Yes it is Monday. Friday just got lost somewhere.
Most of you know that I regularly get online presentations to listen to. There are a lot of investment and compliance and regulatory ones that get thrown at us. But every so often, one of the insurance companies that I use puts together a session for us to join and learn from. Last week there was one from Hollard and the topic was disability, and in particular, disability income protection.
But what they did, was spend most of the one hour talking with two actual clients who were living on permanent disability income protection. Being a live session, there was first the settling down stuff of saying: “Can you all hear us? Can you see us? Please have your mics turned off. Thanks for joining.” And so on….
The first client was a lady who, from a physical point of view, was reasonably functional and mobile, but had been driven to the Hollard offices for the interview. For the second interview, the live feed had to be switched to the client’s house, where a remote team was ready for the conversation to happen again. This interview was with a man who was physically immobile and in stayed in bed permanently. He couldn’t move any part of his body, but he was mentally 100% and could listen to questions and respond and speak. The cause of the disability for both clients was a motor vehicle accident. They both finished talking by saying a number of times, ‘please make sure you have disability protection’.
I currently have two clients living on disability income protection. I see and hear and feel what it is to have the benefit, and likewise can see what the result would be if they did not.
For some of you, I find this benefit in your employee benefits – one of the reasons I nag you for your pension fund statement. For others, you have it personally. For some, we might still need to get it sorted out. Most of us won’t ever need it. Thankfully. That’s just how the stats work. More people need to pay than use it. Like the Lotto. And medical aid. But if you’re the one that does need it, and you don’t have it, life will be very difficult and a big and permanent financial drain on people around you.
It was quite something … quite moving…. to listen to the two clients talk. They spoke about how they lived, what they missed doing, what they couldn’t do… with their children. Kick a ball to his son, the man said.