GESB – You need a Will or you’ll be waiting to Death

Straight from the horses mouth….. well, from the GESB Super insurance guide - “Assessing a Death benefit claim can be quite lengthy.” Look it up yourself, its right there in their own guide! They acknowledge they are extremely slow to payout a death benefit.

If your partner or children need money to survive, pay the bills, or payout the mortgage, how long do you think they could last without your income (you’re dead remember)? What if it were the main breadwinner that got hit by that bus? Big problems….

This is a major issue with GESB – you cannot nominate a beneficiary to receive your benefits in the event of death. It has to go through to your estate and administered via your Will. This is why they say it can be quite a “lengthy” process.

Do GESB or the Banks care? Nope.

How long is lengthy? It depends…

Well, it depends on a number of factors

• Whether you have a Will – a valid one.
• How quick Australia Post can deliver their mail (now you know this is a slow process!)
• Whether you have an executor of your estate, named in your Will or
• Whether you need to apply to have an administrator appointed if there is no Will.

Basically, its one big red-taped, bureaucratic process that would likely send you to your death bed too.

I would estimate you would be looking at anywhere between 3 – 12 months to get any form of payment.

Their (GESB’s) insurance isn’t going to help you either (if it even pays out). You die, the insurance pays out… do you get the proceeds straight away? Nope. Wait 3-12 months.

What happens is the insurance is paid directly into your super account, and again the proceeds of the insurance and your account balance are paid to your estate, so it doesn’t solve anything.

How do you overcome this?

If there is no option to make a Binding Beneficiary nomination then there really isn’t too much you can do to receive the balance of your GESB account as a death benefit.

We can provide a suitable solution that solves this issue though.  If you are interested please get in touch as we would love to help.

In the meantime here is some extra reading – 4 things to know about your GESB account  

I also offer a  Free Guide about GESB insurance. This will show you why you shouldn’t rely on their insurance and look to do something as suggested above.

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