Why we exist
The money always arrived too late.
Helena Marsh spent eleven years as a case worker with a victim support service in Melbourne's north. Over and over she watched the same sequence play out: a report to police, a referral, and then a wait for the Victims of Crime Assistance Tribunal that regularly stretched past eighteen months. The help her clients were entitled to was real, but it arrived long after the lease had been broken, the therapy had stopped and the job had been lost. Sometimes it did not arrive at all, because the client had given up on the paperwork.
Priya Raman, an actuary who had spent a decade pricing personal accident and income protection portfolios, heard Helena describe this at a dinner in 2018 and asked a simple question: why is nobody insuring this? Using the ABS Recorded Crime data and de-identified scheme statistics, she showed that the risk could be priced fairly for a few dollars a week, provided the trigger was a report rather than a court outcome.
They spent 2019 in workshops with survivors, case workers, forensic clinicians and community lawyers, asking what would have helped in the first fortnight. The answer was consistent: somewhere safe to sleep, a psychologist of their own choosing, and someone on the phone who already knew their story. Those three answers became the five benefits of Victim Support Cover, the report-based trigger and the single case manager promise. The first policy was issued on 1 July 2020, to a nurse in Footscray.
Why we are called rape.insure
The name is deliberate, and it was argued over. Rape is the word most people go out of their way not to say, and that avoidance runs all the way through the system a survivor has to deal with: the services are hard to find, the funding is quiet, and the costs that follow an assault are rarely spelled out. Helena and Priya decided the company would not join in. A softer name would have been easier to say in a boardroom and harder to find at two in the morning.
The domain is the product. If you can type the word, you can find the cover, and you do not have to decode a euphemism to work out what it pays for. Our legal name, Rape Insure Pty Ltd, appears on every document we issue, and our claims line is answered by people who have said the word out loud thousands of times and will not flinch when you do.
38,000
Australians covered under an active Victim Support Cover policy
$21.4M
paid in benefits since our first policy was issued in July 2020
1.8 days
average time from an accepted claim to the first payment landing
96%
of claims accepted in the 2025 financial year
Figures as at 30 June 2026. Claims acceptance and time-to-payment figures are drawn from the annual data we report to the Code Governance Committee.
How we are different
Three promises we designed the whole company around.
01
We pay on the report, not the verdict.
State victim assistance schemes are valuable, but a decision from the Victims of Crime Assistance Tribunal or Victims Services can take well over a year, and a criminal trial longer still. Our benefits are triggered the moment you have a police event number or a lodged Victims Services application. We never ask for a charge, a prosecution or a conviction, and we do not claw back a benefit if a matter is withdrawn or an accused person is acquitted.
02
You choose your practitioners.
There is no panel and no preferred provider list. Any AHPRA-registered psychologist, clinical psychologist or psychiatrist, and any Australian legal practitioner with a current practising certificate, can treat or advise you and bill us directly. If you already have someone you trust, you keep them. If you do not, your case manager can suggest practitioners with trauma expertise near you, and the choice is still yours.
03
One case manager, start to finish.
The person who answers your first call stays with you for the life of the claim. You will not be transferred, and you will not be asked to retell what happened to a new person each time you ring. Every case manager completes trauma-informed practice training before they take a call, and you decide how, when and how often we contact you.
Our story so far
Seven years, one product.
2019
Founded in Melbourne
Rape Insure Pty Ltd is incorporated. The first product design workshops are held with survivors, victim support case workers, forensic clinicians and community lawyers.
2020
Licensed, and the first policy issued
ASIC grants Australian Financial Services Licence 512 884. Victim Support Cover is issued for the first time on 1 July 2020, initially to Victorian residents.
2021
National cover and a 24-hour claims line
Cover is extended to every state and territory, with the claim trigger mapped to each jurisdiction's victim support scheme. The claims line moves to 24 hours a day.
2022
Trauma-informed practice training for every employee
Partnership with Harbourlight Counselling and Advocacy begins. Every claims and customer service employee completes trauma-informed practice training, and a lived experience advisory panel is established.
2023
Code of Practice signatory
rape.insure adopts the General Insurance Code of Practice. The court companion service is introduced on Standard cover and above.
2024
The 48-hour guarantee
We commit to paying accepted Emergency Relocation and forensic medical claims within 48 hours on Standard and Premier, and welcome our 20,000th customer.
2025
Premier cover launched
A third level of cover adds overseas incident cover, civil damages litigation funding and removes the waiting period on income protection.
2026
38,000 Australians covered
VSC-PDS 3.1 is released on 1 July 2026. Benefits paid since our first policy pass $21 million.
Leadership
The people accountable to you.
Dr Helena Marsh
Chief Executive Officer and co-founder
Helena spent eleven years as a victim support case worker in Melbourne's north before founding rape.insure. She holds a doctorate in social work from the University of Melbourne and chairs our lived experience advisory panel.
Tom Adeyemi
Chief Claims Officer
Tom joined in 2021 after two decades in personal injury and income protection claims at two of Australia's largest general insurers. He designed the single case manager model and the 48-hour payment guarantee.
Priya Raman
Chief Underwriting Officer and co-founder
A Fellow of the Actuaries Institute, Priya priced personal accident portfolios for twelve years before building the model that makes report-based cover possible. She is our Appointed Actuary and leads pricing and reinsurance.
Sam Okafor
Head of Survivor Advocacy
Sam came to rape.insure from a national sexual assault counselling service, where he ran its court support program. He leads our court companion service, trauma-informed practice training and family violence policy.
Our partners and obligations
Who we answer to.
General Insurance Code of Practice
We adopted the Code in 2023 and are bound by its standards on sales, claims handling and complaints. That includes a decision on your claim within 10 business days of receiving all the information we need, additional support if you are experiencing vulnerability or family violence, and cooperation with the Code Governance Committee, which monitors compliance and can sanction insurers that fall short.
How we handle complaintsAustralian Financial Complaints Authority
We are a member of AFCA, the independent external dispute resolution scheme for financial services. If our internal dispute resolution process does not resolve your concern, or 30 days have passed, you can take your complaint to AFCA at no cost on 1800 931 678, at www.afca.org.au, or by writing to GPO Box 3, Melbourne VIC 3001.
Insurance Council of Australia
We are a member of the Insurance Council of Australia, the representative body for the general insurance industry. Our Chief Executive represents rape.insure on its consumer vulnerability and family violence working groups, where the guidance that shapes the Code is developed.
Harbourlight Counselling and Advocacy
Since 2022 we have partnered with Harbourlight Counselling and Advocacy, a national sexual, domestic and family violence counselling and advocacy organisation. They designed the trauma-informed practice training every rape.insure employee completes, hold a permanent seat on our lived experience advisory panel, and receive a fixed share of our annual profit to support their counselling and advocacy work.
Reinsured by Tasman Re (Australia) Limited
Our policies are reinsured by Tasman Re (Australia) Limited, an APRA-authorised reinsurer. Reinsurance shares large or clustered losses so that our capital position and your premium stay stable. Your contract is with Rape Insure Pty Ltd, and we remain responsible to you for every claim.
Regulated by ASIC and APRA
We hold Australian Financial Services Licence 512 884 issued by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission under the Corporations Act 2001, and we are prudentially supervised by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority as a general insurer under the Insurance Act 1973. Your policy is governed by the Insurance Contracts Act 1984, and we handle your information under the Privacy Act 1988.
Read our policy documents