Life’s full of surprises though life cover insurance is usually a subject you do not get surprises in. Sovereign’s 2013 published causes for life claims, or rather reasons people died, makes for surprising reading.

In the graph from Sovereigns claims for the year ending 30 June 2013, The 70 plus age group isn’t surprising, cancer, heart or lungs are usual reasons people pass away. The first usually causing one of the second or third.

Stepping back from the older lives, things get a little different.

What’s a bit of a surprise is the sheer number of death claims due to cancer for women.

On the right, focusing on guys under 40 and men in the 40-49 age bands. The number of claims due to accident for guys under 40 and suicide for those men in the 40-49 age band are a bit disturbing. There’s something going on there, add to this we also have a high youth suicide rate here in New Zealand.

The focus on middle age men and their heart risk seems to be working with ages 40-59 the numbers are quite a bit lower than the 60+ group, which is where your dodgy ticker really starts showing up.

The correlation of cancer rates in men is similar to the cancer rates in women is a surprise. Even given the historical high level of focus on the girls for preventative testing, I’m surprised it’s so close and trends similar in the 50-69 ages.

What is the real surprise; the heart issues in the men’s under 40 age group. Being in this group myself, the attention on looking after yourself possibly hasn’t kicked in yet and first signs of trouble looks to be something pretty major, death by cardiac event!

This group is also the primary one, as an adviser, I hear ‘I’m fit and healthy and nothing is going to happen to me’ the most. The numbers would suggest otherwise, if you think like you’re bullet proof, you're in denial. We’ve all got to die some time, cheery thought I know.

Getting advice to get the right cover for you at the right level is what I do. What you want is to know that you and your family will be looked after financially. Get in touch for a no obligation chat, you can not fix what you don’t know.

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