Let's Talk About Life Assurance...

Listening to some Lagosians talk about the insurance sector of the financial services industry is like watching Ripley's believe it or not. Lagos, could we be that clueless about something so essential? In advanced economies the world over, the Europes and the U.S of As of this world, there are some services and even some sports you can't take part in if you're not insured. Oh! You think am making this up, go try bungee jumping or para skiing without insurance...that'll happen when hell freezes over and pigs skate. Seriously, let's talk about why you need an insurance policy.

The insurance arm of the financial industry is in the business of providing financial protection for property, life, health, etc against specified contigencies such as death, loss or damage. This involves the payment of specific sums of money (premiums) in return for guaranteeing such protection. In plain English, it involves setting money aside for the purpose of providing protection on the things we love or cherish, so if something happens we'll be able to replace what we lost.

I'm not going to bore you with the classes of insurance, with all due respect that's google's job (I find some people agreeing with me on that one.) Let's take a look at life assurance (ladies and gentlemen that's why am putting this up in the first place). Life assurace in plain terms, involves payment of premiums for the protection of one's life, in the event of the insured losing his/her life, provision can be made for the dependents based upon the insured's accumulated savings. Interesting isn't it? I mean, you do all that work and saviings just to provide for your family, right? Wrong! the benefits that life assurance offers is much more than paying compensation to the insured's family. Let's examine why life assurance is different from all forms of insurance and other financial products and services.


Differences between life assurance and other financial services.
1.   Life assurace encourages you to embark on compulsory savings culture.
2.   Life assurance guarantees you regular income by way of interest i.e. compound interest.
3.   As a secured investment, it is usually a way of compelling you to save for 'rainy days' as against most other investment portfolios that can
      be accessed at will.
4.   Because it is a future financial security option, it's the answer to the fear of the unknown future.
5.   Installment method payment makes it covenient for you as against as against other financial products that require lump sum or large deposits.
6.   It's financial security for your beneficiaries in the event of death as it's not prone to high risks resulting from business failures or fraud.
7.   The payment of compensation at the event of death of the insured aka sum assured, irrespective of how short the policy is in existence and how        small the premium paid.
8.   This to me is the best one, you can insure your life with more than one insurance company! Try that with your house or some other property and       you won't find anyone covering unless they don't know about it.  

I know some of my readers are saying "Look at this guy go, yakking and blabbing as if being insured is accepting the gospel of Christ." Well, ladies and gentlemen, we can never be too sure about life. You see, life throw some wicked curve balls at us in the game of life, we can't be too sure about the state of our investments some times. Circa 2008, before the worldwide stock crash, many Lagosians were millionaires courtesy of their investment in the shares of companies they've always trusted. What happened after the stock bust? Many Lagosians were reduced to tears, especially the young and upcoming believers in stock and shares, the watched their money plummet with their shares.

Let's not forget, Lagos, I'm not just talking about insurance generally here, I'm talking about life assurance specifically. The class of insurance that acts like your savings account with much more benefits, your real savings account! Lagosians, ask those you know around you that have life assurance policies during the the stock bust of 2008 and they would tell you their investments are, like Baba Presido used to say, "Dey Kampe."  Nothing happened to their investments but what their insurers told them would happen;

- Guaranteed value
- Return on investment
- Steady growth of investment (their monies grew in leaps and bounds because of the a beautiful feature in life assurance named, Compound     Interest.)

The fear of many of us is that you can't access your investment in life assurance until the event of death. Let me tell you emphatically now, Lagos, "YOU DON'T HAVE TO DIE TO REAP YOUR INVESTMENT IN LIFE ASSURANCE!" Life assurance policies are flexible with termination dates that can be chosen by the insured; you could agree to a 15-year policy and decide to terminate in 8 years, you could in the middle of the tenor or term or duration of the policy decide to partially withdraw on the investment and a host of other features and benefits.

Let me tell you the story of what transpired between me and a customer that demonstrates life assurace policy acting as a savings account. This story might turn out to be a bit verbose but permit me to tell it as it is a good testimonial of a good product and a good company. I went into the office of this customer of my company's (Standard Alliance Life Assurance) one day to ask her to start a policy with us. Unknown to me, however, she's already running a 15-year policy with us. Back in 2001, she started the policy with a young man (who today is a manager in one of the leading companies in the insurance business in Nigeria) when she was in public service. She's had several insurance marketers and agents in the course of the 8 years she paid her premiums to the company. On getting to dealing with me, she decided to terminate her policy!

"What?" I exclaimed, "You're 8 years into the policy already ma, just 7 more years and you'll get your money back." She replied and said "If your company's credible and trustworthy, you'd terminate this policy for me, have I not tried? Am Already more than halfway into the policy and now I want my money back!"


My heart sank in my chest as I walked out of her office with her letter of termination in my folder, I told the story to my boss with pain in my heart as I submittted the letter stating the customer's intention (thinking of it now, it turned out be an opportunity for me to test my company's credibility, to find an answer to the question "Do we really pay claims and how quickly do we do it?").

Some weeks after, the policy was terminated and her cheque was sent from the company's headquarters to my office. Lagos, you can imagine her joy when she recieved her cheque, right there and she wrote another cheque wanting to start another policy with us!

If you think I made the story up, call me on 07033588160 and 07056989820 and I'll come over and show you the photocopies of all the documents backing the transaction; statement of account, the cheque terminating the previous policy and the cheque she started her new policy with. Need I say more, Lagos? Have a blessed and fantastic week ahead.