Trauma Cover Overview
Trauma Cover
Trauma Cover provides a lump sum payment should you suffer one of the Covered Conditions. The
Covered Conditions are by nature serious and potentially life threatening and, as a result, can have
a significant financial impact. Trauma Cover is designed to help alleviate this financial impact. The
lump sum can help reduce debt, purchase specialised equipment, pay for home modifications, provide additional care, create an investment fund to generate ongoing income, or enable business ownership to be restructured, among other things. The purpose of the funds is entirely yours to decide.
Accelerated or Standalone Trauma Cover
You have the choice to select Accelerated Trauma Cover which means in the event of a claim all or part of your Life Cover is paid out. Alternatively, you can select a Standalone Trauma Cover which
pays a lump sum that does not reduce any other cover you might have. The Accelerated Trauma Cover is less expensive than the Standalone Trauma Cover.
Buying back claimed benefits
You can purchase an additional Life Cover Buy Back Option which allows you to reinstate any Life Cover which is reduced by an Accelerated Trauma Cover claim, provided the life assured survives
12 months following the claim (or, for certain conditions, 6 months following the claim).
You can also purchase an additional Trauma Cover Buy Back Option which allows you to repurchase the Trauma Cover that has been claimed, provided that the life assured survives 12 months following the claim.
Premium Review Periods
You can choose from the following premium review periods for your Trauma Cover:
Yearly Stepped – Your premiums are based on your current age and sum insured and are adjusted each year on your policy anniversary.
Level To Age 65, 70 and 80 Non Guaranteed – Premiums remain the same until you reach your selected age, at which time the premium structure automatically reverts to yearly renewable term. Premiums only change in line with any general rates changes or changes to your sum insured until
your selected age. Level to Age 80 Non Guaranteed – is only available for Accelerated Trauma Cover.
5% Stepped, 10 Year Guaranteed – Premiums are guaranteed to only increase by the fixed 5% step on every anniversary during each 10 year period. Premiums otherwise only change in line with any changes to your sum insured during each 10 year period.
Trauma Cover Covered Conditions
Alzheimer’s Disease
Angioplasty*
Aortic Surgery
Aplastic Anaemia
Benign Brain Tumour
Benign Spine Tumour
Blindness
Cancer*
Cardiomyopathy
Chronic Kidney Failure
Chronic Liver Failure
Chronic Lung Failure
Coma
Coronary Artery Surgery*
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD)
Deafness
Dementia
Diabetes*
Encephalitis
Heart Attack*
Heart Valve Replacement
HIV – medically acquired
HIV – occupationally acquired
Intensive Care Treatment
Loss of Independent Existence
Loss of Limb and Sight
Loss of Limb
Loss of Speech
Major Burns
Major Head Trauma
Meningitis and/or Meningococcal Disease
Motor Neurone Disease
Multiple Sclerosis
Muscular Dystrophy
Open Heart Surgery*
Organ Transplant
Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest
Paralysis (Paraplegia, Quadriplegia,
Diplegia, Tetraplegia and Hemiplegia)
Parkinson’s Disease
Peripheral Neuropathy
Pneumonectomy
Primary Pulmonary Hypertension
Severe Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Severe Rheumatoid Arthritis
Stroke*
Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) with Lupus Nephritis
Systemic Sclerosis
Terminal Illness (Standalone only)
Total and Permanent Disability
Diagnosis assistance
To meet the claim criteria for a number of the Covered Conditions a life assured will have suffered a significant level of impairment. There can be a significant period of time between the first diagnosis of the condition and the full payment criteria being reached. Partners Life recognises that there can still be a degree of financial strain when a serious diagnosis is made. To assist with this
financial strain for the indicated conditions, we will pay a portion of the Trauma Cover sum insured early upon diagnosis, with the balance being paid if and when the full payment criteria is reached
or another Trauma Covered Condition is suffered.
The Diagnosis Benefit is 25% of the Trauma Cover sum insured up to a maximum of $100,000.
Covered Diagnosis conditions
Alzheimer’s Disease
Angioplasty*
Benign Spine Tumour
Benign Brain Tumour
Blindness
Cancer*
Cardiomyopathy
Chronic Kidney Failure
Chronic Liver Failure
Chronic Lung Failure
Deafness
Dementia
Encephalitis
Heart Valve Replacement
Intensive Care
Loss of Speech
Multiple Sclerosis
Systemic Sclerosis
Those conditions marked with * no cover is provided for the 90 days immediately following the receipt of the application form by Partners Life.
Partial payments
You are also covered for a number of chronic conditions under Trauma Cover which can be life changing but are not usually immediately life threatening at diagnosis. For these chronic conditions listed below you will receive a Partial Payment Benefit of 25% of the Trauma Cover sum insured up to a maximum of $100,000. Any Partial Payment Benefit paid will reduce the remaining Trauma Cover sum insured by the amount that has been paid to you.
Partial payment covered conditions
Adult Onset Insulin Dependent Diabetes*
Aneurysm
Cardiac Defibrillator Insertion
Colostomy and/or Ileostomy
Hydrocephalus
Minor Burns
Pacemaker Insertion
Severe Osteoporosis
Those conditions marked with * no cover is provided for the 90 days immediately following the receipt of the application form by Partners Life. Some of these conditions are payable more than once.
Cover for your children
You have automatic Trauma Cover of $50,000 for each of your children, from 4 months old until their 21st birthday, which is payable in addition to your Trauma Cover. This cover can then be
converted into their own Trauma Cover without medical assessment within 90 days of your child’s 21st birthday, the date you cancel your Trauma Cover or the date that a Trauma claim is paid to you.
Cover for Newborn Children
Your Trauma Cover automatic provides a Newborn Child’s Benefit for your children if they are born* with one of the listed conditions. The Newborn Child’s Benefit is equal to 25% of your Trauma Cover sum insured to a maximum of $50,000 which is payable in addition to your Trauma Cover.
Absence of Function of Limb
Blindness
Deafness
Spina Bifida
Tetralogy of Fallot
Transposition of Great Vessels
* No cover is provided for the 12 months immediately following the receipt of the application form by Partners Life.
Bringing you home
If you have been working or living overseas for more than 3 months when you suffer a trauma and you wish to return home, your Trauma Cover includes a Return to Home Benefit which will reimburse you for the costs of bringing yourself and a companion home to New Zealand (up to certain limits).
Treatment away from home
If your recommended treatment has to happen outside of your residential region, then your Trauma Cover includes a Support Person Accommodation and Transport Costs Benefit which will reimburse you for up to 10 days accommodation costs and all transport costs for your support person (up to certain limits).
Counselling
There is also a provision for counselling under the Counselling Benefit which reimburses any fees up to a maximum of $2,500. This is payable in addition to the Trauma Cover sum insured.
Expert assistance
If you or your family would like assistance with managing the proceeds of a Trauma Cover claim, your Trauma Cover provides a Financial and Legal Advice Benefit which reimburses the costs of a
financial planner and/or lawyer up to a maximum of $2,500, which is payable in addition to your Trauma Cover.
Conversion Benefits
The Conversation options provides you with the opportunity to convert your Trauma Cover should your circumstances change.
You are able to convert up to a maximum of $500,000 Trauma Cover to double the sum insured of Severe Trauma Cover without assessment of health. An alternative option is the ability to convert your Standalone Trauma Cover to an equal amount of Life Cover and
Trauma Cover without further health assessment.
Special events increases
Partners Life recognises there are a number of special events which can trigger a need to increase your Trauma Cover. The Special Events Increase Benefit allows your Trauma Cover sum insured to
be increased (certain restrictions and limits apply) without further health assessment for the following special events:
Marriage or civil union
Divorce or legal separation
Becoming full-time carer for a dependent relative
Birth or adoption of a child
Taking out or increasing a mortgage
Purchasing a residential property, residential investment property, vacation home or bare residential land
A dependent child starting full-time tertiary study
An increase in annual salary
Death or Terminal Illness of a spouse, defacto partner or civil union partner
Every 5th policy anniversary
You can also, upon a special event happening, choose to add up to $100,000 Severe Trauma Cover instead of Trauma Cover (subject to certain limits and conditions).
Option to increase cover in the future
In addition to the increase options under the Special Events Increase Benefit and automatic inflation adjustments, you can also purchase a Future Insurability Option which allows further increases to your Trauma Cover sum insured each year without further assessment (up to certain limits).
Future proofing the value of your benefits
To ensure your Trauma Cover can continue to deliver the same real value to you as when you first purchased it, your Trauma Cover sum insured will automatically increase by inflation adjustment each year and so will your premiums, unless you have a level premium review period and you selected a no indexation option.
These increases apply irrespective of any changes to your health after your Trauma Cover starts. You also have an option to set a minimum inflation rate of 5% so even when the inflation rate falls
below this level your Trauma Cover sum insured will still increase by 5%.
You can choose to decline any increase in any given year without losing the automatic increase in following years, so you really have the best of both worlds – automatic rights to increase with no
obligation to do so.
No Indexation Option
If you have selected a level premium review period to age 65, 70 or 80 you can also choose a no indexation option.
Turning claims promises into reality
Partners Life goes so much further than paying lip service to the way in which we will manage claims. Our intention to manage claims fairly and ethically, irrespective of what the law might allow
us to do as a life insurer, is a legally binding promise. We have included our commitment to our claims philosophy into our policy wordings – so we are contractually obliged to behave this way –
and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Rewarding partnership for life
Partners Life is passionate about sharing the value we create over time with you. Rather than solely focusing on incentivising new customers to join, we also want to reward clients who are
loyal to us. Your Partners Protection Plan includes an increasing Loyalty Premium Discount over time to your Trauma Cover premium. So you can take comfort that you will pay increasingly less for your Trauma Cover than new clients to the company will. The discounts that apply start from the 2nd anniversary and increase each year by 1% until reaching 10%. Policies with a level premium review period automatically include an averaged loyalty premium discount, therefore an additional discount does not apply.
Help when it’s really needed
A premium holiday is available to you to provide financial relief during difficult times without losing your valuable cover. In the tragic event that you lose a spouse or child, are made redundant or bankrupt or are forced to leave work to care for a relative who has become dependent on you due to ill health, your Partners Protection Plan provides up to 6 months of free Trauma Cover, while
you rearrange your financial affairs. Alternatively your premiums and cover may be suspended for up to 12 months if you need temporary financial relief due to overseas travel, parental leave,
extended periods of leave without pay or even if you decide to embark on some full-time study. At the end of the suspension period you can restart your Trauma Cover without being reassessed
Keeping your Partners Protection Plan up to date
Partners Life guarantees to automatically apply any future enhancements we make to the Trauma Cover to your policy, provided there is no additional premium required for those enhancements.
Worldwide cover
Your Trauma Cover is valid wherever you may be in the world.