Total and Permanent Disablement Insurance

What if you could never go to work again?

If a serious accident or illness left you unable to work, where would the money come from to pay the bills?

Total and Permanent Disablement (TPD) cover protects you and your family (and if relevant, business colleagues) by paying a one-off lump sum if you become totally and permanently disabled from a sickness or injury.

Note there are two definitions, and associated costs, of Disablement:

• “any” occupation refers to inability to perform any occupation to which a person is suited by education, training or experience
• “own” occupation refers to never able to return to occupations similar to current occupation.

TPD cover using “any” definition is about 50% cheaper than “own” occupation. However, the issue is that people are less likely to have a successful TPD claim with “any” occupation than “own” because “any” occupation is very broad.

People need to decide whether they are willing to pay more for “own” occupation TPD and have a higher chance of making a successful claim.

At Archimedes Financial Planning, we work closely with our clients to find their trade-off between investment for the future assuming no-one is TPD versus investing in insurance now to protect dependants should you become TPD.