Help offered to dying union boss

Matt McCarten. Photo / Ross Setford

Union head Matt McCarten will ring his insurance company today after it tried to contact him about possible early release of the life insurance money he wants to use to pay his tax bill.

Mr McCarten has terminal cancer and was considering selling his policy so he could pay off the $150,000 tax bill owed by his company Unite Support Services, which was now in liquidation.

After the story ran in the Herald, his insurance company - Sovereign Insurance - tried to contact him to advise him of a clause which allowed for early release of the full value of his insurance in cases of terminal illness.

A representative from Sovereign told the Herald that policy applies where someone is diagnosed as having less than 12 months to live. All Mr McCarten needed to do was provide the company with information from his specialist or refer the company to his specialist.

The representative had rung Mr McCarten and left messages to contact them before doing anything about selling the policy, which would not collect anywhere near as much.

Mr McCarten said he would call them today. He admitted he had not read the details of the policy - and had he done so could have saved himself months of worry.

"So this might be a little silver lining in all this."

Mr McCarten was diagnosed with bowel cancer three years ago but was told it had spread to his liver last year and given between 6 weeks and 6 months to live. He has exceeded those expectations although his cancer was still terminal.

He said he still felt well and had believed early release of life insurance policies would only apply if someone was incapacitated or in respite care.

He has estimated the value of the policy at about $230,000.

Since going public with his plan to sell the policy, he said he had been inundated with calls both about his illness and his insurance policy, including some offers to buy it.

Under such a deal, that person would take over the policy and collect the payout when the person named in the policy died.