I had a fantastic day yesterday - the weather was superb, light winds that picked up over the afternoon, great company, and we were all chasing each other around bouys on boats - perfect, right up until the time that 170kg boat was dropped on my foot. I was lucky - my foot is all shades of green & very tender, but no bones broken, and walking will be more of a hobble for a few days.
The general ache down near the accelerator all the way home did have me thinking about the speed that it all happened at - there was no way I could have seen it coming, or avoided it.
Last week a friend of mine shared some of his frustrations over his current experiences with needing to make claims against his Income Protection insurance, and I share them here with his consent.
"We all know we need it and think we have it, but how do we know if we have the right coverage, and that the company we are covered with is morally legitimate. MY recent experience suggests they are only really interested in shareholder returns and despite claiming to cover you for illness, death or floods, that they are experts in managing to weedleout of paying out, and you only find out when when you faced with such a crises.
Unfortunately, I have recently had experience in all these areas, and to my dismay an Insurance company I thought was respectable, is well kown as being litigous, have lots of fine print that even if you managed to read it, the wording is so obtuse that the real meaning of the clause is not clear. This well known company it turns out have a reputation for fighting every payout, their back office is slow and inefficent, so when you are waiting for a legitimate monthly payment they have been upto 6 weeks behind in sending it. This happens when you are so ill you cannot work."
Insurance is essential, but insurance companies suffer from a poor public perception, that is caused by a few bad experiences usually with the same companies, and applied to all. It's a shame that those companies with a good reputation for handling claims well are tarnished with this brush, but claims are made at the lowest point in a persons life - when something has gone badly wrong - and it is unacceptable for an insurer to not step up to the plate and provide the support at the time when it is needed.
Not all insurance policies, or insurers, are the same -
Kerrianne Hebinger
Financial Planning Essentials
w: www.finplans.com.au
