Yes, but only if you selected the relevant feature at application. Every retail panel insurer offers a Future Insurability or Cover Increase rider that lets you increase your TPD sum insured at specified life or business events without new medical underwriting.
The rider is built into most panel products and is the only mechanism for adding cover after issue without going back through the underwriting process. The panel is AIA, Zurich, TAL, OnePath, ClearView, NEOS, Encompass, Acenda and Futura.
Selection is at application only
Once the policy is in force, you generally cannot retrospectively add this option. Any later increase requires a fresh application subject to your renewed disclosure duty under the Insurance Contracts Act 1984 (Cth).
Two mechanisms, not one
It helps to separate two features that often get conflated:
- Indexation (CPI uplift). An annual automatic increase in line with the Consumer Price Index, or sometimes the higher of CPI and 5%. Indexation must be selected at application under most panel PDS; it cannot be added later. You can opt out of any single year's increase on the anniversary without losing the feature for future years. See whether TPD insurance benefits are indexed against inflation for the per-insurer detail.
- Future Insurability / Cover Increase Option. A rider that allows event-driven increases above the indexed amount, without medical evidence, when you marry, have a child, take on a mortgage, get a salary increase, or trigger a business event.
The rest of this answer is about the second mechanism, which is the lever for material increases.
How the rider works in PDS
Every panel insurer scopes the rider with three rules: a list of qualifying events, a per-event sum-insured cap, and a lifetime aggregate cap. Wording varies; the structure does not.
AIA Priority Protection
PDS 9 November 2025, Section 7.3 'Guaranteed Future Insurability', pages 105 to 107.
- Personal Events: lesser of 25% of original Sum Insured and $200,000.
- First mortgage: lesser of 50% of original Sum Insured, the mortgage amount, and $200,000.
- Business Events: capped at $500,000.
- Application within 60 days of a Personal Event, or 60 days after the first Policy Anniversary following a Business Event.
- Ceases at the Anniversary before the life insured's 55th birthday.
- Lifetime aggregate: lesser of twice the original Sum Insured and $1 million.
TAL Accelerated Protection
PDS 12 December 2024, Guaranteed Future Insurability Benefit, page 46.
- Per-event cap: lesser of 25% of Benefit Amount at Plan start, the mortgage or business loan increase, five times the base salary increase, and $200,000.
- Total cover after increases capped at $3 million Life/TPD and $2 million Critical Illness.
NEOS Protection
PDS 6 December 2024, Future Increase Benefit, page 31.
- One personal, professional, business, or plan event per cover type per 12 months.
- Per-event cap: lesser of sum insured at cover commencement and $2 million.
- Total cover capped at $5 million Life, $3 million TPD, $2 million Critical Illness.
- Minimum increase $10,000.
OnePath OneCare
PDS 1 October 2025, Cover Increase Option, pages 59 to 60.
- Application within 60 days of the event.
- Business Events exercisable once every 12 months.
Other panel insurers
Encompass Protection (PDS 26 September 2025), Futura Protection (PDS 1 October 2025), Acenda Insurance (PDS 27 September 2025), Clearview ClearChoice (PDS May 2024 with update effective 5 June 2025), and Zurich Wealth Protection (PDS 1 November 2025) carry equivalent rider designs with insurer-specific event lists and dollar caps.
Typical qualifying events across the panel
Most panel insurers cover:
- Marriage or de facto registration.
- Divorce.
- Birth or adoption.
- First mortgage or mortgage increase.
- Salary uplift above a defined threshold.
- A child starting school or tertiary.
- Becoming a carer.
Business Events typically include:
- An increase in your value to a key-person arrangement.
- An increase in your financial interest under a buy/sell agreement.
- An increase in a business loan you guarantee.
The conditions that come with not being underwritten
The rider trades flexibility for a few limits:
- Tight notice window. Most insurers require the application within 30 to 60 days of the event. Late applications cannot be backdated.
- Age cap. AIA Guaranteed Future Insurability ceases at the Policy Anniversary before the life insured's 55th birthday. Other insurers have similar 55 to 60 cutoffs.
- Single increase per year. Most panel insurers limit you to one event-driven increase per 12-month period per cover type.
- Interim accident-only cover. AIA limits the cover for the increased portion to Accidental Death only for the first six months after an increase (PDS Section 7.3, page 106).
- Cannot be on claim. You cannot exercise the rider while a claim is in progress. Most insurers also require that no loading or exclusion was applied to the original cover.
- Cannot be added after issue. If you did not select the rider at application, the only way to add cover later is full medical underwriting at your then-current age, health, occupation, and pastimes.
What this means for clients with growing cover needs
The rider is selected at quote/application time, like the Life Buyback option. Clients who anticipate a major life change (mortgage, marriage, children, business growth) typically take the rider as standard. The cost is small and the value is large if health deteriorates before the next major event.
If you are unsure whether your current policy carries the rider, check your Policy Schedule and Section 7 (or equivalent) of the PDS. See how much TPD insurance coverage do I need for context on sizing cover before locking in the rider election.
The PDS for your specific cover defines the exact list of qualifying events, caps, notice periods, and lifetime limits.