The APRA October 2021 Income Protection reforms made several material changes to retail Income Protection policies issued from that date forward. The five main changes are: (1) a uniform 70% maximum income replacement cap (some legacy policies allowed up to 75% or even 80%); (2) the introduction of the 'two-year income reset' for long-duration claims; (3) restrictions on agreed-value cover (most insurers no longer offer it for new business); (4) restrictions on benefit periods of 'to age 65/70' for some occupation classes — many heavy-manual roles can now only access shorter benefit periods (2 or 5 years); (5) enhanced underwriting standards aimed at reducing the historical claims-versus-premium imbalance that triggered the reforms. The motivation was insurer sustainability — the industry had been making sustained losses on retail IP, leading APRA to intervene. Pre-2021 policies (often called 'legacy IP') generally continue under their original terms and may offer more generous features, but most insurers stopped writing them. If you hold a pre-2021 policy, do not let it lapse without understanding what you would lose — replacement post-2021 cover may not match the original terms. If you are buying new IP today, you are buying a post-2021 product and should focus on comparing the specific benefit period, maximum monthly benefit, partial benefit definition, and reset clause across panel insurers.