It has been a busy month of claims for FB Wealth Management in relation to insurance benefits and we wish all affected clients a speedy recovery to good health.
The month of August saw new claim payments made on multiple income protection policies for reasons ranging from broken legs, bowel cancer, neurological disorders, Multiple Myeloma, back operations and two cases of depression and anxiety. The claimants vary in ages from 33 to 53. It is a staggering amount of claims for a small practice that only looks after 330 family groups for insurance.
We wanted to let you know, that even though there have been some disastrous stories out of the Royal Commission of insurance companies treating customers appallingly, our experience has been that insurance companies do pay. In fact, it is worth noting that most of the scandals involve group insurance or direct sales, where there is no agent or adviser to assist the policy holder to select insurance products in their best interests, or to assist at claim time.
We can safely advise that our claims experience has generally been a positive one and clients should continue to feel assured that their policies will have them covered in their time of need. One positive outcome resulting from the Royal Commission, is that there will now be added pressure on insurers to deliver outcomes in a timelier manner.
We also believe it is important to relay this message at a time when many clients are receiving large premium increases, especially in relation to income protection policies. These policies still remain the bedrock of any financial plan and regardless of the premium we would argue that this is the most valued policy in a client’s insurance portfolio. Something that pays 75% of your income ongoing, upon suffering an illness or accident, is hard to value unless you have had a need to use it. We are always hopeful that day will never come, however, as you can see, it happened for eight of our clients this month.
If there is any aspect of your insurance portfolio or the Royal Commission that you would like to discuss in more detail, please do not hesitate to make contact.