Original Article can be found here: http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/10211442/Mums-death-leaves-siblings-struggling
A 43 year old Christchurch woman recently tragically lost her battle with a very aggressive and fast acting form of cancer. She had a house, a mortgage of $150,000 (which she falsely believed to be closer to $75,000) and two children who relied on the family home to survive. One of her children even had a child of her own, leaving two generations of dependants relying on the family home and finances and unable to support themselves.
Worst of all, she had no life insurance or mortgage protection. Upon her death, those left behind not only had to deal with the life consuming grief of losing their mother before her time but also the financial struggles of having to sell the family home, $8,500 funeral cost, outstanding bills and $7,000 credit card debt. Her siblings Kate and Bryce have set up a crowdfunding page to help them out in their desperate times which can be found at http://www.givealittle.co.nz/cause/KateandBryce (we definitely urge anyone who can to help).
Unfortunately, though it was of course not intentional on this mother's part, investing in life insurance could have averted all of the financial burden on the next generation after the tragedy occurred. We are personally extremely sad whenever we hear of a story like this, as we feel that we could have done something about it. Life insurance, especially for a mother in her early 40s in otherwise good health, doesn't have to be expensive, and this case demonstrates just how much it can help. When others rely on us, we can't just continue to assume that nothing will happen and things will work out, we need to put every safeguard in place that we are able to. It's not about money, it's about people.
Please think about helping out Kate and Bryce and if you want to see just how affordable and beneficial life insurance can be, give us a call, we can help.
Features information, advice and tips on Insurance, Investment and Mortgages from the team at Spratt Financial Services. We're always happy to answer any questions!
Showing posts with label Case Study. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Case Study. Show all posts
Monday, July 7, 2014
Thursday, May 1, 2014
Trauma Insurance: How a friend ended up $30,000 better off.
One of my personal friends recently went in to the specialist for a routine check of his heart.
The check determined that one of his arteries was clogged, and they moved him to immediate surgery to have a stent inserted. The surgery was non invasive, with a stent that eventually dissolves after widening and freeing the artery again. After a brief period of recovery, he was back on his feet.
My friend did have medical insurance cover which immediately covered his $5,000 bill for the surgery and that was of course very helpful, but his real boon came from the Trauma Cover he had invested in 5 years earlier.
Many forms of Trauma Insurance have partial payout provisions for a large variety of conditions, where if you are diagnosed with them, you are eligible to claim a certain percentage of your policies sum assured. In his case, he had $125,000 worth of Trauma Insurance. After enquiring and putting in a claim, the insurer paid him out 25% of his sum assured for the operation, as it met the conditions for the cardiac partial payout. So just by having trauma cover, not only were his medical expenses completely covered, he ended up with a financial windfall of $31,000!
It's not every day that you can go in for an expensive medical procedure and have it end up making you 30 grand richer, but with the right insurance, this is definitely possible, and it happens far more often than you would think! For those of you who have existing Trauma Cover, keep this in mind and closely read your policy wording to see which conditions will trigger a possible claim. We have encountered a number of people who could have been paid out partial or full trauma payments for things they did not even know they were covered for! For those of you who don't have trauma insurance, think seriously about it, it has certainly made my friend a very happy man!
If you have any questions about your existing cover or what insurance options are available to you just drop us a line anytime.
The check determined that one of his arteries was clogged, and they moved him to immediate surgery to have a stent inserted. The surgery was non invasive, with a stent that eventually dissolves after widening and freeing the artery again. After a brief period of recovery, he was back on his feet.
My friend did have medical insurance cover which immediately covered his $5,000 bill for the surgery and that was of course very helpful, but his real boon came from the Trauma Cover he had invested in 5 years earlier.
Many forms of Trauma Insurance have partial payout provisions for a large variety of conditions, where if you are diagnosed with them, you are eligible to claim a certain percentage of your policies sum assured. In his case, he had $125,000 worth of Trauma Insurance. After enquiring and putting in a claim, the insurer paid him out 25% of his sum assured for the operation, as it met the conditions for the cardiac partial payout. So just by having trauma cover, not only were his medical expenses completely covered, he ended up with a financial windfall of $31,000!
It's not every day that you can go in for an expensive medical procedure and have it end up making you 30 grand richer, but with the right insurance, this is definitely possible, and it happens far more often than you would think! For those of you who have existing Trauma Cover, keep this in mind and closely read your policy wording to see which conditions will trigger a possible claim. We have encountered a number of people who could have been paid out partial or full trauma payments for things they did not even know they were covered for! For those of you who don't have trauma insurance, think seriously about it, it has certainly made my friend a very happy man!
If you have any questions about your existing cover or what insurance options are available to you just drop us a line anytime.
Monday, April 22, 2013
Tell us your personal insurance story.
If you or one you love has been through a trying time where having health insurance, life insurance or income protection has helped you out, please tell us your story! You could be featured in a blog post or on our official website. We always love to hear from you, so drop us a line anytime!
Monday, April 15, 2013
How medical insurance spared me from disaster.
This is a story from my own life, about how having medical insurance saved my financial situation during my time of need. I must admit that before this came up, I balked a little at having to pay monthly premiums for something that I at the time was apparently getting no benefit from. Now I know better, and I hope my story can help convince you to get protected too to spare you from the financial hardship that almost befell me.
I am a 27 year old male, living on the North Shore of Auckland. During my years at university, studying for my Honours degree in 2009, I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease. Before this, the only real experience I had with ill health was a moderately severe case asthma during my formative years, and so the shock of dealing with a severe incurable auto immune disorder all of a sudden was intensely disheartening and almost impossible for my young self to have predicted. Within the span of two months, I lost 20 kg due to malabsorption, had severe iron deficiency due to blood loss and I spiralled down to around 55kg at my worst (I am 6 foot 1, so this was scarily thin). I was forced to put my degree on hold whilst I underwent several tests, procedures and eventually surgeries.
Only working a part time job while I studied, through which I was attempting to save to repay my student loan, if I had been forced to pay for my procedures, tests and specialist visits myself, I would have found myself broke very quickly and unable to afford the treatment. In total, in the four years since I have been diagnosed, the medical insurance my mother insisted on me having (Yes, Mums always do know best) has covered the medical bills, MRi costs and surgical procedures, paying out more than $20,000 to help maintain my treatment. Just think about taking that on yourself, and the meagre monthly premiums I complained about will immediately pale into insignificance.
Since then I have regained the weight, remedied the iron deficiency and even though symptoms remain which continually make life challenging, I am considerably better than my darkest days. I don't think this would have been possible without the insurance cover which meant I could get every treatment and exhaust every avenue my specialist reccomended. Thanks to my health improvement, I got my degree and was able to use my savings to repay my student loan, starting off my post university life debt free - a tremendous blessing and relief in today's environment. Before all this happened, I had the regrettable mindset I see a lot. The mindset that I'm healthy and fine and nothing serious medically was on my horizon. Looking back now, my disease was extremely rapid in its onset and I literally went from a normal life to bed ridden, energy sapped, underweight and unable to go about my life within weeks.
When I think about where I might have been without it, I'm passionate about making sure that people know what sort of risk they could be taking by not being covered. I am a single male with no dependants or family, but having one, or people who depend on you financially makes this even more necessary. I hope you don't take the gamble, it's definitely not worth it.
More information on Crohn's Disease.
Send us an email at enquiry@sprattfinancial.co.nz to discuss your insurance needs.
Visit our official website for more information.
Like us on Facebook.
Follow us on Twitter @SprattFinancial.
I am a 27 year old male, living on the North Shore of Auckland. During my years at university, studying for my Honours degree in 2009, I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease. Before this, the only real experience I had with ill health was a moderately severe case asthma during my formative years, and so the shock of dealing with a severe incurable auto immune disorder all of a sudden was intensely disheartening and almost impossible for my young self to have predicted. Within the span of two months, I lost 20 kg due to malabsorption, had severe iron deficiency due to blood loss and I spiralled down to around 55kg at my worst (I am 6 foot 1, so this was scarily thin). I was forced to put my degree on hold whilst I underwent several tests, procedures and eventually surgeries.
Only working a part time job while I studied, through which I was attempting to save to repay my student loan, if I had been forced to pay for my procedures, tests and specialist visits myself, I would have found myself broke very quickly and unable to afford the treatment. In total, in the four years since I have been diagnosed, the medical insurance my mother insisted on me having (Yes, Mums always do know best) has covered the medical bills, MRi costs and surgical procedures, paying out more than $20,000 to help maintain my treatment. Just think about taking that on yourself, and the meagre monthly premiums I complained about will immediately pale into insignificance.
Since then I have regained the weight, remedied the iron deficiency and even though symptoms remain which continually make life challenging, I am considerably better than my darkest days. I don't think this would have been possible without the insurance cover which meant I could get every treatment and exhaust every avenue my specialist reccomended. Thanks to my health improvement, I got my degree and was able to use my savings to repay my student loan, starting off my post university life debt free - a tremendous blessing and relief in today's environment. Before all this happened, I had the regrettable mindset I see a lot. The mindset that I'm healthy and fine and nothing serious medically was on my horizon. Looking back now, my disease was extremely rapid in its onset and I literally went from a normal life to bed ridden, energy sapped, underweight and unable to go about my life within weeks.
When I think about where I might have been without it, I'm passionate about making sure that people know what sort of risk they could be taking by not being covered. I am a single male with no dependants or family, but having one, or people who depend on you financially makes this even more necessary. I hope you don't take the gamble, it's definitely not worth it.
More information on Crohn's Disease.
Send us an email at enquiry@sprattfinancial.co.nz to discuss your insurance needs.
Visit our official website for more information.
Like us on Facebook.
Follow us on Twitter @SprattFinancial.
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