Insurance for painters and decorators

The risk in painting is not the paint. It is the ladder. Falls from height are the dominant acute injury in the trade, and insurers band painters largely on how much of the work happens off the ground and how high. A decorator working almost entirely inside residential houses is close to a light manual rating. A painter doing exterior work on two- and three-storey buildings from ladders and mobile scaffold is materially heavier.

Behind that sits a slower risk. Overhead work — ceilings, soffits, cutting in at height — loads the shoulder joint in a way it was not designed for, and rotator cuff problems are the injury that most often forces experienced painters to slow down or stop. Because that damage builds over years rather than arriving in one incident, ACC will often treat it as degeneration rather than personal injury by accident, and decline it.

Then there is what gets inhaled. Spray application, solvent-based systems, isocyanates in two-pack finishes, and sanding old lead paint on villas all sit behind respiratory and dermatological underwriting questions. New Zealand’s occupational disease provisions can pick up some of this — occupational asthma is on the list of recognised work-related diseases — but acceptance is assessed case by case, and it is not the same thing as being insured.

Finally, painting is the most weather-exposed trade in the group. Exterior work stops in a wet spring, and a self-employed painter’s income across a year is lumpy in a way that matters when a claim has to be proved.

A lumpy income is the reason to think hard about how the policy calculates a benefit, because two policies with the same monthly figure on the schedule can behave completely differently.

A painter who took a slow winter, or invested in equipment, or had a bad debt year, can find that the indemnity calculation produces far less than the schedule suggests. That is not a claims scandal — it is the wording working as written. It is also entirely avoidable at application.

These are the details that decide whether the cover does what you expected. Read them before you compare on price.

• How much of your work is exterior and above single-storey height, and whether that has been disclosed.
• Whether you spray, and with what systems. Two-pack and isocyanate work attracts respiratory questions.
• Whether the policy is agreed value or indemnity, and what financial evidence has actually been supplied.
• Any shoulder exclusion. For a painter, excluding shoulders removes a large share of the realistic claims.
• The benefit period offered, which is often capped for painters doing significant work at height.
• Whether you also do plastering, roof painting or waterblasting from height — these are frequently rated separately.

Every New Zealand insurer writes income protection for painters to its own wording, and the words are where the money is. Two policies that look identical on price can pay very differently when it matters. Closing that gap is the entire job of an adviser.

• The line between “interior decorator” and “painter working at height” is drawn differently by every insurer. Where you fall changes the band.
• Agreed value cover is not available to every occupation class. Knowing which insurers currently offer it to painters is worth real money on a variable income.
• A shoulder exclusion is not always inevitable — different insurers assess the same rotator cuff history differently.
• For exterior painters, an adviser should be raising trauma cover alongside income protection, because skin cancer is a lump-sum event rather than a temporary one.

There are three ways to buy life cover in New Zealand, and they are not equivalent. You can buy direct from one insurer, which means you see one product range and one underwriting appetite. You can buy through your bank, which usually means a single insurer’s product sold under the bank’s brand, often with narrower definitions. Or you can go through an adviser, who quotes several insurers at once and is required to put your interests first.

The premium you pay is the same either way. Insurers build adviser commission into their pricing whether or not an adviser is involved, so going direct does not get you a discount — it just removes the person whose job is to argue your corner at application and at claim time.

• An adviser can see which insurer is currently taking your health history on standard terms, and which one will load or exclude it.
• An adviser can structure cover across two insurers if that produces a better outcome than putting everything with one.
• An adviser handles the underwriting back-and-forth, and is the person who chases the claim when a family is least able to.
• An adviser has to document why the recommendation suits you, which is a written record you can hold them to.

We are a referral service, not an insurer. We do not quote premiums and we do not sell policies. What we do is put you in front of one licensed New Zealand adviser who can compare the market properly.

1. 1

   You tell us what you are looking at

   The form takes about a minute. Nobody asks for your medical history on a web form — that conversation happens with the adviser, properly, and only once you have decided to proceed.

2. 2

   An adviser calls you

   A licensed New Zealand adviser talks through your situation: who depends on you, what you owe, what you already have in place, and what you are actually worried about.

3. 3

   They compare the market

   The adviser quotes across the major insurers, checks which of them will take your health history on the best terms, and puts the options side by side in writing.

4. 4

   You decide, in your own time

   There is no obligation and no cost to you. If the answer is that you already have enough cover, a good adviser will tell you that.