Sandra’s husband died from a brain tumour 5 years ago before they were both 40, leaving behind his distraught wife and two teenage daughters, Tina and Rianna.
Her husband did not have any life cover in place and luckily, her own family had enough money to help with the mortgage payments and assist her and her daughters financially and emotionally.
Unfortunately, Sandra’s mother died a few years later following a short illness and then a few months later in the same year, her father unexpectedly passed away so the family was really going through a difficult time.
Sandra was also very close to her two aunts who tragically died within that same year in a car accident. For Sandra and her daughters, 2019 was a very difficult year having lost four family members and they went into 2020 facing a year of lockdowns due to the Covid-19 global pandemic. This made things harder for them to heal properly.
Sandra felt completely lost and realised that she needs to protect both her girls financially for the future. Her daughters were both now over 18 and she needed to put life policies in place for each of them. One of her daughters Tina, had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder with clinical depression and she was aware that this may carry some added costs or be completely excluded from the policy due to the amount of medication and care she required.
She also needed life insurance for herself so that Tina and Rianna are financially looked after should anything happen to her. Sandra was diagnosed with a few medical conditions in the last few years, which are not life threatening but providers will add more costs on to her premium due to age and risk factors attached to the conditions.
One of Sandra’s worries were that as she gets older she may have further issues i.e Mental health due to all the bereavements she has been dealing with and caring for Tina. When Tina has mental health episodes it can be very hard for Sandra and Rianna to manage due to the level of care Tina requires. Very often, they have had to hospitalise Tina and this is quite difficult to deal with for both of them.
Our adviser went through various options with Sandra and she decided to take out Life and Critical Illness cover for herself with the higher premiums due to her present conditions and Life and Critical Illness for both daughters. With Tina’s cover there were mental health exclusions and additional premiums due to high BMI but she decided, that not taking out the cover could be worse for her should she be diagnosed with a Critical Illness.
In this case, Sandra was very lucky to have had her family support her for such a long period of time. Her situation gave her the realisation that her children may not be as fortunate as they have no family members to help them. Many people think about their present situation but anything can happen as this family realised in one of the hardest ways in a very short amount of time.
Please note, that the case study is based on a real-life scenario, but names have been changed due to client confidentiality.
Published Feb 2021.
It is important to take professional advice before making any decision relating to your personal finances. Information within this case study is based on our current understanding and can be subject to change without notice and the accuracy and completeness of the information cannot be guaranteed. It does not provide individual tailored advice and is for information purposes only.
With over 20 years of experience in financial services, Harish is a successful lending and insurance specialist. He commands a solid team of insurance advisors in mortgage lending, commercial lending, health insurance, life insurance etc catering to individuals, families, and business owners with several assets
Date: Feb 22 2021
