What would the same cover cost at each fund?
Enter your age, pay and the cover you want and every fund is priced side by side, cheapest over 10 years first. Or switch to "Automatic cover" to see what each fund hands you without asking.
What do Death, TPD and income protection mean?
- Death cover
- Pays a lump sum to your family if you die, or if you're terminally ill.
- TPD (total and permanent disability)
- Pays a lump sum if an illness or injury means you're unlikely to work again.
- Income protection
- Pays part of your wage each month while you can't work, for a set time.
Indicative only. Before recommending, confirm the premium on the fund's own calculator (linked under each fund) and check the fund's current insurance guide.
How these figures are worked out
Want to compare cover held outside super as well?
How much cover do I actually need?
About five minutes, with sensible starting figures, so change only what's different for you. It builds the answer year by year from your debts, family, income, savings and the Age Pension, then shows the cheapest way to hold that cover at each fund.
How each year is paid for
Year-by-year table
Cheapest way to hold this cover
Indicative only. These premiums use each fund's published rates for the occupation and health answers above. Shorter income protection costs less but leaves a bigger TPD gap, so the TPD amount changes with each column. Confirm on the fund's own calculator before recommending.
Cost matrix: TPD amount × income protection
Total annual cost of Death, TPD and income protection as you change the TPD amount (down) and the income protection held (across). Cells below the TPD needed for that column are greyed, with the shortfall shown. The outlined cell in each column is the cheapest that fully covers the need.
Method, assumptions and research behind the needs analysis
How the need is worked out
- Year by year, in today's dollars. For a death (your partner and children carry on) and for TPD (the household carries on and you can't work), the calculator runs every year from the claim to the plan-to age. Each year's costs are met from take-home pay, income protection, the Age Pension, then the invested payout, then super once it can be reached. The cover needed is the smallest payout that never runs out.
- Costs. Adult living costs (reduced after a death), each child's costs until 18, school fees by sector, childcare while the surviving parent works, uni support, ongoing health and care costs after TPD, and loan repayments if the loan is kept. Once retired, the household moves onto the retirement budget you choose.
- Income and tax. Salaries and income protection benefits are taxed at 2026-27 resident rates with the Medicare levy, the low income tax offset and (for salary) the new $1,000 standard work deduction. The legislated cut to 14% from 2027-28 is left out, which slightly overstates future tax. Income protection is assessable income, so it's counted after tax. Investment earnings on the payout are taxed each year in the hands of the lower earner.
- Sequence risk and the 4% rule. The payout earns the real return at which your chosen withdrawal rate lasts exactly 30 years. For 4% that's about 1.3% above inflation, which builds in the poor early returns that sink retirement plans. Australian research suggests 4% is not risk-free: a 50/50 portfolio failed about 18% of the time over 30 years, and 3.6% kept failure to about 10%. Lower the rate for more safety.
- Age Pension. From pension age, the means-tested rate is worked out each year on the remaining payout and super (assets test, and income test with deeming). The home is exempt. Because the pension rises as the payout is spent, less capital is needed for later retirement.
- Debts and assets. Car, personal and card debts are repaid at the claim. The home loan is repaid unless you choose to keep it. Investment loans are repaid by selling the investments, and anything left counts as an asset. Your super counts (tax-free to dependants on death, and after lump-sum tax on TPD). Your partner's super only counts from when they can reach it (60 and retired). Downsizing proceeds count from the year you'd sell.
- Tax on payouts. TPD paid through super under 60 is taxed at 22% on the taxable part, after the tax-free uplift for the years to 65 (s307-145). The uplift is days to 65 divided by (eligible service days + days to 65), so it depends on the eligible service date: a long service period means more tax. In a new fund with no rollover the date can be as recent as joining, which makes most of a TPD payout tax-free. A death benefit is tax-free to a spouse or dependent child. To others it's taxed at 17%, and 32% on the untaxed element that insured amounts create (s307-290). The cover figures are grossed up so the after-tax amount meets the need.
- Cheapest structure. Each fund is priced for the Death need, plus the TPD need and income protection for each option: none, 2 years, 5 years and to 65. TPD is larger where income protection is shorter or absent. Each fund's own maximums and rules are applied, such as TPD not exceeding Death.
- Childcare and schools. Childcare for under-5s is the daily fee less the Child Care Subsidy, worked out from the family's income after the claim. School costs can differ for primary and secondary. An expected inheritance counts from the year it's due; yours counts after TPD but not after your death.
- Downsizing and investments. Both homes grow at the property growth rate above inflation (1% by default, deliberately conservative) until the sale. An investment property is treated as sold at the claim, less 2.5% costs and its loan, with investment debts cleared before anything counts toward the need.
- Renters. The ASFA budgets assume a homeowner, so rent in retirement is added for renters, and the Age Pension uses the non-homeowner thresholds.
- Kept conservative. Spare income in good years isn't saved toward later years unless you switch that on. Not modelled: Family Tax Benefit, the Disability Support Pension, CGT on selling investments, bracket creep, child support, trauma cover, and any offset of income protection by the TPD payout.
Research
Figures used
Will I be accepted if I have a health condition?
Answer the way you would on an insurer's application. You'll see the likely result for each type of cover, which no-questions routes your answers rule out, and an optional price loading on the quotes. Age, sex, smoking and occupation come from the quote calculator. Nothing entered here leaves this page unless you ask a broker for help below and agree to send it.
Had a life event? See how much more cover you can add
Marriage, a new baby, a mortgage: many funds let you lift your cover soon afterwards with few or no health questions, but only inside a time window, and only a limited number of times. Tell us what happened and we'll show what each fund would let you add, what it costs, and the deadline to apply. Age, pay, sex, smoking and job come from the quote calculator above.
Indicative only. Funds change these rules, usually need proof of the event, and the insurer makes the final decision. Premiums use your quote settings (job, waiting period, benefit period) and the cover each fund would hold after the increase.
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An occasional email when a fund changes its cover, prices or rules, plus new guides. General information only, never personal advice. No spam, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
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Talk to an insurance broker
This site compares cover inside super. For help with your own situation, we can pass your details to our partner broker, who gives advice and arranges cover under its own licence. There's no obligation to go ahead.
Help with your pre-assessment result
If your health, job or hobbies could affect cover, a broker can approach insurers before you apply, informally and often without your name, and tell you where you're likely to be accepted and on what terms. That avoids a formal decline you'd have to disclose on later applications.
A retail insurance quote
Cover held outside super can include own-occupation TPD, trauma (critical illness) cover and income protection with extra benefits that super law doesn't allow. It's fully underwritten and usually costs more. A broker can compare retail insurers, and cover inside super, for the amounts from your needs analysis.
How referrals work
- We only send what you choose to include, and only after you agree. Health answers are sent only if you tick that box.
- The broker gives any advice and arranges any cover under its own Australian Financial Services Licence. It will give you a Financial Services Guide, which explains how it's paid.
- Referral fee: if you take out cover through the broker, the broker may pay a referral fee to a business associated with miadvice. The broker pays this fee; it isn't charged to you.
- Keep your existing cover until any new cover has been accepted in writing.
Your privacy
- miadvice collects the details in the referral form to pass them to the broker so it can contact you about insurance. If you don't provide them, we can't make the referral.
- Health and lifestyle answers are sensitive information. We collect and share them only with your consent.
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- To see or correct what we hold, withdraw consent, or make a complaint, contact us using the details at the bottom of this page.
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Automatic cover at each fund, by age
The cover a new member receives automatically once eligible (generally age 25+, a $6,000 balance and contributions received, unless the employer has a dangerous-occupation exception or the member opts in). Shading is relative to the largest figure in the table.
How much you can add without a full health check
Every route to cover without full medical underwriting: the ordinary automatic acceptance limit, plus time-limited new-member, start-up, transfer and life-event offers, with each fund's hard maximum.
How often insurers accept claims
The rules that decide whether you're covered
Summaries in plain words. The insurance guide is the binding document; open a fund's profile for its guide link and effective date.
Fund directory and insurance guides
Every fund's insurer, current insurance guide and the funds it has absorbed since 2020.
Method & disclaimer
How quotes are calculated
- Each fund's Death, TPD and Income Protection rates were taken from its current insurance guide and converted to an annual premium per $1,000 of cover (or per $1,000 of monthly benefit for IP).
- Rates were captured at ages 20, 25, 30 … 60 and 64. Ages in between are interpolated on a log scale (premiums rise roughly exponentially with age); checked against Hostplus's own calculator, this lands within about $1 of its quote on each cover.
- Your occupation choice is mapped to the nearest category each fund uses. Funds that don't price by occupation or sex use one rate for everyone.
- Where a fund prices Death and TPD as one combined benefit, the combined rate is applied to the higher of the two amounts.
- Tax: insurance premiums are deductible to the fund. "Cost to member" scales each fund's printed rates by the share the member actually pays (85% where the rates are printed before the 15% tax benefit and the fund passes it on). "Before tax benefit" grosses up funds that print net rates, so both views compare like with like.
- Age: you enter age last birthday. Funds whose tables run on age next birthday are read one year on, so everyone is priced at the same real age.
- Income protection is priced per dollar of monthly income benefit. Where a fund also pays a super contribution on top, that is noted in the fund's detail rather than priced.
- Premiums exclude any fund administration fees and assume standard rates with no loadings or exclusions.
Limits of the data
- Default cover depends on each fund's eligibility rules: Putting Members' Interests First (age 25 and a $6,000 balance) and Protecting Your Super (cover stops after 16 months with no contributions or rollovers).
- Default figures assume the fund's main default category. Some funds set the category by employer or industry, which changes the amount.
- Blank cells mean the figure could not be confirmed from the fund's own documents.
- Claims statistics are APRA and ASIC figures for each underwriter's whole group super book. They are not specific to any one fund's members.
General advice warning
Referrals
Every referral sent from this page, newest first. Set the status as each one moves along, add notes and follow-up dates, and send it to the broker. Visitors only ever see their own form, never this list.
Exports and broker emails include health answers where the person consented to share them. Store and send them securely, and delete referrals you no longer need.