Our next broker hero showcase is Clare Gray, from Clear Mortgages.
Clare’s Hero Case Study
I carried out a review with my client in November 2018. My client is a single parent with two children in early secondary school.
Although my client would receive sick pay from work and she had life cover in place, I identified that that the cover and term arranged by another adviser were not enough or appropriate. Previously my client couldn’t afford critical illness cover, but wasn’t offered an alternative. We discussed a budget and I recommended full life cover decreasing term over the term of the new mortgage, starting at the amount borrowed. I also recommended partial critical illness cover for the term of her mortgage.
In February 2019 my client called to say that she had found a lump in her breast. I called Aviva to ask if the critical illness cover would pay out. They were very understanding and put a claim in place, as I told them that my client was in hospital having surgery to remove the lump. We didn’t know at this stage that the lump was cancerous but Aviva started the claim straight away.
My client did have cancer and had invasive surgery to remove it. As she had a low grade form of cancer my client didn’t think Aviva would pay out. However in a matter of weeks a pay-out was made for the full amount. I was so impressed with Aviva allowing me to liaise with them on my client’s behalf, as she was very poorly and having chemo and radiation treatment. Aviva were brilliant in supporting my client, when they needed to speak to her they called her at a suitable time and with a caring attitude.
Once my client was well and at home she called me to thank me. She said that if I had not offered her the policy, she would have struggled with finances and stress. My client said she would have had to go back to work after 6 months, even though she would have still been poorly. The policy means that my client can stay off work longer, whilst she continues her treatment for another 12 months. She couldn’t thank me enough and said that I took the strain of form-filling away, but to me I was just doing my job! On reflection it is always possible to protect all of our customers by having the conversation and finding out what is really important. In a perfect world we would all stay healthy and live a long a happy life but unfortunately this isn’t always the case. If your customer can’t afford full cover have the conversation as to what they can afford. I believe we all have a duty of care to protect our clients and, after all, they are the ones that keep us in a job.
