You May Have Missed The Boat!

I tend to use general insurance as a reference point when discussing life insurance. This is because most people are familiar with general insurance and how it works.

There are many people out there however who choose to not pay for general insurance, such as car or contents insurance. This is no real surprise as insurance is considered a grudge purchase, so there are better ways to spend your money.

Our ‘she’ll be right’ attitude doesn’t help either. Many people don’t believe that they will be involved in an accident or be broken into, so don’t value the cover.

Either way, with general insurance you usually get a second chance to take out cover following a loss caused by an event. Having to pay several thousand dollars out of your own pocket to repair your car, funnily enough seems to change your views on car insurance.

Life insurance doesn’t work this way.

Obviously when it comes to death, there are no second chances. If adequate cover wasn’t arranged prior, then financial struggle usually follows those left behind.

Permanent disability is no better and I would argue that this is worse than death financially. This is due to the fact that the injured or ill party still needs to be looked after, even though they may have lost their ability to earn an income.

I have had many strange conversations with people and potential clients regarding serious illness over the years. This mainly related to the benefits of Trauma insurance, given our country’s high diagnosis rates in relation to cancer and heart disease.

A few of these people had commented that they would definitely look into Trauma insurance should they be unlucky enough to experience one of the conditions above. I would then emphasise that it would be too late, as the insurers may not offer cover after the event occurred, or if they did with restrictions.

This is no different to calling your insurance company to arrange home building insurance whilst your home is burning down!

Premature death, serious illness or injury and permanent disability can affect anyone at anytime. I have emphasised on many occasions that adequate cover needs to be arranged before the event occurs, otherwise you may have missed the boat!