Being well prepared for disaster greatly increases your chance of survival on all levels; physical, emotional and financial.

Those of us lucky enough to be observers of the Christchurch earthquake rather than its victims have a great opportunity to learn valuable lessons about what should be done to prepare.

Stories abound of people queuing up for hours to get a bucketful of water, scrambling amongst wreckage to retrieve important documents and irreplaceable personal items, and dealing with loss of income through death, injury and the destruction of businesses and jobs.

Being financially prepared before a disaster is just as important as preparing your survival kit. The most important things to consider are:

• Always make sure you have financial reserves, either as cash in the bank or the ability to borrow additional funds if you need to.

• Make sure you have adequate insurance cover for your home and personal possessions.

• Consider the financial impact that death or severe injury might have on your family and take our appropriate insurance cover on your life, your health and your income.

• Have details at hand of how to go about making an insurance claim

• Make sure you have a will and that it is up to date

• Keep all your important financial records in a safe place. An excellent facility for this is a New Zealand developed software package called myINFOSAFE which allows you to keep records of all important information such as documents, passwords, education history, health records and valuable possessions. The information can be downloaded onto a portable device such as a USB stick and taken with you when you move to safety.

Liz Koh is an Authorised Financial Adviser. The advice given here is general and does not constitute specific advice to any person. A disclosure statement can be obtained free of charge by calling 0800 273 847.  For free eBooks, go to www.moneymax.co.nz and www.moneymaxcoach.com

Many investors are understandably reviewing their attitudes towards investment risk and return following the Global Financial Crisis. However, with interest rates low, it is not easy to achieve competitive, low risk, low volatility returns.

Traded Endowment Policies (known as TEPs) offer these attributes, yet are not widely known or understood. A TEP is simply an endowment policy that has been sold by its original owner through a trading platform such as the Life Insurance Policy Exchange (LIPE).

Typically, endowment policies have been used for long term savings. Policyholders may choose, however, to sell their policies before the agreed maturity date. Rather than surrendering the policy back to insurance company from which it was purchased, in which case the policy is cancelled, a policy holder can choose to sell the policy to LIPE.

The policy remains in effect, albeit with a different owner, and the benefit of accumulated bonuses is not lost. Policy holders can receive a significantly better return for their policy by selling to LIPE rather than surrendering.

The appeal of this type of investment is that in most cases the value of the investment is already guaranteed by the bonus structure of the underlying policy. In addition, because it is an insurance policy, any gains are tax paid. This is particularly beneficial for investors on a high marginal tax rate. Currently, TEPs are offering a projected yield of 5.36% to 5.95% tax paid.

One of the quirks of traded endowment policies is that the original life insured by the policy remains the life insured. In the event, therefore, that the original life insured dies before the policy matures, the owner of the policy is entitled to an early payout, thus further increasing the yield. For obvious reasons, the name of the life insured is not revealed to the investor!

Liz Koh is a financial adviser. Her disclosure statement can be obtained free of charge by calling 0800 273 847.  Author of Your Money Personality; Unlock the Secret to a Rich and Happy Life, Awa Press, March, 2008.  For free eBooks, go to www.moneymax.co.nz and www.moneymaxcoach.com

Looking after your family also means making sure you have an up-to-date will, protecting your assets from relationship property claims and planning the way in which your assets will be passed on to your beneficiaries.

This article came from Liz Koh

Liz Koh is a financial adviser. Her disclosure statement can be obtained free of charge by calling 0800 273 847.  Author of Your Money Personality; Unlock the Secret to a Rich and Happy Life, Awa Press, March, 2008.  For free eBooks, go to www.moneymax.co.nz and www.moneymaxcoach.com

Inform offers online ease, combined with the reassurance of expert advice – so you get all of the convenience without sacrificing any of the confidence.

Here we offer their three top tips for you to consider when choosing healthe insurance.

1. Get high limits for surgical and non-surgical hospitalization
Make sure any plan you’re considering offers 100% cover for larger hospital costs. This should include surgical and non-surgical costs (an example of a non-surgical cost is treatment like chemotherapy). Also, check that the plan covers “major diagnostic” costs like angiograms, MRI scans, etc. These can really add up, and so a plan needs to protect you well for these.

Comparing different plans can be hard – so ask if the plan you’re considering has been featured in any independent research. Most plans have, and this will give you a good look at how its cover really performs!

2. Don’t get cover for GPs/prescription costs
It’s just doesn’t add up. Look closely at the plan’s fine print and claim limits and you’ll see that the cost of a “GP cover” add-on is basically equal to the amount you can claim back! (In other words you might be paying $500 a year, but can only claim back $450 a year).

The best option is to get a good major medical health plan, and then pay for the smaller costs yourself. You could even start your own “health fund” by popping a bit of money into a dedicated bank account regularly. If you need to dip into your health fund it’s there, and if you don’t it will build and grow for you (not the insurer!).  

3. Get cover before you need it
NZ health insurers are very strict on “pre-existing” health issues (which is basically a health issue that emerged before you started your health insurance). Some pre-existing issues can be covered after a “stand-down” period or if you pay a higher premium, but most can’t. So make sure you start your health insurance well before you need it – once a health issue emerges it’s usually too late.  

This information was supplied by inform.co.nz  For more please visit their health insurance page.

You can also complete their online fact finder by following the instructions here