INSURANCE By Steve Wright
Clients can’t do Life Insurance, why clients can’t do it themselves and why they need you. By Steve Wright.
M
any people seem to think that, when it comes to life insurance (life, disability, medical), they can do it themselves. Even at a recent financial adviser industry event it was suggested to me that (when it comes to insurance) “you don’t need advice, you can do it all yourself!” After all, the information needed is on the internet – right! (Well, wrong, actually. Much of the knowledge, information and understanding necessary to do a proper job, including policy wordings which many insurance providers do not make available on
030 WWW.TMMONLINE.NZ
their websites, is not conveniently available on the internet.) Clearly this person did not understand the complexities involved in putting together and maintaining sufficient and efficient insurance. In my view, "doing it yourself" is about as sensible as defending yourself in court – usually a very expensive option!
Do it yourself folly Why is it folly to think you can do it yourself? This is a question which requires a good answer because it goes to the very reason for an insurance adviser’s existence. Most clients will not know the answer either, and, if you
want to have many clients you will need to help them understand why they need you (and can’t do it themselves). So here is my attempt at answering this most important question – in a few parts: You can do it yourself but not if you want to do it properly. Building a sufficient and efficient life insurance portfolio, protection package, whatever you choose to call it, requires two things: ➊ Accurately calculated levels of cover for all risks you are not prepared to take and fund yourself. ➋. At the lowest possible cost (which does
