Related Claim Stories
The importance of insurance for women… even when
you are young and healthy
Sandra is a 43-year-old who has been living with multiple sclerosis (MS) for about a decade.
When Sandra was 28 she and her husband Andrew saw a financial adviser to organise their superannuation investments, and each took out $1.5m life and TPD cover and $500,000 stand-alone trauma insurance. At around this time they also took out a substantial mortgage to buy their first house.
As an executive in the finance industry earning in excess of $150,000pa, Sandra worked long hours and travelled regularly.
Shortly after a promotion to a senior management post in her early thirties, Sandra was diagnosed with MS, a chronic inflammatory disease that affects the central nervous system and is mostly diagnosed in women between 20 and 40 years old. A keen jogger she noticed weakness in her legs, which led to the diagnosis of this unpredictable illness.
Sandra’s diagnosis meant that she immediately wanted to reduce her working hours and level of responsibility to concentrate on her health and at the same time she recognised that if or when the disease progressed that she would need to make further lifestyle adjustments. With the help of her financial adviser Sandra submitted a claim under her stand-alone trauma policy and received the full benefit of $500,000 as the insurer’s definition paid full benefit on diagnosis and not on assessment of her physical capabilities.
The trauma benefit payment, made upon diagnosis, enabled Sandra and Andrew to alter their lifestyle to cope with this potentially debilitating disease.
Sandra resigned from her job and used the lump sum to pay off some of the mortgage, added a home office where she worked as a part-time consultant and invested some of the payment to cover future expected medical expenses.
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