I often hear from my colleagues and providers about using electronic applications. Often phrased with the comment, “With what you do with technology, it is surprising you do so much with paper?”

Interestingly clients are also often surprised with the paper too. Maybe there is too much and more digital could be included. We will see.

Frankly of everything I do, the application form is the most difficult part of the whole process for clients. When we are in an environment where things are being simplified, insurance applications have got more difficult.

A bit of a chunky subject this post.

Lately, there has been more noise around the gay community, particularly around transgender rights. Especially so with the recent shooting, with some horrifying treatment being dealt out to those 'who are not like the rest of us’.

I wrote the bulk of this post in April 2016, well before the mass shooting in the US and off the back of media comments and articles in newspapers, TV news and social media chatter. The tension for the shooting in June was brewing, for no other reason than people are different. Something similar is brewing in the US on the subject of abortions and the rulings of the state and supreme courts there.

You do not have a need for insurance now, or you have sufficient cover for now, but you expect to need more cover in the future.

You do not want to find you have your future medical conditions affecting your cover when you do apply?

Part of this is why insurance companies want you to buy cover before you develop medical conditions, the insurance companies feel selected against if you only take cover because you have a condition. This is why they apply underwriting at application time.

One thing that people hate when it comes to life insurance is the paperwork.

The application form is a bit of a book, and it can be a bit daunting to complete, even when you are fit and healthy. We advisers do not like them much either, but they need to be done.

What most people do not realise when they have existing insurance cover, that there are features built into many policies that let you increase them without lots of paperwork.

I'm looking for insurance cover, but I do some interesting things;

By interesting things, I'm assuming this is related to your hobbies, activities and occupation. 

Insurance companies do take an interest in what activities you do because sometimes they are risky. Immediate things which come to mind for most people are bungy jumping and parachuting. The list is much longer.

 If you hear this, your adviser may not have explained things as clearly as they could have. 

'Terms' is industry slang or jargon for special terms, which means a client's policy has been modified, by the insurer, from the original standard policy contract your cover was proposed on. 

The offer of terms or special terms offer generally happens at application time, but can be applied during the policy or at claim time. If the insurer becomes aware of a material fact, that will change the terms of the contract the insurer would have offered at application time. Avoid the later two examples as they can have unintended and surprising outcomes. 

Interesting research out of Australia, yes I know Aussie. However, as our closest neighbour, most research has some value for insight or application in our market too.

What is interesting with this, is the insurance uptake across all products is generally better in Australia, with house car and contents being the most similar to us.

This research was specifically about insurance literacy, most of the time these reports are on investment or financial literacy or subject matter and insurance is treated as a by-line. Which for those relying on it, it is far from a by-line.

It seems there is plenty to write about this week. 

Russell Hutchison has said the following on his blog moneyblog this week.

An Australian man whose daughter went to live in Syria claims she did nothing wrong by going there, and was misled into the venture which was supposed to be for humanitarian purposes. Headlines describe her as a "Jihadist." But her motivation is not the point as far as the insurance claim is concerned.

Diana’s Clements recent article on heart attack definitions in trauma insurance and the situation of a claimant in Australia, not getting paid for his heart attack, has put the spot light on the definition of a heart attack in trauma insurance here.

Looking into heart attack definitions in the market, from what you can presently buy, the quality level across heart attack definitions is quite surprising.

There has been plenty of contention about Sovereign heart attack definitions over the years. The rating for this would suggest it’s somewhat founded, with a 21% gap between it and the best rated heart attack definition.

As our largest life insurer, Sovereign also has the largest number of trauma policies on their books.

The following is a school speech my youngest daughter delivered recently. I'm proud of her position and writing on this, all herself and a quite mature view from a 15 year old.

The speech was marked as a Merit overall for NCEA 1 and the writing as an Excellence. I felt it was worth sharing. Financial literacy is an area, us kiwi's, haven't had a great deal of success with. 

If I gave you $20,000 today, what would you do with it?

Something we are told about, and sometimes think about, but do we actually take the time to do?

I was browsing the Pak'nSave website planning this weeks grocery trip, and came across a section of their website that frankly, is just good advice. Not financial advice, though there is a link to budgeting services if you need it, good advice on better managing your money when it comes to the weekly shopping spend. 

I was reading a policy working recently and it had a definition of death in it that I found humorous. Not that dying is humorous but the way it was written was.

Death/Dies - Means irreversibly dead with no possibility of resuscitation.

It was along the lines of doh! yeah already, it’s life cover, you’re dead it pays, what’s hard about that.

Thinking about it, we’ve had stories reported in the media about people being pronounced dead, then waking up in the morgue or the autopsy table, some hours/days later.

This question gets asked from time to time, and the simple answer is to help people. Which often gets a 'say what' sort of look, then 'but you sell insurance?' Yup, that's what I do.

Those in the industry understand my answer intimately, those outside often don't understand it so much.

I'll try and explain.

Those that have been reading my blog and social posts on a regular basis will have seen I’ve got a particular bee in my bonnet about unfunded medicines. Partly driven from my view insurance advice needs to improve but also ensuring you have access to the best treatment possible when you really need it the most.

This blog article was updated and reposted here on the 3rd of October 2016. I have left this here for comparison purposes to show the impact of Sovereign's announcement on the 30th of September.

As I wrote in this article, unfunded medicines the real risk to you, if you’re a Southern Cross policy holder you have about a 6.3% risk that if you develop cancer you’ll have to find money to pay for your cancer treatment. If you’re with another provider who doesn’t have any contribution to your unfunded treatments, you’ll have a 15% chance you’ll have to contribute to your treatment.

The reserve bank has released their latest update on the cash rate and dropped it earlier than expected. 

Some have suggested that this was expected by economists later in the year, others it's a surprise.

What does it really mean for you?