PROMOTIONAL FEATURE
HOW CAN YOU MAKE ACC WORK FOR YOU
BY JAN DURRANT, TOWN & COUNTRY BROKERS I
f you work in the marine industry as a fisherman or tourist boat operator you don't need to be told the Accident Compensation Corporation is burning your bottom line. This is one topic you all have an opinion on and many of you have attempted in different ways to try and reduce your financial obligations to this giant corporation.
Sitting down with a financial adviser for an ACC risk assessment is not as daunting as you might first believe. A specialist ACC risk adviser such as myself is not interested in whether or not your boat is seaworthy, so as to reduce accidents. We are also not interested in how creative you can be in finding all sorts of expenses so your declared income is reduced and you pay lower ACC levies. This can be an interesting conversation but is not relevant to what I do as an advisor. My job is to assess how "financially safe" you are. We consider if something untoward occurred in your personal life, such as an accident or illness, to yourself or someone you love and you cannot earn an income. How long would you survive for and how long would you last before you are knocking on Work and Income, or WINZ's, door for assistance?
How long would it take before the letter from the bank arrives regarding mortgages on the boat, house and cars, and how long is the waiting list to get that operation that you need so you can
get your productive life back?
These are the questions I ask and supply successful conclusions for that are financially good for my clients, especially in the area of ACC obligations.
When I'm assisting clients with their ACC, we check their ACC Cu codes first to ensure they are correct. It always amazes me how often these are incorrect and due to my extensive experience in this area we can often recommend a better code. From there, we look at altering our client's policy to one designed for the self-employed (and yes, you can still do this if you are a limited company). We then alter the benefit level, which reduces the dependency of our clients on the ACC system and recommend private cover, which is cheaper and more comprehensive to put in place. Our recommendations are calculated by what our risk analysis advises us they should be, and we use part of the savings made from altering your ACC policy to finance this private cover. I guess you could say this is the beginning of privatisation of ACC and a lot of us would add "about time", especially those in high-risk industries such as seafaring. When the process is finished, you will be confident knowing if you are unable to work, due to an accident or illness, your family and business are cared for.
TOWN & COUNTRY BROKERS LTD
Specialist ACC Risk Advisers for the self employed
(09) 969 1626 • (03) 528 8246 • 0800 889 577 Website: townandcountrybrokers.co.nz
March/April 2012 Professional Skipper 37
VIP.S86
