CRITICAL ILLNESS | ARE YOU SUFFICIENTLY COVERED?

RISKSA published an online article that shed some light on an area of financial planning that appears to be largely overlooked, or at least, underestimated.  A key consideration for every financial portfolio is to insure your most valuable asset – your ability to earn an income.

Traditionally this lot has fallen to the ‘man of the house’ to earn an income. Although this notion is seriously outdated (by around three decades!), when it comes to financial planning, this perception still holds strong. Most of my clients need the incomes of at least two people in the household in order to stay afloat each month. This means that, in general, both husbands and wives are working to contribute to the monthly expenses.

Despite this mutual provision, statistics are alarmingly slanted to the traditional approach of insuring men at a higher value than women. Despite the fact that women submit more than twice as many critical illness claims as men, they remain significantly underinsured.

A glimpse at what women are claiming for

Based on an assessment of 514 critical illness, disability and life insurance claims made by women, between 1 May 2012 and 30 April 2013, the leading cause of critical illness claims is cancer.

This is followed by heart disease and stroke, which constituted 30 per cent of female insurance claims over this time and where the average age of a heart disease claimant is 58 and of a stroke claimant, 49.

The average age of women submitting a claim for cancer is 43 and women have almost the same number of cancer claims as men. Of the total cancer claims by women, 25% are specifically for breast cancer, where the average age is 53.

Disability claims

The leading causes of disability claims by women are cancer and neurological conditions, such as strokes. The majority of the critical illness, life and disability claims are made by women between the ages of 43 and 55.

With so many women fulfilling a major financial role in their households, and most of these claims coming from women in the prime of their lives, surviving a critical illness or disability makes it financially devastating to their family, over and above all of the other stress that they will have to deal with.If you’re unsure as to what your Critical Illness, Disability or Life Cover portfolio looks like, let’s chat soon and make sure that you are not underinsured!