1. • Chris, 23 and single, lives in a onebedroom rented apartment. He has just enrolled in a Master of Teaching and is now studying parttime as well as being in parttime employment. Chris works as a casual tending a bar mainly on weekends and evenings and earns $58,000 per year. Given his hours of employment he relies heavily on his car, which is valued at around $3,500, for transport to work. Chris has $4,500 in the bank and could replace the car with a similar vehicle, and so decided not to purchase additional insurance to the compulsory third party insurance required with registration of his car. As he is healthy and considers himself lucky, Chris has not bothered to acquire any additional insurance. Unfortunately for Chris, on his trip home from work early on Sunday morning, he lost control of his vehicle and was involved in a collision with another car, causing $80,000 damage to the late model Mercedes. He woke to find himself in hospital and has been informed that due to a range of injuries, made greater by the lack of safety features in his old vehicle, he will be unable to return to work or study for at least three months. He has been placed on a waiting list for an operation that he will require to repair his shoulder; although this is not lifethreatening. Chris will, therefore, be dependent on Sickness Allowance plus, potentially, rent assistance for financial support over the upcoming threemonth period, but will also potentially have difficulty returning to work as a bartender due to the shoulder injury. As Chris has $4,500 cash in the bank, he will be subject to a waiting period before he can receive Sickness Allowance (refer to Teale Chapter 14, section 14-030 regarding these benefits and waiting periods) and is concerned that he will be left with no savings after (even partial) recovery from his injuries, given the charge for the ambulance that transported him to the hospital (about $1,100). He is also becoming concerned about the potential liability associated with the damage caused to the Mercedes.

1. What forms of insurance would have alleviated some of the financial pressures that Chris currently faces?

2. What other advice would you have regarding insurance that Chris should have considered prior to the accident?