Interim cover insures you temporarily while your life insurance application is waiting to be approved. The point is to remove any gap where you'd otherwise have been uninsured. If you were to die or be injured during the application process, interim insurance can pay out a benefit. Typically, interim insurance will cover you for up to 90 days, which is usually more than enough time for your life insurer to complete the underwriting process.
Interim insurance begins as soon as your insurer receives your completed application form. Generally, it protects you for up to 90 days. If an insured event (such as your death or disablement) were to occur within the 90 days, your interim insurance policy would pay out to you or your beneficiaries.
The interim cover will stop if any of these things happen:
The table below lists the life insurance policies available on Finder that include interim accident cover. NobleOak is the only insurer available to people outside of Western Australia.
We currently don't have a partnership for that product, but we have other similar offers to choose from (how we picked these ):
Life Insurance is a little complicated and a lot overwhelming. That's why we made the Finder Score, to make it easier to compare Life Insurance products against each other. Our experts analysed over 30 products and gave each one a score between 1 and 10.
But a higher score doesn't always mean a product is better for you. Your situation is unique, so your policy choice will be too. Don't think of Finder Score as the final word, but as a good place to start your life insurance comparison.
Read full Finder Score methodology
You pay the same price as buying directly from the life insurer.
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An interim insurance policy usually comes with similar cover to the policy you are applying for. For example, if you are applying for death cover (another name for life insurance), you wouldn't be covered for income protection if you needed to take some time off work due to injury or illness.
Interim insurance generally also excludes claims related to the following:
You will not be eligible for interim cover under the following circumstances:
It's often the case that you will receive a lump-sum benefit equal to the same payout as the life insurance policy you have applied for. However, this can vary depending on the insurer. The following examples are an idea of how much you might receive.
These numbers change a bit between different insurers. For instance, RAC offers a maximum interim claim of $1.5 million for life insurance, $500,000 for TPD or Trauma cover, and $2,000 a month for income protection. Be sure to check the details of any policy you're applying for to know for sure.
Generally, 90 days is considered more than enough time for your application to be approved so it's unlikely that your interim cover will lapse. If your application does go over that 90 day period however, you will no longer be covered by interim insurance.
You can help your application process along by following underwriting requests as quickly as possible and giving all the relevant information to underwriters upfront. You can also put together a complete list of your medical history. This will help with medical underwriting as it's often the most time-consuming part of the application process.
In most cases, you can apply over the phone or through an online account. Once you've sent them everything they need, they will assess your claim. Depending on the circumstances, an insurer will let you know if your claim has been accepted within two months of being notified about it.
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