"Do I Even Need Insurance?" We Asked a Financial Adviser the Questions You're All Thinking 💭

If insurance feels like one of those "boring adult things" you'll get around to eventually... we hear you. But it's also one of those things that can completely change your life if something unexpected happens and most of us have no idea where to start.

So we went straight to the expert. Meet Trish Gregory, Financial Adviser at Hayes & Co. Insurance Services, who spends her days helping women (and everyone else!) protect their income, their health and their future selves. We asked her the three questions she gets asked on repeat, and her answers are honestly so good we had to share them with all 80,000+ of you.

Let's get into it 👇

1️⃣ I don't have a mortgage or kids, do I need insurance?

Short answer: probably, yes. Here's why 👇

If you rely on your income to live your everyday life (i.e. you don't have a trust fund or aren't independently wealthy 😅), you need to make sure a sudden illness or injury doesn't decimate your income.

Here's the tricky part: health events and accidents appear out of nowhere. And once they've happened, you might not be able to get insurance anymore or your insurance might cost more or come with exclusions (meaning medical issues you can no longer claim on).

Trish poses a question worth sitting with: how willing would your parents, siblings or bestie be to have you living in their spare room for 6 months, 2 years, 10 years? Are you comfortable being reliant on someone else for the rest of your life if something goes really wrong?

Insurance isn't about mortgages or kids. It's about protecting the income that funds your entire life.

2️⃣ How much is my insurance actually going to cost?

Every person is different, but Trish shared some guidelines based on current quotes (as of June 2026) to give you a rough idea:

• Income Protection: expect to pay around 1% - 1.5% of your income
• Trauma insurance of $100,000 (25-35 year olds): between $13 and $30 per month
• Life and Total & Permanent Disability insurance of $1,000,000 (25-35 year olds): between $700 and $1,200 per year, paid from super
• Child Trauma cover: around $15 per month for $100,000 of coverage

A couple of handy tips from Trish: the higher amount of insurance you take out, the bigger the discount the insurer will typically give you. And you can often unlock extra discounts too, things like having a "healthy" BMI or linking your cover with your partner's.

3️⃣ I have insurance in my super, isn't that enough?

Probably not, says Trish and this one surprises a lot of people.

Default insurance through your super (the cover you get automatically, no questions asked) is, in Trish's words, "woefully inadequate for every single person I've ever met." 😳

And if you want to top it up above the default amount, you'll still need to go through underwriting, the same process you'd go through for comprehensive cover anyway, where the insurer looks at your medical situation and may add exclusions or loadings.

Here's the kicker: default super insurance doesn't come with "guaranteed renewable terms." This means the insurer can change your policy terms down the track. Guaranteed renewable terms lock the insurer into keeping your policy the same, which is exactly why some people (Trish included!) hold onto older retail policies where those better terms are no longer available on the market.

On top of that, industry super funds renegotiate their contract with their group insurance provider every 3-10 years - and when they do, the terms of your policy can change, whether you like it or not.

The bottom line? Trish says that 98 times out of 100, she can get her clients better coverage for less than what they're paying through their industry super fund. Yes, seriously! She's saved her clients thousands simply by looking outside the default option.

🤔 Thinking about your own cover?

Insurance isn't the most exciting line item in your budget, but it might be the most important one you never think about, until you need it. If Trish's answers have you wanting to take a closer look at your own situation, she's exactly the kind of adviser we love pointing our community towards: straight-talking, no jargon, and genuinely invested in getting you the best outcome (not just the easiest one).

👉 Find Trish Gregory in our Directory and get in touch to chat through your options.