These days, many people buy their insurance direct over the phone. It’s not necessarily cheaper, but it is apparently so easy. You don’t even have to fill out any of those awful forms!
Ever wonder why it seems so easy?
It’s because the insured person is not ‘underwritten’ until they make a claim. Only then does the insurer make up their mind on whether they are willing to actually pay the claim based on the past medical, financial and social history of the insured. So what is “easy” in the beginning becomes so hard, just at the time when you need it to be easy. So what would you prefer? Surely, if you go to the trouble of purchasing insurance cover and paying the premiums month after month, you want to know it is there for you when you need it. It’s exactly the time that you would want someone to be by your side to help. Isn’t it?
It seems that problems with the payment of death and disability claims have become such a problem that 53% of all complaints received by the Superannuation Complaints Tribunal are now in relation to the non payment of a claim. What’s more worrying is that families are kept waiting in limbo for 2-3 years (with an average wait of 800 days) before the disputes are settled, with the government funded arbitrator supporting non payment in around 80% of cases.
At Future Planners, we have never had a claim refused. We help our clients with their application and underwriting from the start and we’re there to support them when it counts.