CHRISISM #65 - The Price of Survival

08 May 2018

Have you ever had a client tell you that Trauma Cover is very expensive? If so, how have you responded? My response was always:- "Compared to what?"

I remember very clearly to this day my first introduction back in 1993 to a brand new product called Trauma Cover. I was shown a promotional video on which a woman in her mid 30s, who had been diagnosed with cancer and who had survived after the necessary medical treatment, simply stated that “If she hadn’t had $50,000 worth of Trauma Cover, then she wouldn’t have been able to have afforded to stay alive”. How much would $50,000 Trauma Cover cost for a woman in her mid 30s? Less than a cup of coffee a week – in this case that was literally the price of survival. 

I would also like to tell you about an article that was in the Sunday Telegraph a few years ago from which I quote:-

“For Yasmin Pallier the difference between life and death is literally $80,000. That is how much the surgery to remove the aggressive tumour inside her head will cost. Time is running out for the 32 year old who has been given six months to two years to live without the surgery.

“Because we haven’t got the money, we have to go on the public waiting list which is six months long”, she said. Yasmin’s mother Michelle understands the pressures on the system, but said she can’t get past one irrefutable fact. “At the end of the day if you don’t have the money you don’t get the operation. The rich would get it – this I can’t swallow”.

Where is the fundamental flaw in the “irrefutable fact”? Well, how much would $80,000 worth of Trauma Cover have cost for a 32 year old woman? Once again, less than a cup of coffee a week. The reality is that it’s not just the rich that would get the lifesaving operation – it’s anybody who has $80,000 worth of Trauma Cover and everybody can afford that.  

The Risk Workshop by Chris Unwin

Are you a financial adviser who would like all of your clients to have appropriate types and levels of personal protection? But perhaps you feel you need a more structured and client friendly engagement process?