I know that my credibility really comes into play when a client has a claim.
When you buy insurance straight from your bank or online, chances are you’ve bought an off-the-shelf product that might not deal with all eventualities – but, more importantly, you haven’t bought the ongoing personal support that talking to a dedicated insurance adviser brings. After all, if we’re going to tailor policies to suit individual requirements, then it’s my job to know and understand all the small–print and how those policies can benefit my clients. When I think of examples of successful claims, it’s not often about huge dollar values, it’s often about what that money meant to those clients at the time – and especially the impact of those payouts when they were unexpected.
The importance of keeping in touch
One year, I was phoning a client to wish them a happy Christmas, only to hear that his festivities had been cut short after he’d injured himself playing soccer. Since the injury was a broken wrist, and the client’s profession was a painter – and since the run-up to Christmas was his busiest time of the year – he wasn’t having a particularly good time of it. Yes, he was still doing the paperwork and getting his guys to do some of the jobs, but he was losing out on work. I knew, though, that his policy had a benefit that paid out two months of income protection for a broken wrist whether it stopped you working or not, so I got him to send in his x-rays and he received around $12,000. Because he was still working and he knew he had a 13-week stand-down on his policy, he hadn’t thought to contact me so he was gob-smacked at the successful claim. But that money helped him catch up on the jobs he’d missed out on, took a weight off his shoulders, and helped save his Christmas. And all because of that one phone call to wish him season’s greetings!
The importance of a wide breadth of knowledge
After a young client in her mid-20s had a health insurance claim approved for a series of tests, I recognised that the results of those tests had the potential for something more sinister than she’d come to realise from talking to her doctor. She’d understood that spotting the cervical cancer early had resulted in having a minor procedure, which, combined with ongoing monitoring, would – all things being well – be the end of the issue. But because the illness was potentially life-threatening, I knew that it would trigger a partial payment on her trauma insurance, so I did some work behind the scenes to get approval and then arranged to see her. The payment was around $25,000 and was able to make a huge difference to her life after what was obviously a traumatic experience.
If you want to learn more about the ongoing support you’ll get from Phil Robinson Insurance or for more information about all of our personal insurance products, you can arrange a free, no-obligation consultation which can be either over the phone or in person, by calling me on 021 313231 or 09 320 3819, or direct via the website.