Extra benefits to protect you and your family

ESSSuper - 10 Mar 2021

It's relatively easy to insure objects for their value: cars and houses have market prices, and you can estimate how much the contents of your home costs. It's even easier to take out travel insurance when we go on holiday. But what about our life and health? What if we're unable to work to take care of ourselves and our loved ones? How do you put a price on people?

How can your super help?

We're proud to serve the heroes of our community. The high risk rating of some of our members' occupations can make it challenging to obtain adequate insurance benefits outside of super. We've been supporting emergency services, state, and transport workers for over 100 years, so our insurance covers are designed to support members like you.

Insurance cover may be available through your super if you're under age 65. This can be cost effective, as any fees or premiums are paid for by your employer (Defined Benefit schemes) or deducted from your super balance (Accumulation Plan). And the prices are generally lower than if you were taking up similar benefits separately, as they're spread across the whole group of fund members. In fact, we're a "best value for money" super fund whose insurance has been rated as "well above benchmark".^*

Our Defined Benefit (DB) and Accumulation Plan accounts can offer certain levels of automatic protection. Insurance cover is subject to eligibility criteria and other terms and conditions in the Policy. Please read the appropriate Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) and/or Insurance guide for more information.

Benefits in our Defined Benefits schemes

If you're an ESSS DB member, the level of insured benefits you can claim in your time of need depends on your contribution rate. The higher your contribution rate, the higher the level of death and disability benefits you'll receive. These insured benefits will decrease as you get older, then stop at the age of 55. From then on, we would pay any approved claims out of your super retirement benefit.

The chart below shows the total death and disability benefits (i.e. insured benefit and accrued retirement benefit) of an ESSS DB member contributing at a rate of 7%.

Chart note: Insured benefits gradually reduce and will cease on or before the age of 55 for all DB members.
Chart assumptions:

• The ESSS DB member joins at age 30 and is on a salary of $88,538 per annum contributing at a rate of 7% for the entire career with Emergency Services.
• An untaxed accrual rate of 28% of Final Average Salary is used for insured benefit projection.
• A taxed accrual rate of 25% of Final Average Salary is used for the retirement benefit projection.
• This ESSS DB member reaches the maximum multiple of 8.4 at the age of 63.

However, everybody's needs are different. Depending on your personal circumstances (e.g. your level of debt and liability), the death and disability benefits provided in the DB scheme may not be sufficient. If that's the case, there are options available to you.

Insurance in our Accumulation Plan

Our Accumulation Plan offers three types of insurance cover:

• Death cover can provide a lump sum payment to your beneficiary in the event of death (up to a maximum benefit of $2 million).
• Total and Permanent Disablement (TPD) cover can pay a lump sum to you (up to a maximum of $2 million) if you become totally and permanently disabled or suffer from a terminal illness. Note: you must also have Death cover to have TPD cover.
• Income Protection (IP) can pay you up to 85% of your pre-disablement income (to a maximum benefit of $25,000 per month) if you become totally disabled, and partial benefits if you are partially disabled.

If you have a DB membership with a linked Accumulation Plan, you will not receive default insurance cover automatically in your Accumulation Plan. However, within 120 days of becoming a member of the DB scheme and with additional contributions going into your Accumulation Plan account, you can opt-in to receive default cover. This default cover is three units of Death and TPD cover at a cost of $3.15 per week^** (without going through a health assessment).

If you only have an Accumulation Plan with us (e.g. if you opened your account as the spouse of an existing member), you can also opt-in to receive that default level of Death and TPD cover without a health assessment within 120 days of joining. Alternatively, that default insurance cover will start automatically when you:

• Have an Accumulation Plan account balance of over $6,000
• Are over 25 and less than 65 years of age, and
• Are receiving mandatory contributions from your employer into your Accumulation Plan.

Income Protection cover will not start automatically. All members can opt-in to receive IP insurance up to the automatic acceptance level within 120 days of joining the Accumulation Plan (without a health assessment), or can apply for IP cover at any time (with a health assessment).

Further information about insurance cover is available in our Insurance guide, including automatic default cover amounts, unitised benefit amounts, eligibility, cost of cover, IP waiting and benefit periods, and more.

What you can do

If you're an ESSS Defined Benefit Fund, New Scheme, or Transport Scheme member, we encourage you to review your DB contribution rate, as that may impact the level of death and disability benefits you'll receive.

All members can apply for insurance cover if they have an Accumulation Plan account. Our insurance calculator can help you fine-tune the cover to your personal requirements. In step 1, you can indicate if you would like to find out how much cover you may need, or if you would like to calculate insurance premiums only.

When you're ready to take the next steps, download, complete, and return the appropriate form.

We're here to help

We recommend you seek advice before modifying your DB contribution rate, opening a new account, or changing your insurance benefits. With a virtual appointment, our expertise is always close at hand.

Our Member Education Consultants can provide you with information and general advice on our products. To discuss your personal needs, objectives, and financial situation, our Financial Advisers^† are the experts.

We can help you find the best way to protect you and your loved ones.

^* Source: SuperRatings Benchmark Report 2021. Refer to our Awards webpage for more information about SuperRatings.

^** Insurance cost and cover is subject to eligibility criteria and other terms and conditions in the Policy. Please read the Accumulation Plan Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) and (AP.2) Insurance guide for more information.

^† ESSSuper Financial Advisers are authorised representatives of Link Advice Pty Ltd (Link Advice). Link Advice holds a current Australian Financial Services Licence No. 258145 and is responsible for the financial services provided to you. ESSSuper has an arrangement with Link Advice Pty Ltd to provide financial advice to ESSSuper members. ESSSuper pays Link Advice a fee for this service. Neither the Board, nor the Victorian Government, guarantee or endorse any recommendations made by Link Advice, or are responsible for the advice and actions of Link Advice.

Emergency Services Superannuation Board (ABN 28 161 296 741), the Trustee of the Emergency Services Superannuation Scheme (ABN 85 894 637 037) (ESSSuper).

The information contained in this article is of a general nature only. It should not be considered as a substitute for reading ESSSuper’s Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) that contains detailed information about ESSSuper products, services and features. Before making a decision about an ESSSuper product, you should consider the appropriateness of the product to your personal objectives, financial situation and needs. It may also be beneficial to seek professional advice from a licensed financial planner or adviser. An ESSSuper PDS is available at esssuper.com.au/pds or by calling 1300 650 161.