An Cosantóir

CAOGA | 13 CAOGA – A LIFETIME COMMITMENT Travelling Overseas • On buying a home (to review your finances) • Getting married (to join your spouse) • In a civil partnership • Having a family (to join your children) • On separation/divorce (to review your nomination forms) • On retirement (to arrange pension deductions) • On the death of a loved one Mortgage Protection Life Assurance Review Service group scheme at first opportunity. We also have an agree- ment in principle on tax relief on premiums for serving members, which will make the group scheme more afford- able for younger mortgage holders. This tax relief is part of an AVC (Additional, Voluntary Contribution) scheme and, unfortunately, is therefore not available to retired personnel in receipt of a pension. Tax relief will come on stream in the next few months. At a time when welfare and pension entitlements are no longer cast in stone, it has never been more important for officers to be members of the CAOGA Group Life Assur- ance Plan. It is also essential that officers' spouses join the spouse scheme on marriage. If an officer tragically loses his or her spouse, it is likely that even though they may still have a full salary, childcare costs will increase greatly and financial outgoings will remain high until the children become finan- cially independent. It is therefore imperative that spouses of members join the group scheme at first opportunity, when only random health checks are carried out by the insurance provider. The decision to cut benefits for members in the over-60 categories was not taken lightly but was reached fol- lowing intensive nego- tiations between the CAOGA committee and our broker, based on THE DEFENCE FORCES MAGAZINE a risk analysis of the numbers of officers entering the various age brackets in the immediate future. This deci- sion and all our decisions were made in the interest of protecting the viability of the Group Life Assurance Plan in the coming years. The main factor that influenced the recosting of our Group Protection Life Assurance Plan was the recent high claims experience for members in the ages of 50-65 years. The adjustment of the benefit for members in the 61-65 age bracket to €200,000 was again carefully considered to ensure adequate benefits at an affordable cost. The in- creased premiums for spouse members are directly related to our recent high claims history among spouse members. Times to check your CAOGA file cover and review your benefits and nomination forms: •

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