Services
Established in 1997, we provide specialist financial risk advice, selecting the most appropriate risk management strategies for you, our client.
The objective of the advice we provide is to assist you to make informed decisions about managing the financial risks you may encounter. This includes, protecting your cash flow or your income and assets in order to be able to pay off debts and provide for lifestyle changes in the event of misadventure.
Specifically, we provide risk insurance advice and set in place financial risk management solutions to help you and/or your loved ones in a variety in situations, such as:
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In the event of your death
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In the event of disability or illness that prevents you from working
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In the event you can never work again due to long-term disability or illness
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In the event you suffer a critical illness, such as cancer, heart attack or stroke
Whether you are a professional seeking to protect your practice, a businessperson seeking to protect your business or simply parents seeking to protect
your family, we can help. We are also experts in claims management. We build our advice based on what we know works at claim time. We are proud of the fact that we have achieved more than $225 million in claims paid to our clients. When it matters most, we believe that it is our experience that makes the difference.
Our long-term association with the insurance sector and our size allows us to work directly with underwriters to ensure we get the best terms available.
We understand policies inside and out, so we can ensure you will get the best possible cover to suit your needs. So when things go wrong we can get the best possible health and financial outcomes for you, our client.
Risk Management Advice
As stated in the introduction above, the objective of the advice we provide is to assist you to make informed decisions about managing the financial risks you may encounter.
Specifically, we provide advice and set in place financial risk management solutions to help you and/or your loved ones in a variety in situations, such as:
-
In the event of your death
-
In the event of disability or illness that prevents you from working
-
In the event you can never work again due to long-term disability or illness
-
In the event you suffer a critical illness, such as cancer, heart attack or stroke
It may seem obvious, but it is your ongoing cash flow that enables you to develop wealth into the future and that allows you to meet your day-to-day living expenses, accrue assets and plan for retirement.
We provide advice to help you plan ahead and put in place protections to ensure that even if you are unable to work because of sickness or accident, you will continue to receive an income to help meet all of your usual living expenses until you can return to work.
A strategy to protect your assets is also a key feature of any risk management plan. In the event of a sudden and unexpected death, the surviving family members will need cash to pay off debt, provide an income stream and other capital requirements to secure the family's future.
In the absence of sufficient investment assets and passive income, we will estimate how much funding your family will require and will recommend solutions to provide sufficient capital to meet these needs.
Should you suffer a medical event, the potential for significant unforeseen costs for medical expenses and rehabilitation is high.
Sudden critical illness or suffering a permanently disabling condition can irrevocably impact your financial circumstances. Again, we can advise you on strategies that will provide you with lump sum funding to enable you to pay off debt, assist with lifestyle changes and provide for medical, rehabilitation and other unforeseen costs.
Claims Management Support
Achieving positive client outcomes is what drives us to succeed.
AFRM's team has developed the maxim "help more people," and are inspired by the difference we make in people's lives thanks to a well constructed financial risk management plan and a caring, empathetic, and personal claims management experience.
If you ever need to make a claim, we will dedicate one of our team members to be your claims liaison to work on your behalf to solve any issues as they arise.
The bottom line is that good advice leads to a successful claim. It is our knowledge of the finer details of insurance contracts that makes a positive difference for you, our client.
Having a 24-year history as risk specialists, we hold the respect of; and have relationships with; insurers that enable us to get the best outcomes possible for our clients.
We are not afraid to challenge insurance company decisions and our length of time in the business means their senior management listen when we do.
We understand that insurance needs change as our clients move through their lives. That’s why annually we send you details of your current policies and always offer you a full review to ensure the appropriate risk strategy remains in place.
We are proud that we are there for our clients in their time of need.
We are proud of the fact that we have achieved more than $200m in insurance claims paid to our clients.
It only pays to have insurance when it is the right insurance for you. This is why our advice is based on what we know will work at claim time for your unique circumstances.
At AFRM, we passionately believe that the role of a life insurance adviser does not end with the policy being issued.
Our job is to assist you in your time of need and to actively manage your claims for you. We are with our clients from start to finish.
Business Succession Planning Advice
As a self-employed individual, an illness or injury rendering you unable to work could have a disastrous effect on your business or your ability to realise the full value of your business asset for your retirement, or to pass onto your estate.
Similarly, if you are not working and generating revenue, the need to meet ongoing operational expenses may have a severe impact on your personal and business cash flow.
We can help you plan ahead, providing advice on how to establish funding for a business succession plan, how to protect your business in the event of a "Keyperson" (such as yourself) suddenly not being able to contribute and also how to put in place protections that provide funding to cover normal day-to-day running expenses of a business during a period of disability.
A well-constructed succession plan not only addresses equity succession issues, but also ensures the business has all the resources needed to continue to operate in the wake of a partner suffering an unforeseen tragedy.
Our risk analysis and advice will help you understand how much funding will be required and we can put in place solutions to deliver that funding at the right time.
We can then assist you in working with solicitors who draft the required legal documentation.
When planning Keyperson protection for your business, we must first identify the value of the Keyperson's contribution and then decide whether the alternative funding should be treated as 'Revenue' or 'Capital', which has taxation treatment implications.
When providing advice on putting in place protections to cover business overheads costs during a period of disability, we analyse the assets and liabilities of the family (business included), provide guidance on the amount of capital required for the family to pay off debt and also the size of the income stream required for the family to live on.
Estate Planning Advice
While AFRM does not directly provide these services, we work with specialist Estate Planning lawyers to whom we can refer you. Estate Planning is a natural follow-on from risk management advice. After all, we put in place solutions to create funding for unforeseen events. What we do is help people plan for their own mortality.
A well constructed estate plan will solve potential issues when dealing with the distribution of assets upon death (including any insurance funding).
A plan is designed to ensure the right individuals receive the estate assets in an efficient and effective manner. A plan can also provide a solution for future issues that can arise when an individual is alive but incapacitated.
The untimely death of a family member undoubtedly has a significant emotional impact, for which, no amount of money can compensate. When the deceased was also relied upon financially, the emotional impact can be accompanied by a devastating financial impact on the rest of the family.
Careful risk management planning in this area involves ensuring that surviving family members are left with all the financial resources they need to continue living their life without unnecessary compromise or financial hardship.
Through the advice process we:
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analyse the assets and liabilities of the family (business included),
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provide guidance on the amount of capital required for the family to pay off debt, and;
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also establish the size of the income stream required for the family to live on into the future.
Comprehensive estate planning will ensure the effective and tax-efficient distribution of those funds to the right people at claim time.
It involves not only deciding how assets are to be distributed but also having the correct financial structures and arrangements in place to protect your family's personal or business long-term interests (or both) in the most tax effective way possible.