The insurance you already have

Super funds commonly include insurance — life cover, total and permanent disability, sometimes income protection — and the premiums come out of your super balance rather than your bank account. Which is exactly why people forget it exists.

That has two consequences worth knowing.

If you have old super accounts you stopped paying into, you may be paying premiums out of balances that are quietly shrinking. And if you have consolidated your super at some point, you may have cancelled cover you'd have wanted to keep — consolidating closes the old account, and the insurance goes with it.

For each fund, including the old ones:

• Log in, or ring them.
• Find “insurance”. Note what type of cover you have, and for how much.
• Note what the premiums are costing you.
• Check whether your occupation or your smoking status is recorded correctly — it affects what you pay and, sometimes, what gets paid out.

Do it for every fund. This is the step where people find cover they'd forgotten, and the step where they find they're paying three times for something they can only claim once.

Insurance held inside super is usually paid out with your super — which means it follows your death benefit nomination, not your will.

If you have not made a nomination, or yours has lapsed, this money is part of what the fund's trustee will decide about. There's a separate guide on that, and it's the one to read next.

If you find cover you think you don't need, don't cancel it in the same session you found it.

Insurance inside super is generally easier to get than insurance bought separately, and if your health has changed since you got it, you may not be able to replace it. Someone independent — a financial counsellor, or an adviser you pay for advice rather than product — is worth a conversation first. There's a guide on free financial counselling.