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Insurance - Income protection.

dougal

20-Oct-2010
11:56:59 AM

Anyone know of companies which will cover you for climbing? ING will not. This is not travel insurance but income protection for self employed people.

Cheers

jkane

20-Oct-2010
12:02:45 PM

The VCC have an arrangement with a company for this.

http://www.vicclimb.org.au/index.php?location=insurance

VCC

20-Oct-2010
12:07:55 PM

The life insurance offered does not exclude climbing. They do also offer income protection and so forth but think there are restrictions on it. You'd need to talk to Fortitude.

Felix

8-Dec-2010
3:45:06 PM

The insurer in question is Tower. They certainly won't cover outdoor climbing. They may offer cover for indoor climbing, but there will be a loading on the premium (ie. it will cost more) and there may also be some sort of exclusion. You really need to check any insurance policy in detail so you know exactly what's covered. I couldn't envisage an Aussie insurer providing any meaningful cover for outdoor climbing any time soon.

ajfclark

8-Dec-2010
3:54:04 PM

I'm not sure what you've responding to Felix. Last I checked, the insurer the VCC is working with wasn't tower. Are you responding to a different post or have I misunderstood what you've written?

Felix

8-Dec-2010
4:04:25 PM

??? I just spoke to, and got a quote through, the adviser group VCC refer to on their website - Fortitude Financial Management. We specifically discussed VCC membership, indoor & outdoor climbing, etc. Tower is the insurer quoted. Happy to be corrected though - and covered for climbing....

ajfclark

8-Dec-2010
4:10:08 PM

Ok, things have shifted then. They were offering life insurance for outdoor climbing though, just not income protection. That's still the case, correct?

Felix

8-Dec-2010
4:13:22 PM

Perhaps the companies involved are confusing? To clarify, Fortitude is just the insurance adviser selling the insurance product. They do not provide the insurance cover though. The actual insurer or underwriter is Tower. The adviser (Fortitude) would generally receive commission from the insurer (Tower) upon selling the policy (and for the life of the policy).

Felix

8-Dec-2010
4:15:37 PM

I queried income protection insurance only - not too sure on the life insurance though.

ajfclark

8-Dec-2010
4:18:07 PM

Ah, ok. As the VCC stated above, the insurance offered through the VCC that covers climbing is life insurance.

climbingjac

8-Dec-2010
4:50:11 PM

I listened to a spiel about income protection insurance quite some years back. They were happy to cover climbing as long as ropes and rock climbing equipment were not involved. I questioned the chap on this and asked if it would therefore be OK if I went off and soloed the Eiger or Mount Everest. He hesitated and then mumbled that appeared to be ok. Idiots.

cruze

8-Dec-2010
5:03:41 PM

Yep. It seems that most insurance companies for travel, income and life insurance products have done the risk assessment for roped climbing and guided climbing but not for stupid climbing. We have questioned various companies about bouldering, soloing, bushwalking up cliff faces and they all seem to accept that if the policy doesn't exclude it then it must include it.

Stefan Karpiniec

8-Dec-2010
8:14:20 PM

The reason I don't do a bit of geriatric climbing is that it is specifically excluded in the insurance policy required for me to have a mortgage, and I don't want to do enough climbing to make paying the extra dollars worthwhile. Depressing.

tinman

9-Dec-2010
12:53:20 AM

Hi
I'm in this industry and have tried many ways to get the guys to insure me whilst climbing outdoors. e.g. i said to them that if i do climb outdoors, i usually climb only up to 5m, and use lots of crash pads and spotters, im part of vcc, always climb with ropes protection etc.

I ended up taking out the following cover:
Death cover- covers outdoor rock climbing but with a loading on premiums (i pay more than std rates)
Trauma cover- covers outdoor rock climbing but with a loading on premiums (i pay more than std rates)
Total and Permanent Disablement- outdoor climbing excluded so if something happens whilst rock climbing outdoors and i cannot work again i wont get paid out under this cover
Income protection- outdoor climbing excluded and same as above.

i queried them about what outdoor climbing meant- eg if i walk up to hollow mountain
cave on that rocky track, is that considered outdoor climbing? they said that would be hiking.

If you plan to do mountaineering though e.g. eigers, or k2, you must disclose this and you will probably not be accepted.

If you need anything let me know.

Tin

tnd

10-Dec-2010
1:31:28 PM

On 20/10/2010 dougal wrote:
>Anyone know of companies which will cover you for climbing? ING will not.
>This is not travel insurance but income protection for self employed people.
>
>Cheers

This query prompted me to check my own insurance, something I've meant to do for a while. I'm also self-employed and have life and total and permanent disability cover as well as income protection insurance with my super fund, CBUS. They say that the only thing that affects the policy is my occupation, so recreational activities do not matter. Thus I'm covered while climbing (and private aviation and motorcycle track riding, which I also participate in).

So there is a solution there. I'd recommend CBUS, they're an excellent industry fund ("all the profits benefit members" - you've seen the ads) - and there are few restrictions on joining these days (i.e. you don't have to be involved in construction - I'm not).

There are 15 messages in this topic.