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Imagine finding out you have cancer, or a brain tumour or Multiple Sclerosis.
Your world is falling apart, but who do you turn to?
Friends and family will be supportive, but they won’t have a clue about how you’re feeling or how to help you cope.
You can pay a visit to Dr Google and scare yourself with the half-assed advice you’ll find on a forum.
Or you can access the value-added benefits available for free on your life insurance.
It’s a shame that most people don’t know about the additional benefits of a life insurance policy, so in this article, I’m going to lift the veil and show you how life insurance can help you in ways you never thought possible.
It could save your life:
From a colleague in the UK:
Recently, I was told of a case where a woman with young children had been told to clear her diary for the next six months because she was going to go through gruelling cancer treatment (30 rounds of chemotherapy, after already having two surgeries and 16 biopsies). In her words, “I ceased to function”. On the way to her first chemotherapy appointment, Best Doctors‘ clinical director personally rang her and told her that they had retested her pathology results and she didn’t in fact have cancer, and shouldn’t under any circumstance have the treatment. Their expert second medical opinion service had identified that she had an autoimmune condition, not cancer.
You see life insurance isn’t all about the monetary payout – of course, that’s the most important part, but there are so many more good things on offer that you probably aren’t aware of.
Are you ready?
Recently, more and more life insurance providers offer free additional services such as
Why have they introduced these benefits?
Let’s not kid ourselves – the main reason is to differentiate themselves from the competition so they can win more business than by competing on price alone.
But there is a powerful secondary benefit – building trust in life insurance.
The chances of you availing of these services are far greater than the risk of you making an actual claim. It’s fairly typical for a client to say the support they received from the insurer was even more valuable than the pay-out itself.
Word of mouth like this is invaluable for an insurer, so they love customers sharing stories about their experiences with a service like Best Doctors.
Think about your car insurance. Have you ever claimed for a car crash? Probably not.
But have you ever used the breakdown assist service? More than likely, yes, and if you’re anything like me, you have used it several times. ?
I once locked myself and my 10-year-old daughter out of the car on Inch Beach. There we were, freezing, in wetsuits, Chloe trying to hold it together, waiting for the breakdown assist guy to come and rescue us. Thankfully he could. Out of gratitude, that insurer has me as a customer for life.
These services are available to you and your family for free at any time.
When it comes to life insurance, a common objection is:
I don’t get anything from my life insurance if I don’t die
You can use these services while you’re above ground.
The monetary payout of a life insurance policy will help protect your family financially. Simultaneously, the softer benefits (a friendly listening ear, practical information, and much needed support both for you and your family) will help protect them emotionally.
Let’s look at the ancillary benefits each provider offers:
Royal London give you access to a Nurse Adviser from RedArc who can help you
RedArc nurses are always available; there’s no ticking clock that limits how long you can access them or how many times you can contact them. You can ring them for a chat if you’re feeling down.
Please think of me as your trusted financial advisor and RedArc as your trusted health advisor; our doors are always open.
It’s a simple 3 step process.
Your Nurse Adviser will take the time to understand how they can help you both emotionally and practically and will put in place a schedule of regular support calls. If appropriate, the Nurse Adviser will advise on additional supports that could help speed up your recovery and may put you in contact with a specialist nurse or recommend other services to aid recovery.
Here’s a handy flyer explaining how it works in more detail
Getting diagnosed with a serious illness is an emotionally draining and overwhelming experience. Imagine all the questions that would be spinning around your brain:
Best Doctors from Aviva brings the world’s leading medical expert to you and your family, giving you the peace of mind of a second opinion when you need it most. They can help you with those questions that won’t stop racing through your mind.
But Best Doctors isn’t just for life-threatening conditions. You can use the service for anything that affects your quality of life…from headaches to heart conditions. But as it’s a second medical opinion, you should have already consulted a specialist in Ireland, and it can’t be used for conditions that would need a face-to-face consultation, such as acute ailments or mental health conditions.
Here are the most common reasons that clients use Best Doctors:
Throughout the process, your Care Manager is available to answer your questions.
In this short video, you can learn more about Best Doctors from Aviva customers who have used the service:
Here’s a flyer explaining how Best Doctors’ works
Best Doctor’s helps with physical conditions, but what if your mental health is suffering?
Aviva also offers Family Care – a counselling & psychotherapy service provided by Teladoc Health.
Here’s a flyer explaining how Family Care works
Let’s move onto the final provider, who offers access to value-added services.
Irish Life provides a medical second opinion (MedCare) service through a company called Mediguide, and they also offer access to two confidential nurse helplines (NurseCare) through Intana Assist.
MedCare is available for all medical conditions, except:
NurseCare includes:
And finally, let’s look at what’s on offer at the final two insurers.
It’s simple – don’t buy all of your cover from the same insurer.
Let’s say you need cover for your mortgage, life insurance to protect your family; serious illness cover to provide a buffer against short term serious illness and income protection to protect you in the case of long term inability to work.
Approach KBC, PTSB, Ulster Bank, EBS or AIB, and they’ll only sell you Irish Life policies – it may seem handy at the time, but you’re missing out on loads of good stuff.
However, if you’re clever and use a broker, you could choose various insurers’ policies and get ALL the value-added benefits.
Yes, the big caveat is that third parties offer these value-added services and may withdraw them in the future.
Yes, absolutely! And don’t forget, we specialise in getting you life cover with a pre-existing health condition.
I’ve probably made choosing an insurer even more difficult now, you were about to pull the trigger on one policy, but now you’re in two minds?
Good ?
Buying life insurance is an important decision so you should consider all eventualities. It shouldn’t be as easy as choosing which socks to wear.
In an ideal world, we’d all be able to pick and choose the most suitable insurer, but this ol’ world we live in isn’t perfect, and most of us aren’t in perfect health. If you have a health condition, your premiums are going to higher than normal, so the best company for you will be the one that can
If this provider doesn’t offer value-added benefits, don’t worry too much, you’re covered, and that’s the main thing.
Right, that’s enough from me; I’m here to help you choose the right insurer based on your health, so if you have a pre-existing condition and would like some advice, please complete this short questionnaire, and I’ll be right back.
Alternatively, if you’re in good health and would like me to make a personalised recommendation, I have a questionnaire for that, too – click here to begin.
Or if you want a chat to go through your options, you can schedule a call back here
Chat soon!
Nick
As Ireland's leading life insurance broker, we specialise in comparing the rates and policies from the top five Irish life insurance providers and offering the very best value quotes to suit the individual needs of our clients. Our expertise lies in finding a suitable insurance plan for those with specific needs, be it a particular illness, occupation or claim history, we've got you covered in every sense!
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