The concept of life insurance has been around for hundreds of years with the Amicable Society for Perpetual Assurance in London being the first to serve up ‘peace-of-mind’ in exchange for a premium, way back in the 18th century.
What’s changed in three centuries? Plenty and nothing, all at the same time.
It’s estimated that in the United States of America alone more than 266 million life insurance policies are currently active (that means the policy premiums are being paid). It’s a staggering number of insurance policies, that underscores a couple of cold hard facts about living in a capitalist, Western society, coupled with hitting the tender age of 40.
- We borrow money to support a particular lifestyle we want for ourselves and our families.
- We work hard to pay the bills that prop up that lifestyle.
- Then we suddenly realise we aren’t going to live forever 🙁
- And we take out life cover to cover the bills if we pass on before our time
Taking out life cover is the right thing to do.
Sure, it takes most of us four decades to start gathering a little wisdom and to start facing up to the fact that we are half way through the journey, but when the penny drops and we work out what’s at stake, parting with a few hundred bucks a month, to know our family will be financially secure, is more than worth it.
So, that’s the part that hasn’t changed when it comes to life insurance.
All you need is:
- Someone with a need for the product
- That person needs to be prepared to part with some personal information
- So that the insurer can work out a reasonable amount to charge for the cover (a premium)
- And if both parties are happy, a contract is put in place (the policy)
What is changing is that insurers need less information to make better decisions about your cover.
Insurance is all about assessing risk and charging a suitable premium to cover that risk. Super-smart Actuaries, around the globe, have spent decades working on models and building algorithms to accurately work out what to charge consumers, while still building profitable businesses for shareholders.
But much of that risk assessment comes down to fact-finding in the initial stages of the negotiation.
If you own an insurance policy of any sort, you will remember having to give some information about the risk you want to cover before the insurer provided you with a quote.
Think about car insurance for a second.
Before the insurer is willing to offer you a quote, they need you to answer a few questions like.
- How much does your vehicle cost?
- What is the make & model of the car?
- Who drives the car?
- Where does the vehicle park during the day and at night?
- Have you been involved in any accidents recently?
The reason why the insurer asks all these questions is because each one of the answers will provide more insight into the risk they are taking on and what to charge you.
Now, if you have ever taken out any life insurance you will understand that in order to get a quote you generally have to spill the beans on just about everything that is going on in your life and pull out a medical history folder that dates back to the day you were born 🙂 Ok, that’s a gross exaggeration, but it’s tedious to say the least.
Surely there is a way to work around this?
Yes, there is.
At Stangen we call it Express Life.
Underwriting is just a snazzy word for all that fact-finding we mentioned a few sentences ago, but Express Underwriting means we can get you through the process a lot quicker.
We know how frustrating it is queuing in a supermarket when you have a small basket of goods. It’s equally frustrating sitting on the phone with a call center agent for 30 minutes, divulging a heap of personal information in order to find out how much R1 500 000 life cover is going to cost.
So, this is our promise to you. You’ll only have to:
- Answer 3 simple questions to get a quote forR100 000 funeral cover
- Answer another 4 questions and get a quote for R1 500 000 life cover
Then if you want to answer more medical-, lifestyle- and occupation questions, you might be able to qualify for up to R10 million in life cover.
You get to decide how much information you want to share with us or click here to get Express Life Cover.
Until next time.
The Wise About Life Team
