Suddenly, you hear a loud snap! The next
thing you remember is being flown by helicopter
out of the rugged terrain of the mountains
to the closest intensive care unit.
The prognosis isn't great. After about eight
weeks in the spinal unit, there will be months
of intensive rehabilitation therapies required
to get you back on your feet and, even then,
it's uncertain how much use of your legs will
actually be regained.
What happens next? Let's look at a few different
scenarios…
1. While you're in hospital your wife contacts
your insurance broker. She asks what forms
you need to fill in to claim for the injury.
Your broker informs her that apart from your
various goods and possessions policies - household,
motor vehicle, etc. - the only other insurance
is a Life policy without disability provisions.
Your broker recalls suggesting the added benefits
but you didn't want to pay the extra premiums.
Your wife tells you the news, trying cheerfully
to assert that a smaller house will be "easier
to keep clean" plus the boys will like
to share a bedroom and she had wanted to return
to work after this baby was born anyway.
You hold her hand in silence.
2. While you're in hospital your wife contacts
your insurance broker. She asks what forms
you need to fill in to claim for the injury.
Your broker hands her the Personal Accident
Insurance claim forms and she brings them
to you. You complete the forms from your hospital
bed, relieved that at least the bills will
continue to be paid and the family taken care
of while you can't work.
Like most Personal Accident policies, yours
gave you the option of 52 weeks or 104 weeks
cover. You elected 104 weeks, considering
this to be more than adequate.
After months of rehabilitation, partial use
of your legs has returned. Although an improvement,
you will always need the assistance of a walking
frame and cannot stand for more than 15 minutes
at a time. In short, you will never work as
a sign writer again.
Your wife is as reassuring as she can be
although dreading the day she will have to
leave her toddler at Day Care and return to
full-time work in order to make ends meet.
She holds your hand in silence.
3. While you're in hospital your wife contacts
your insurance broker. She asks what forms
you need to fill in to claim for the injury.
Your broker hands her the Income Protection
Insurance claim forms and she brings them
to you. You complete the forms from your hospital
bed, thankful that you had the foresight to
take out this policy.
Although devastated that you will never again
climb a scaffold to create your works of art
atop a city building, you try not to dwell
on it. After all, you know that your income
protection policy will pay seventy-five per
cent of your income up to the age of sixty-five.
So, instead of worrying about how the mortgage
will be paid or whether your wife will be
compelled to return to the workforce out of
financial necessity, you can concentrate on
improving your mobility and, perhaps one day,
proving the doctors wrong!
You hold each other's hands and smile.
