The Value Of An Adviser

We’ve seen and heard a fair bit of ugly news involving certain elements of the financial professions lately, but this story is the antithesis of that. This is an example of the real value that a financial adviser can offer their client - in this case to the tune of $300,000. It also an illustration of why there are so many quality, passionate advisers out there who love what they do!

A Great News Story of Financial Advice

By Wally Fryer, Silver Adviser of Build Financial Solutions

There are times when I love what I do even more than normally. 

Like recently, when I had a progress meeting with a couple of long-standing clients. In this case we were sitting, rather than standing as they were updating me on their current situation. As it happened, the update included the news that the husband (let’s call him John) had been diagnosed with prostate cancer since our last meeting. Not serious enough to warrant surgery and, in the view of his specialist, no treatment was necessary at this stage, the recommendation being that John simply continue to live a normal life, including his full-time occupation and enjoying his young family. The only action required was to come back for periodic check-ups.

While that was a comforting prognosis, the next day I checked the actual definitions of prostate cancer in John’s trauma insurance policy. I then copied them through to John and suggested that he pass them to his specialist. The result was that we started the claim process on behalf of John and last week, as I spoke to John by phone, informing him that the claim was successful, he told me that he had figured that was the case, as an amount in excess of $300,000 had been deposited to his bank account the day before!

There are some aspects of this story that are worth pointing out.

Firstly, while John was aware that trauma insurance was part of the protection package we put in place some years ago, he had no idea that he could have made a claim in this instance, given his prognosis.

Secondly, when John asked me if there was any possible chance that he could again be covered for trauma insurance, I pointed out that we had included a reinstatement clause in the original policy, meaning that he could reinstate the policy 12 months after the claim and be covered for other potential serious illnesses not related to the original claim.

Thirdly, the claim process from lodgement to payment took less than six weeks.

Would John have got this result from insurance bought through a TV ad or from a credit card offer? I seriously doubt it. 

This story, for me anyway, really highlights the value of good financial advice and why I love what I do.

This article was provided by Wally Fryer of Build Financial Solutions

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