It's getting harder and harder to deal with large corporations such as Life Insurance companies. They sprout-on about what good service they provide, how it's so easy to deal with them, and are quick to tell you if they won an award for their customer service, but quite often they're just too big to provide a personal service. A client of mine recently discovered that thier Life Insurance premium was deducted twice from thier Credit Card. Fortunately, as I am their Life Ins...

I completed a Life Insurance Assessment for a client today and, in effect, I recommended that they borrow to pay for their Life Insurance premiums. I calculated that the overall cost to borrow the Annual Premiums, including the Interest, was lower than paying the premiums monthly. Premium Frequency Loadings: Life Insurance companies usually add a 'premium frequency loading' if you elect to pay the premiums on a Monthly, Quarterly or Half-Yearly basis. Home Loa...

One of the advantages of having Life Insurances included in your Qsuper Superannuation fund was that you are automatically accepted (up to a certain amount). If you couldn't obtain cover direct with a Life Insurer, at least you still had some Life Insurance in your Super. I've just researched Qsuper's latest Life Insurance Benefit Guides (for a comprehensive Financial Plan I am preparing for a client), which confirms that whilst Qsuper automatically provides Death cover...

The Age Pension Payment is set to increase tomorrow, Thursday, 20 September 2012. Following are the highlights: Age Pension Increases | 20 September 2012   Fortnightly Payment Current Amount The New Amount Total Increase Single Base Fortnight 695.30 712.00 16.70 Supplement 60.20 60.60 0.40 Total...

Most Home Owners are aware that you don't have to pay Capital Gains Tax (CGT) if you sell your main home. However, you may have to pay CGT on a portion of the sale proceeds, if you run your business from your main home. The sneaky little trap is that you may have to pay CGT even if you don't claim any of the business's expenses (e.g. portion of electricity, Rates, etc.)! The Tax Department's 'test' depends on whether or not your were eligible to claim bu...