Tomorrow could be too late - CASE STUDY
by Peter Dale, Insurance Manager

It's very easy when you are fit and healthy to turn a blind eye to the importance of personal insurance protection. You probably find it hard to imagine ever needing to make a claim.

BUT the reality is that when you are fit and healthy is exactly the time that you should be putting insurance policies in place. Otherwise you could find yourself in the same position as one of our members has recently......

In 2002 I spoke to Mark (not his real name) at his Adviser's suggestion, as he had purchased an investment property, thus increasing his debt levels. At such a time we always recommend a review of your insurances because you need to make sure that the cover you have is adequate to provide for the additional loan repayments.

At the time Mark was 31 years old, with a wife and one child. He had life cover of $100,000 under his superannuation, as well as TPD cover. We discussed the need for additional insurance coverage to be put in place, in terms of:

Following our review and recommendation in 2002 Mark decided not to take up our advice and left his insurance coverage as it was.

Just a few weeks ago, in September 2004, I spoke to Mark once again about his insurance cover. Mark is now 33 years old, and unfortunately in 2003 he suffered a heart attack!

He was unable to work for six months and as a result had to sell his investment property because he couldn't keep up the loan repayments. Now that he's back at work Mark wanted to put cover in place for both income protection and life insurance. But the bad news is that because of his medical condition BOTH covers are now no longer available to him!!

THE MORAL OF THIS STORY: Put your insurance policies in place WHILE YOU ARE HEALTHY!! Otherwise you could be forced to pay significantly more for your premiums, or worse still, find that like Mark, the insurance companies won't cover you at all.

Remember, tomorrow could be too late!

Contact our Insurance Specialist Peter Dale for more information today!