St. George Life Insurance

St. George is a provider of life insurance as well as a range of banking and wealth products, including home loans, credit cards, personal loans and superannuation. Read on for an overview of the life insurance products it offers.

What life insurance products does St. George offer?

St. George offers a number of solutions through its ‘Protection Plan’ product suite that fall within the ‘life insurance’ umbrella. Specifically, St. George says it offers:

Term life insurance, which St. George says pays a benefit in the event of death or on diagnosis of a terminal illness.
Living Insurance, which pays a benefit if the policyholder suffers from one of a range of specified medical events such as cancer, a heart condition or loss of a limb.
Total and Permanent Disablement (TPD) Insurance, which pays a benefit if the insured person is unlikely to work again, perform household duties again, or suffers a loss of ability due to a permanent disability.
Business Overheads, which provides funding for certain business expenses if you the insured person is unable to work in their business because of sickness or injury.

How much does St. George Life Insurance cost?

St. George says you will need to contact them directly to get a quote for the cost of one of its life insurance policies. It explains that the cost of its insurance includes the premium and other fees and charges, such as the policy fee and stamp duty.

Generally speaking, the cost of a life insurance policy depends on a range of factors including your age, gender, smoking status and the insured benefit selected. Providers may also take your occupation, health, income and personal pastimes into account.

St. George’s life insurance product comes with a number of optional extras which may affect the premium you would pay. These include TPD benefit and living benefit.

According to St. George, at the time of writing if the insured person is covered by multiple eligible St. George Protection Plans policies, a multi-policy premium discount of 5% will apply on all premiums applicable to the insured person, excluding policy fee and stamp duty.

Canstar does not currently compare St. George life insurance, but you can compare other life insurance providers on Canstar’s database.

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Eligibility to apply for St. George Life Insurance

According to St. George, Australian citizens and Australian permanent residents between the ages of 15 – 69 may be eligible for coverage under its term life insurance policy. Age restrictions for other aspects of the Protection Plan product suite may vary. Check the PDF or contact St. George for details.

Upon application, you may also be asked some questions about your health, lifestyle and family medical history to determine your eligibility and what level of cover might be available to you.

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How to apply for a St. George Life Insurance policy

Before taking out a life insurance policy, it may be beneficial to first compare various providers to help ensure you’re applying for a policy that suits your needs.

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If you choose to apply for a St. George Life insurance policy, you can do so over the phone or at one of its branches.

St. George Life Insurance FAQS

St. George advises getting in contact with its call centre as soon as you become aware that you need to make a claim. It says it will arrange for you to receive any information or forms you need.

St. George says that before it can pay a benefit, you must provide satisfactory evidence and the authority for it to obtain further information which it considers to be relevant to your claim. According to St. George, it may request medical and/or financial evidence, and proof of the insured person’s age. For relevant claims, St. George says it may also require the insured person to undergo medical examinations or tests as part of the assessment.

According to St. George, premiums for its term life, TPD and living insurance cover are not tax deductible. Ask your tax accountant, financial adviser or consult the ATO for more details on this.

According to St. George, it offers a choice of ‘stepped’ premiums where your premium increases each year as you get older, or ‘level’ premiums where your premiums stay the same. Check with St. George for any limits or restrictions that might apply.

At the time of writing, St. George does not outline whether any medical tests are required upon application.

However, it does explain that if you have any pre-existing health conditions at the time your policy commences, you need to disclose them so it can decide whether or not to cover those conditions. St. George also warns that if you do not disclose pre-existing conditions, you may not be covered for them by its policy.

St. George says you may apply for changes to your policy in writing, but it may also agree to accept amendments by other means. If St. George agrees to the policy variation, it says it will issue an update to your policy schedule or membership certificate to confirm the variation has been applied to your policy. Remember, changing your level of cover may affect the cost of your policy.

According to St. George it was founded in the southern Sydney suburbs in 1937. Over the next 50 years it operated as a building society, before achieving full banking status in July 1992.

In December 2008, St. George merged with Westpac Banking Corporation and the retail and business banking distribution businesses are now known as St. George Bank.

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