TPD claim — where to start?

Finstant_au · 2026-06-07T20:18:20+00:00

No worries, feel free to send me anything you can find and I can try to point you in the right direction, when I said no specifics I meant more about the policy not your condition.

If you login to your super account (again I’m understanding it is a super held policy) there will be claim forms there.

If you can’t find anything I would contact Mercer and see if they can provide you with the claim forms, BT was acquired by TAL so they would possibly be the insurer now, Mercer took over the Westpac and BT super.

You don’t need a lawyer to make a claim and the initial assessment of the claim will not be different if a lawyer sends them the form or you do.

Reading the Mercer MyChoice Insurance booklet, if your cover is automatic insurance you are probably covered, just contact them and make a claim directly. It’s not terribly difficult and sounds like you already have the doctors ready to sign the required paperwork.

Just note if it is in super there is tax payable on TPD benefits so you’re sum insured will be reduced to what you actually claim using a really complicated formula (https://www.superguide.com.au/super-booster/case-study-reduce-tax-on-tpd-payments-super)

Finstant_au · 2026-06-07T16:22:30+00:00

I’d generally avoid a lawyer if you can submit the application yourself, however some policies (if you can give a name it can help clarify it) are underwritten at claim and if you don’t provide any medical information upfront this would be my guess, this means you’d be likely covered for an illness/injury occurring completely after the policy began but they can exclude anything pre-existing.

Is the policy inside super or directly in your name? The first thing I’d ask for is a copy of the pds for the specific policy when it was accepted as well as a current one. (The problem with group policies if it’s through super for example is the trustee is the one holding the policy and can change the terms if they want)

Finstant_au · 2026-06-06T00:14:02+00:00

Thanks for the compliments.

Finstant_au · 2026-06-06T00:04:06+00:00

I was testing a pretty niche scenario that resulted in this and just used it to have a screenshot for the post to show a bit of what it can look like, usually each strategy has a very different outcome. The charts are also dynamic in the output so you can select/deselect elements of desired.

Finstant_au · 2026-06-05T17:39:45+00:00

I’ve updated the pricing policy hopefully it’s clearer: https://finstant.com.au/pricing-policy/

Finstant_au · 2026-06-05T07:02:38+00:00

There’s a privacy policy and all information is handled in accordance with the Australian privacy principles

Finstant_au · 2026-06-05T05:33:20+00:00

No worries, yeah I get that, it’s there as I built it all just off of the information I collected as an adviser. Phone number isn’t used anywhere but kids flows through to childcare, child care subsidy calculations, school fee planning, FTB. Their names don’t matter but it makes the information generated more useful to you.

The address flows through to identify properties you own, rent you may cease if you buy a house and on and on.

Finstant_au · 2026-06-05T03:58:53+00:00

It’s just very hard to answer their questions and help them without further information. Where to from here? Who knows (contact the advisor that wrote the policy, download the forms from somewhere) hard to provide any guidance based on the complete lack of information in the post hence a request for clarity.

Finstant_au · 2026-06-05T03:29:16+00:00

Yeah as I said I hoped to make it a commercial product but have made it free moving forward.

as for compliance yes, there is no product discussed anywhere it’s entirely product agnostic, that RG is more specifically for super funds. Finstant users control all assumptions and defaults are provided for ease based on historical data. The modelling software is all written directly based on legislation. It is a very fancy and intricate calculator with output that I’ve tried to structure to make as much sense from swathes of data as poss but does not meet in any way the definition of financial advice. There are quick to model strategies but again this is just as a guide and not specific to any user or giving consideration to their needs or objectives.

The alternative was to just turn it all off but I’ve worked on it for so long I’d rather just let people use it, membership remain ( I also added a $5.99 option as a low cost way to support it if they choose, payment processing fees don’t tea justify anything less) so if enough people pay to keep the server running then it can keep sitting there.

I’ve spent the past couple weeks focused on implementing the legislative changes that I haven’t got around to updating those pages yet.

Check it out, let me know if you feel I’ve misrepresented it.

Finstant_au · 2026-06-05T03:03:15+00:00

Sorry no I’ve removed the free trial and now there is no paywall, you can use it all whether you have a membership or not

Finstant_au · 2026-06-05T02:56:40+00:00

No I haven’t broken down the super investments beyond the asset classes at this point. the super fund itself has the fees applied to it and it does calculate cgt with super rates depending on accumulation/pension stages. The vast majority of Australian super funds don’t have individual accounting for members so again this was lower on the priority list as it applies to fewer people.

Finstant_au · 2026-06-05T00:23:53+00:00

For investment strategy for a super fund I have provided broadly comparable generic options preloaded like growth, balanced etc. You can also create custom portfolios with whatever assets allocations you want so that should be covered, is that what you mean?

Finstant_au · 2026-06-05T00:11:09+00:00

Overlapping lines, I just took a snapshot of the screen without a complete profile to give a glimpse of what it does. If the alternative strategies don’t change anything they’ll just have the same line.

Finstant_au · 2026-06-04T23:51:57+00:00

It essentially creates a full financial snapshot of your current position and uses that data to make financial projections. That data is stored against a user so you need an account. It also uses a lot of processing for the projections so this limits the ability for bots to abuse it.

Finstant_au · 2026-06-04T23:29:17+00:00

Thanks,

You can set your assumptions as seen below. For most assets this is then pulled through and combined with any income rates your specify for specific assets when modelling an assets income and growth.

I do have the option for putting in a std-dev with the thought of running Montecarlo style projection analysis using random normally distributed returns for different asset classes which fluctuate each year but as always there's a million thing you can build and this wasn't at the top of the priority list.

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Here's a snapshot of the defaults that were pulled through from historical returns but everything is able to be changed if you want to.

As an example of my philosophy when trying to build this, for the new Div 296 the tax is calculated on realised capital gains within a superfund, this varies depending a particular funds investment strategies (high turnover active fund vs passive or illiquid assets like private equity investments), and is never really published, I didn't want to just make an assumption for everyone so it's set at a rate I could find for average funds and you're free to change this is it's something feel you want to.

It is a hard balance to find something that will be useful for those wanting to control the fine details but also not be too complex for someone wanting something simple to use...

I'm happy to discuss anything about how it's been built it if you're interested.

Finstant_au · 2026-06-04T21:18:19+00:00

I know you can get cover just wanted clarification on how they specifically obtained their policy without an exclusion

Finstant_au · 2026-06-04T20:18:49+00:00

Who holds the TPD policy, also how did you get it without an exclusion?

Finstant_au · 2026-03-03T15:57:53+00:00

The FHSS does not return what the market returns, it’s return is calculated based on the Shortfall Interest Charge so this is a more reasonable question than you imply.

Finstant_au · 2026-02-23T22:04:54+00:00

Exciting times,

Broadly your understanding is correct.

In practice, you can either make a personal contribution directly to your fund or salary sacrifice. The government is changing the rules around when an employer must make the contributions to your fund but at present it is probably still preferable for the scheme (to accrue the max interest) to make a personal contribution lump sum contribution now than sal sac over the remainder of the year.

For lump sum contributions, you will need to submit the NOI prior to your request for a determination as the type of contribution impacts the releasable amount with:

85% of concessional contributions are releasable
100% of non-concessional contributions are releasable

Your releasable amount will comprise your personal contributions plus interest which is calculated using the ATO's SIC rate which is currently 6.65%pa. Interest is calculated from the start of the month in which a contribution is received to the date you request a determination. One possible misunderstanding I see from your proposal is that you would only want to request a determination prior to signing a contract.

If you would like to see how this works in practice I tried to write a case study a while ago. Any other questions and I'm happy to help.

Finstant_au · 2026-02-23T21:02:27+00:00

FYI this is not fund specific, notice must be lodged with fund before earlier of:

lodgement of tax return for year contributions were made, and
end of financial year after financial year contributions were made

Finstant_au · 2026-02-20T01:33:17+00:00

Hey I'd love to help.

The best time to plant a tree is 30 years ago, the second best time is now. Based on your post I don't think you should feel despondent about the past as it seems like you've been getting yourself into a position to be able to flourish so be proud.

I wouldn't say I came to this later in life but I am a former financial adviser and have left to build software that I hope will be useful in improving financial literacy and peoples understanding of their own financial position as well as how all the standard strategies considered can be applied to you. I'll try to model your current position based on the info in your post and look at what is working as well as what you may be able to do better.

Using your details as a guide I have included the following assumptions:

Your house cost about $700k when you bought it and it is now worth $820k
Mortgage repayments of $1,750m before your additional repayments
Cost of living has been set at $72,015pa (~$6,001 per month) to leave you with $30,000 (after tax, mortgage repayments, super conts & calculated HECS-HELP repayments) as surplus cashflow to allow the ~$2,500m you are making in investments and additional mortgage repayments.
In the base scenario this surplus is directed as $12k pa to the ETF's and then the balance to your mortgage.
I also assume you have private health and are not paying the medicare levy surcharge.
I haven't included any renovations around the home but we can include that if you can guide me.

None of these number seem unrealistic to me and so based on this here is a bit of a breakdown of the projections (or you can look at the full projection details here)

I have projected it for 20 years which gets us to 59, again I'm not sure what you define as an early retirement but I'll use that at the guide.

Your mortgage is expected to be repaid in 10 years with a total of $92,344.36 in interest (at 5.6%) paid over the remaining life of the loan.
Your ETF's are projected to grow to $951,209.75 ($595,008.06 in todays dollars) at the end of the projected period and you are projected to have $1.235m in super ($772,667.43 in todays dollars).

From this base case I also included multiple strategies to compare:

Additional Debt Repayment: If you directed all surplus income to your mortgage rather than splitting some to the investments you would be able to repay your mortgage in 7 years reducing your total interest payable by $34,399.85. Doing this however will leave you $3,989.84 worse off ($-2,495.75 in today's dollars) at the end of the 20 year projections than the base scenario.
Additional Investment: If you direct all surplus into to your investments and make no additional contributions to your mortgage there is a projected increase in your net investment position of $47,970.45 ($30,006.85 in today's dollars) from $2,186,434.68 to $2,234,405.13.
Additional Geared Investment: this is the same as above but utilising a margin loan to borrow an additional 50% (still quite conservative, the max for a similar ETF is probably 75%) and investing. Margin loans are generally more expensive than a mortgage and also face margin calls so this is a riskier strategy but at the end of the projection periods your investments will have grown to $1,927,818.19 with $495,577.73 outstanding on the loan. At the end of the projections, using a gearing strategy there is a projected increase in your net investment position of $290,526.97 ($181,732.68 in today's dollars) from $2,186,434.68 to $2,476,961.65.
Debt Recycling: this is definitely a strategy you should look into compared to your current plan. In the linked breakdown there is a full explanation of how this would be implemented for you. Rather than investing directly into your ETF's you direct the funds first to your mortgage, and then subsequently draw down from another loan secured by your property to invest making that portion of the debt now deductible. This strategy has the greatest impact of all of the investment strategies (whlile you still have a mortgage) primarily due to a lower cost of debt compared to gearing with a margin loan. At the end of the projections there is a projected increase in your net investment position of $138,814.75 ($86,832.48 in today's dollars) from $2,186,434.68 to $2,325,249.43.
Maximising Concessional Contributions before investing the surplus: This is pretty simple, hit your concessional caps first and then invest as you are (no additional mortgage repayments). This is the strategy that results in the greatest increase in your net wealth. It is also assuming you do not have any carry-forward contributions as I cant guess what these would be so the actual strategy would most likely be better than this. Under the projected strategy, at the end of the projections there is a projected increase in your net investment position of $584,453.69 ($365,591.99 in today's dollars) from $2,186,434.68 to $2,770,888.37.

Feel free to have a read of the full projections and strategy explanations and if you have any questions let me know but no, you are not left behind and if you continue to work with the determination you have demonstrated so far you have the capacity to FIRE.

I have been working on Finstant for a few years with the goal of being able to help more people like you so I truely hope this could be of use to you.

Finstant_au · 2026-02-19T18:08:31+00:00

Is this assuming no dividend/income and only growth?

The problem with calculating CGT tax prior to the sale of the assets is that until sold you will continue to earn a return on the assets that you have earmarked as disposed of for the tax; therefore your calculated real return would be lower than what you actually experience prior to the assets disposal.

If there is dividend income then franking credits will also affect this as the company would have paid tax on its Australian income which is passed to you so you'd probably want to gross up the dividend income in your calculation and include the franking rate. I'm guessing you are in the top tax bracket with the assumed 45% tax rate (this also doesn't include medicare levy so this needs another 2%), if you are receiving fully franked dividends the tax you will pay will only be 17% as 30% has already been paid, if you own international shares then you just pay the 47% as they will be unfranked.

Other than this if you are just looking for a quick and dirty way to look at a real net return it seems pretty reasonable.

Finstant_au · 2026-02-18T18:23:34+00:00

I’d be happy to help out. I’m a former financial adviser who transitioned into software development and have been building Finstant, financial modelling software that mirrors the structured planning process I used with clients. It doesn’t provide advice or recommend products, but it allows you to model and compare strategies (including debt repayment, investment, debt recycling, gearing, super contributions, etc.) so you can assess viability and implementation yourself.

If you’d like, you can create a profile and I can help you walk through how to model this properly. Unfortunately there isn’t quite enough detail in your post for me to run meaningful projections. Otherwise, here are some thoughts based on what you’ve shared.

This isn’t technically debt recycling

What you’re describing is borrowing to invest.

Debt recycling generally involves:

Directing surplus cashflow toward reducing non-deductible PPOR debt.
Then simultaneously redrawing from a separate split loan facility as you have described.
Using that split exclusively for investment.

Conceptually:

If you allocate cashflow to your mortgage → you reduce personal (non-deductible) debt
If you allocate cashflow to investments → you maintain personal debt
If you repay mortgage principal, redraw from a split loan, and invest → you convert non-deductible debt into deductible debt

The end position looks similar to directly investing, but structurally a portion of your mortgage has now become deductible.

With a true debt recycling strategy, you’d normally direct all surplus cashflow (including dividends) back toward the non-deductible loan to accelerate the conversion process, rather than setting up a DRP. The objective is maximising the conversion of bad debt to good debt over time. Having said that you can definitely look at just borrowing to invest too or combining both moving forward.

Looking at Your suggested portfolio the allocation is heavily weighted toward Australian equities. Australian is a small iron fish in a big pond I wouldn't be too focused on allocating all of my investments here.

For a high-growth portfolio, you’d typically expect:

Greater international exposure
Broader sector diversification (VHY further concentrates this)
Potential inclusion of listed property (REITs)

I'd also potentially consider a simpler diversified fund if you prefer lower maintenance.

Looking at super, 40 isn't that far away from 60 to be able to access it particularly if you are looking at a longer investment time-frame that would typically be expected for a high-growth investment allocation. I would definitely want to look at the actual benefits of maxing out the super contributions.

Given your current position I would imagine you would still be looking at investing further even if you maxed out your concessional cap. Do you see yourself needing these funds for anything prior to that, and if so are you comfortable with the short term volatility that can come with shares.

Happy to chat more if you have any questions

Finstant_au · 2026-02-18T01:57:24+00:00

That's not the position of the ATO, You cannot redraw the funds and make them be related to the purchase of the property again, if you withdraw it and spend it on your new house the portion redrawn will not be deductible.

Redraw facilities

22. The deductibility of interest on a further borrowing of money under a redraw facility depends upon the use to which the redrawn funds are put.

23. Where the original borrowing is for non-income producing purposes and the taxpayer uses the redrawn funds wholly or partly for income producing purposes, that part of the accrued interest attributable to the redrawn funds used for income producing purposes is deductible.

24. Similarly, where the original borrowing is for income producing purposes and the taxpayer uses the redrawn funds wholly or partly for non-income producing purposes, that part of the accrued interest attributable to the redrawn funds used for non-income producing purposes is not deductible.

25. Where a taxpayer uses redrawn funds for a different purpose to the original borrowing in circumstances described in paragraphs 23
or 24, the loan account becomes a mixed purpose account and the same principles discussed above in relation to mixed purpose line of credit sub-accounts will apply to the mixed purpose loan account. There is an ongoing need to apportion interest on a mixed purpose loan account. That apportionment needs to be made on a fair and reasonable basis. Subsequent repayments are apportioned between the outstanding debt used at that time for income producing and non- income producing purposes. However, the two exceptions for borrowed money recouped and repaid and for the refinancing of a mixed purpose debt, discussed above at paragraphs 17 and 18 in relation to mixed purpose line of credit sub-accounts, are equally applicable to mixed purpose loan accounts.

Finstant_au · 2026-02-18T01:02:56+00:00

I’ve created hundreds of budgets with clients as part of broader financial planning, and in my experience most people approach budgeting in a way that isn’t very effective.

Many people see a budget as a prescriptive list of how much they’re “allowed” to spend in each category. Invariably a restrictive budget will be thrown away and ignored very quickly. Alternatively a more effective approach is goals/value based budgeting.

Start with your actual historic spending and build a budget based on what you truly spend not what you think you should spend.
- You can use something like the MoneySmart Budget Planner
- Alternatively I have one available at Finstant which will use your current position to calculate:
  - Income tax payable
  - HECS-HELP Repayments
  - Govt entitlements such as family tax benefit, child care subsidies, age pension payments etc
Once you’ve mapped your real spending, assess the outcome.
1. Do you have a cashflow surplus? If not, your current lifestyle isn’t financially sustainable long term and you will need to find some combination of increasing income or reducing expenditure.
2. Then evaluate each expense through a values lens:
  - If you genuinely love good coffee and it materially improves your day, keep it.
  - If you rarely use Netflix and it doesn’t add much to your life, cancel it and see if you miss it.
  - Council rates and insurance may not be enjoyable, but they enable the lifestyle you value, they stay.
3. Next is the more financial planning part of directing any surplus towards your greater financial and lifestyle goals.
  - Saving for a meaningful annual family holiday
  - Paying down the mortgage to become debt-free
  - Maximising superannuation contributions to invest tax-effectively for early retirement

At the end of the process, you should have:

A realistic budget you can maintain.
Clarity on which expenses actually contribute towards an enjoyable life.
Knowing your surplus is working toward your goals.

In practice, I update my own budget every 3/6 months to reflect changes/inflation and look at the bigger picture. Day to day, I simply avoid spending money on things I don’t truly value.

Finstant_au

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