A Personal Story about Life Insurance

I once met with a young couple who wanted to buy a home - they came to me for mortgage broker services. They were in their early 30’s, with three kids all under 5 years old. Mum stayed at home, and dad worked in a Sawmill. Dad was a big fit guy who played rugby, and loved his family.

After I had arranged their mortgage, we got onto talking about Life Insurance…

With one income, three kids and now a mortgage to pay, they were hesitant about the cost of Life Insurance - but recognised it was probably the next bit of ‘adulting’ they had to do.

I set up an insurance policy which consisted of Life insurance and Trauma insurance. The Life insurance was sufficient to repay the mortgage in case one of them passed away or had a terminal illness, plus a bit extra for funeral cover, and a bit more for the family’s future.

They also took out some Trauma insurance, so that if either of them had a major health issue and couldn’t work or take care of the kids, there was some extra money in the bank.

Now with people in their mid-30’s, its not likely that one of these events would occur, and they presented as low risk of anything happening to them. But…

After only ~six months of the policy being put in place, I received a phone call from them.

They told me that one morning, Dad had got up and went to the toilet, and noticed that there was some blood in the toilet when he had finished.

It happened a few days in a row. He went and saw the doctor to get checked out. The doctor sent him away for some blood tests. They came back and the doctor referred him to a specialist who did more tests. The diagnosis, bowel cancer.

Not only bowel cancer, but one that had rapidly developed.

He started down the path of treatment, however it had advanced fairly rapidly and he was sadly diagnosed as being terminally ill, and not expected to live for a year.

I was truly shocked that this could happen to someone so young.

I won’t go into specifics about the administration we went through, however we were successful in making a claim on his Life Insurance policy, under the Terminal Illness benefit.

The money they received was put towards what they intended it for - to repay the mortgage and have some left over.

With the left over money, they decided to take a family holiday before Dad ‘s health deteriorated further. Dad stopped work, and spent the time with his family and created some memories with them.

The Life Insurance enabled them to do this.

Since then, I’ve made it a point to bring this conversation up with everyone I can.

You just never know what the future holds and I’d never forgive myself if I didn’t bring it up and then something happened to them.

When I do, I usually get some pushback on how much it costs - especially from young families. I totally get where they’re coming from. When I was that age, I had the same attitude - that this sort of thing happens to other people but not me, and I’d prefer to have some spare money in my weekly budget.

So, what I do is I tell this story, and let them reconsider.

If something happens to your health, impacting your ability to go out and earn money, what happens then? Could you still afford your mortgage payments? How would your life change? How you could financially recover from an unexpected event?

So I suggest that although a low risk, it’s worth having… just in case.

For peace of mind and protection for your home and your family, contact us today.

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