Insurance for Tradesmen

11 July 2012

The team here at Life Policy know their insurance. We also know that one of the industries where insurance is most important is the trades and services industry.

Many tradesmen are self-employed, either as small business owners or subcontractors. Although there are plenty of rewards from working for yourself, there are also plenty of risks.

Thankfully many of these risks can be managed through insurance.

Tradesmen are major users of insurance in Australia. Many worksites have mandatory requirements for public liability and income protection, and tool insurance is also very popular with tradies for obvious reasons.

In this guide the Life Policy team will look at some of the common forms of tradesman insurance available today.

Self-employed tradesmen do not have the benefit of sick leave, so the next best option is to take out a form of insurance known as income protection cover.

This form of insurance protects a tradesman's income if he cannot work due to injury or illness for a period of time.

Many worksites have mandatory requirements for income protection for self-employed tradesmen.

For more information please visit our page on income protection insurance.

If things go wrong on the job you and your business could be liable for major financial damages. To protect against these financial costs you can take out public liability insurance.

Public liability doesn't fit within the life insurance family, and is instead looked after by insurance brokers. It is still a very important form of tradesman insurance, and is mandatory on many worksites.

A tradesman's tools are one of the most important business assets he can have. If they are lost or stolen they need to be replaced as soon as possible so that you can get back onto the job.

As with public liability, tool insurance is looked after by insurance brokers rather than financial planners. It can protect your tools from a variety of risks including theft, fire, storm and accidental damage (depending on the policy).

Here at Life Policy we specialise in the life insurance family of products, which include income protection, TPD insurance, trauma insurance and of course life insurance.

For your business insurance needs such as public liability and tool insurance we can refer you to other insurance experts who specialise in general insurance products.

We recommend the team at Trade Risk who specialise in providing insurance solutions for tradesmen all over Australia. They can be contacted on 1800 744 482 or you can visit their website to complete their online quote request.