have five quail. Okay. And my,

[00:29:23] MOLLY: it was like, did I miss hear that?

[00:29:26] TRISH: And my incubator is hopefully coming tomorrow, uh, because I have four girls and a boy and I'm really hoping that I can hack some baby quails. So you should, everyone should follow me on LinkedIn because those baby quail will definitely be on LinkedIn and on TikTok, if that's the case.

[00:29:42] MOLLY: There you go. When you get your insurance ported, you can check in and see how the quails are going.

[00:29:47] TRISH: Exactly. That's right.

[00:29:49] MOLLY: And we'll put all those links in the show notes. Thank you so much, Trish.

[00:29:53] TRISH: No worries. Have a great one, Molly.

KEYWORDS

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