You’re looking for insurance cover, be it for your life, home, income or health. You have two choices. You can use an insurance advisor to do all the hard work for you, or you could purchase straight from the insurer's website. Which one will you pick?

Obviously, we recommend that you use an insurance advisor and today we’re explaining the five most important reasons why.

Right oh, if you are reading this from the perspective of trying to claim, we might be a bit shutting the gate after the horse has bolted. Though there may still be things we can do, so do check out our claims advocation service. Where we can we help people get the support they need from what is available.

For those who are looking for life insurance and wanting to find the best deal on life insurance, this is the starting point. Knowing what you don’t know that can hurt you.

The best deal in life insurance is a policy that responds and works when it is needed, not the premium you pay. Because paying a cheap premium doesn’t necessarily mean you have the right cover. Nor does it guarantee you put it in place correctly.

Before you buy life insurance, stop. To make the best purchase for you and your family, there are five key things you should know before you buy life insurance. Today we’re discussing them with you.

Each year, 33% of deaths in New Zealand are caused by cardiovascular disease. Every 90 minutes, someone in the country dies from heart disease. Then we’ll top that off by saying that 172,000 people in New Zealand, or one in twenty adults, are living with heart disease (NZ Heart Foundation). If these statistics weren’t enough to encourage you to improve your heart health, how about this:

In New Zealand, the number one cause of death for both Maori and non-Maori New Zealanders is ischaemic heart disease.

As a male, your chances of dying from a heart attack or heart disease are enormous. Yet so many men fail to take some simple steps to help improve their heart health. So we’ve put together some easy tips for you to implement into your daily life.

Are you one of the 57% of New Zealanders who have life insurance? If so, you already understand the importance of having it. But there’s 43% who may think life insurance is important, just not for them. Or that only old people or those with kids need it. But in reality, a life insurance policy is for everyone, including you!

Do I Need Life Insurance?

Confronting title, the short answer is when you don't review it.

The longer answer is all about the claim and it's highlighted well in this article Insurance company refuses to cover auckland mum with rare illness 

I feel for the family involved, it's not the outcome, as an insurance adviser, we like to see. It's not the outcome as a policyholder or as a human being we want either.

How did this happen?

Insurance adviser or insurance broker, what’s in a title?

Quite a bit actually. “Are you an insurance broker?” is a very common question. Yes, sort of, is the answer.

That’s because, under the regulations we have, we’re insurance advisers, not insurance brokers.

What’s the difference?

They say all is fair in love and war. 

And it was first said by Miguel de Cervantes who made the comparison in 1604 in Don Quixote when he wrote, "Love and war are all one . . . Which was translated from the original Spanish used.

Variations have been used since, though it was not until 1850 that we saw the exact phrasing we know today.

Frank Smedley wrote in his novel, Frank Fairlegh: Scenes from the Life of a Private Pupil:

Continuing from the previous blog on breast cancer claims, we are going to get a bit technical and dive much deeper into what today's policy wordings say about cancer definitions.  

We did something similar on heart attack definitions a couple of months ago, though this is significantly longer. I am going do something I have not seen in a blog, add an appendix!

Continuing from our previous post on the primary cancer benefit definitions we cover the early or less severe stages of a cancer claim with these definitions. If you want to read the main article, you can read that here first

Partial or Early Cancer Benefits