Every now and then, I would come across sayings such as “I do not need any insurance coverage as premature death would not happen to me” or “life insurance companies tend to deny claims“. Although, I cannot speak on behalf of all insurance cases, I would like to share my personal experience in handling one of the death claims for my clients.
A few years ago, I met a family in Toronto. This was a family with five members, a father who was a self-employed business owner, a mother who made minimal income from her part-time job, a daughter and two sons who were still in school. Initially, they did not express any concerns in the needs to have life insurance protection for their families, not until a needs analysis was done. During our discussion, I found out that there was still a significant amount of mortgage outstanding, they would like to provide funding for their children’s post secondary education in the future, and the father was the key person who provided to this family financially. However, should the father passes away, they did not have adequate savings to finance the above. I then suggested them to consider at least to setup life coverage on the father as he was the main income earner. After several meetings, they decided to take my advice.
Then we went through the normal routine to apply for the life coverage, filled out the application, ordered a nurse to perform a medical test at their house. Once the application was approved, I delivered the policy to them and the coverage was effective immediately.
The story didn’t end here. On a typical Friday’s afternoon, I just finished having lunch and got back to my office, I received a shocking news from this family that the father was diagnosed with cancer. That was approximately one and a half-year after the policy was setup. The cancer cells developed very rapidly, despite going through all the medical treatments, his health condition continued to deteriorate. After six months, I received another call that their father had passed away.
I was lack of words to comfort this family, at the same time, I did understand that they still had many ongoing expenses to be paid. I immediately assisted them to file a death claim to the life insurance company. After all required documents were submitted, and an investigation was performed, the full amount of death benefit was paid out to this family. I could still remember the moment I delivered the cheque to this family in person.
Although, the funding could not replace the sorrow from losing the father in this family, they do not have to worry about losing their house, not enough funding for the children’s education, and unable to maintain their living standard afterward. This policy has helped the deceased father in fulfilling his financial responsibilities to his family.
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