Personal Insurance for ADF Members

The following information is current as at 21 January 2010.

Defence looks after ADF members and their families through the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Scheme, and through death and invalidity benefits contained in the Military Superannuation schemes. These are your statutory entitlements.

Most ADF members have found that their statutory entitlements are adequate to meet their needs.

For ADF members, insurance provides optional extra cover for those people who depend on you financially should you die or become disabled. Insurance should be considered as part of your life’s financial planning, and not just at deployment time. Some ADF members have decided that, due to their particular circumstances, they require extra cover. A good way of working out whether you need extra personal insurance is to have a look at what you would be entitled to under the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Scheme and your Military Superannuation scheme, and then work out what your dependants would need, each year, to maintain their current lifestyle. If there is a gap, you might want to consider additional insurance.

You should be careful to make sure that whichever personal insurance policy you have, it is valid in a war zone or in war-like activity. These are called a ‘war exclusions,’ but can be a lot wider than just war.

Where you own an existing policy that you purchased PRIOR to receiving formal notice of deployment, the insurance company may continue to cover you even if your policy contains a war exclusion. However, it is strongly recommended, first, that you should DISCLOSE to the insurer that you are being deployed AND secondly, that you receive WRITTEN CONFIRMATION from the insurer (before you leave) that cover will continue while you are away. Otherwise the insurer may deny cover to you and your family when you need it most.

Buying an insurance policy that will cover you AFTER you have received formal notice of deployment is difficult, especially where you are seeking additional death cover. Chartis offers an accident policy, known as "Injury & Accident Insurance" and "Services Accident Insurance". However, you must have owned the policy for at least for 12 months before a claim for death on deployment on certain operations will be paid.

The Australian Government Actuary has advised Defence that Asteron and Zurich also offer life insurance policies that do not contain war exclusions, however, to be effective these policies are required to be purchased PRIOR to formal notice of deployment.

Defence Health can advise you about the Chartis and the Asteron policies. Navy Health can advise you about the Zurich policy and My Adviser Pty Ltd can advise you about the Chartis policy.

The above information must not be treated as personal advice. You should consider your specific needs and think about consulting an insurance company or a licensed financial adviser of your choice prior to deployment.