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I feel that women sometimes don't get cover in place, especially when they're not the breadwinner. I think it's really important to get cover, even if you're not the breadwinner. There's so much that you do bring to the household that you cannot replace. Who's going to pick up the kids from school, who's going to tutor the children if you are a caregiver at home. But also getting life cover at a young age as a woman is cheaper, much more affordable and you can grow with that life cover over term. It’s also important to have this cover to keep our independence and to make sure that our families are looked after and that there's a bit of a legacy.

20 or 30 years ago, much fewer women insured their lives. Back then, less women worked. Now women work and it's a joint household, it's a combination income; it's not just one person bringing in the bread - it's a family that's bringing in the bread. So as women grow in their careers, we need to ensure that we are covering our lives as well - as we're not single household incomes anymore. But then again, you also have single mothers that need to insure their children and their lives, which is very important.

What are the most common types of claims that come from women? I would say most claims that come through are income protection claims – that is people who are unable to work on a temporary or on a permanent basis. And then one of the other bigger claims are severe illnesses. 80% of people survive their first dread disease. So why get cover that only pays like once? We need to get cover that's going to pay out multiple times to ensure that we cover multiple events. The point is that we can actually, in a lifetime, get more than one severe illness. Just because we do survive the first severe illness, the probability of contracting the same severe illness or getting something completely different is very likely. So severe illness is definitely one of the ones that we need to ensure the most.

You’re speaking from first hand experience? I tell my clients on a regular basis that it doesn't just happen to other people, it happens to the broker too. In 2020, I was diagnosed with melanoma, stage one skin cancer, and I went through surgery. And over and above the group benefits that I had, that only paid out 25% of sum assured; I had one of the best severe illness covers in the market (It's actually the best in the market) and I was able to claim 100% of my sum assured. And this is for stage one skin cancer. But on top of that, if it were to happen again, I am able to claim again. So, you know, I'm a very satisfied client. On top of that, I was able to claim income protection for the time I was booked off, and that really made a life difference for me, and I'm sure it will do for my clients as well.

We have a lot of training in illnesses and claims, and we get that experience on what happens with claims. There are some illnesses that are guaranteed to come back. So, we need to have a cover that's going to cover us for more than one need. We want cover to pay out larger sum assured, at an earlier stage at detection of a severe illness - so that we can get all the treatment to avoid getting to the next stage. We also want to ensure that if I do get a dread disease and it comes back at a later stage, that I can claim again, or if this dread disease has caused a secondary dread disease that I'll be able to claim, or if I'm so unlucky that I get a completely different dread disease; I can claim on that too. That doesn't affect my life cover. It doesn't affect my claim ability. And it gives me peace of mind.