Gen Y ahead of the game when it comes to protection

Research into the types of insurance people hold has turned up the perhaps-surprising result that members of Generation Y may be more likely than their parents to have some form of life or income-protection cover.

While the stereotype is that Gen Ys - those aged 25 to 34 - live only for the moment and Australians are considered to be underinsured, a survey by life insurer TAL has found that 43 per cent of Gen Ys say they have at least one form of cover in the group of insurances comprising life, disability, income protection and critical illness/trauma.

But only 31 per cent of the baby boomers (aged 50 to 65) in the survey report having at least one form of insurance in this area. About 44 per cent of those in Gen X (aged 35 to 49) say they have cover.

Overall, 37 per cent of the people surveyed said they had some form of life or income-protection insurance.

The research didn't delve into the reasons why younger people might be more likely to have such insurance, though one possibility is that it's not so much that they have better cover but that they're more aware of the cover they have through their super fund.

TAL managing director Jim Minto says many baby boomers simply don't realise they have insurance in the form of cover that's automatically included with their super.

"It's really important that people check with their super funds to see if they have some form of life insurance through their fund membership," Minto says.

The next question people need to ask themselves is whether their life insurance would be enough should the worst happen, he says.

Research shows that people who have only the default cover provided by their fund are unlikely to have sufficient cover.

The survey of 1260 people was carried out as part of financial protection research by TAL, which produces the Australian Financial Protection Index.