Great Transfer Terms
Transfer your exisiting Life cover with no medicals and great terms
It can be easy to move from your existing Life insurance cover to the SMSF Master Insurance Plan, with the same underwriting conditions. Takeover terms under the SMSF Master Insurance Plan let you bring existing cover across to AIA Australia at matched underwriting. No fresh medicals, no new waiting periods, and no surprises if your health has changed.
The conditions are normal, reasonable and help to keep the cost of the insurance cover low.
When people first hear about takeover terms, they assume it’s insurance jargon for transferring a policy. It’s not quite that. Takeover terms, or as called the Individual Transfer Option in the product disclosure statement, is a feature of the SMSF Master Insurance Plan that lets you bring existing cover across at the same underwriting, without going through medicals.
To put it another way, your medical history, your acceptance, your terms, your already-served waiting periods on income protection, all of that comes with you. The new cover is technically a new policy, but the underwriting position from your old cover gets applied to it. You don’t redo any of the health side of things.
This is the feature that makes consolidating insurance into your SMSF actually workable. Without it, every move between insurers would mean fresh underwriting, fresh medicals, and fresh risk of loadings or exclusions for anything that’s changed since your original cover. The SMSF Master Insurance Plan has this built in, and using it is one of the main reasons people choose SMSF Insurance to consolidate their cover.
What you keep from your old cover
You will need to refer to the exact wording in the product disclosure statement, but here is a summary of the takeover terms. The underwriting insurer, AIA Australia, will agree to provide individual transfer terms for Life, Total & Permanent Disability and Income protection under certain circumstances.
When the Individual Transfer Option applies, the new SMSF Master Plan policy preserves:
- Your underwriting decisions, including pre-existing conditions accepted on the original cover
- Your waiting period and benefit period for income protection (rounded to the nearest available option under the Plan)
- Your acceptance — no new medicals or blood tests for cover within the transfer limits
Importantly: if your health has changed since your original underwriting — even significantly — the transfer still works. AIA isn’t reassessing your current health. They’re matching the original underwriting decision.
The cover limits
You can apply for your existing cover to be transferred to the SMSF Master Plan up to the following limits:
- $2 million for Death only or Death and TPD cover
- $20,000 per month for Income Protection cover
Holding more than that? You can still apply for the higher amount. The portion within the limit transfers under the option; anything above goes through standard underwriting. So if you’ve got $3 million of death cover, $2 million moves at matched terms and the extra $1 million gets standardly assessed.
Who qualifies
To use the Individual Transfer Option, the conditions are:
- You’re aged under 60 at the time of application
- You’re gainfully employed and physically capable of at least 30 hours of work per week
- Your existing cover was accepted on terms no worse than +100% extra mortality (a doubling of standard premium) and no more than two exclusions
- You’re not currently entitled to claim — or already receiving — a TPD or income protection benefit from any other policy
- You’re not terminally ill with a life expectancy of less than 12 months
- You can provide a recent statement, letter, or email from your existing fund or insurer — dated within the last 30 days — confirming your current cover details
- You’ll cancel your existing cover (the new cover replaces it; you can’t run both)
That “gainfully employed and capable of 30 hours per week” requirement is the key one. It’s there because AIA is accepting your original underwriting rather than reassessing your current health. The simplest way to demonstrate nothing material has changed is being at work, doing your normal job, in the normal way.
What you’ll need to provide
The paperwork is fairly light:
- A current statement, letter, or email from your existing insurer or fund dated within the last 30 days, showing your cover level and terms
- Evidence that the policy is currently in force
- Details of any exclusions or loadings on your original cover
- The completed Individual Insurance Transfer form, which goes to AIA Australia
Most of this is available from your current insurer’s member portal, or by emailing their support team for written confirmation.
What doesn’t transfer (and why it’s usually fine)
The new policy is technically a new contract, even though it preserves your underwriting. Some product-specific things follow the new policy rather than carrying across:
- Premium rates use the new insurer’s group rate table at your current age, not your old insurer’s pricing
- Ratings and any loadings may be adjusted to AIA’s structure
- Occupational classifications follow the SMSF Master Insurance Plan’s framework
- If you had an exclusion that comes across, the wording of new insurer’s equivalent exclusion will apply
- Waiting periods and benefit periods are rounded to the closest options available in the Plan (30/60/90 days; 2 years, 5 years, or to age 65)
Most of these aren’t deal-breakers. The product is designed specifically for SMSF members, so the structure is typically equivalent or better than what was there before, especially when moving from retail or default group cover.
When the new cover actually starts
This is the bit worth flagging clearly. Your new cover under the SMSF Master Insurance Plan starts on the later of two dates: when AIA accepts your application, and when your existing cover is cancelled. So you keep the old policy running until the new one is locked in — there’s no gap. Once everything’s confirmed, you cancel the old cover and the new one is live.
Why the Individual Transfer Option matters
Without takeover terms, anyone with a developed health condition would be effectively trapped in their existing insurance arrangement. Every move would mean fresh underwriting and fresh risk for whatever’s emerged since their original cover. New exclusions, new loadings, or outright declines.
With the Individual Transfer Option built into the SMSF Master Insurance Plan, you’ve got freedom to move. Consolidating cover, switching to wholesale group pricing, and updating your structure becomes a decision about cost, features, and fit — not a decision about whether your health will hold up under fresh underwriting. That’s a meaningful protection for anyone who isn’t young, perfectly healthy, and starting out.
| Use the Individual Transfer Option to keep your cover
If you’ve got existing life, TPD, or income protection cover and you’re moving into an SMSF, the SMSF Master Insurance Plan’s transfer terms let you bring it across without medicals. Get a quote through SMSF Insurance to see what it looks like for you. |
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