Do you always have this feeling that the world is falling apart recently?
South Korea’s Park Geun Hye ousted while her North Korea counterpart decided to showcase his shiny missiles.
Trump accused Obama of wiretapping and everyone else of everything.
Meanwhile, the Syrian refugee problem continues to haunt Europe.

Here I am, marvelling our ability to outrun a T-Rex.
Tyrannosaurus Rex!
The most amazing dinosaur of all times and the lead in Jurassic Park movie!

Outrun it with a car, of course!

It turns out that I am an abnormality.
Most people prefers bad news.
Apparently, the media features one piece of good news for every 17 negatives reported ones!
Are we really a bunch of self-hating sadomasochists that enjoy scaring the hell out of ourselves?

This indulgence in negative news does serve a purpose.
It makes us feel a little better about our above-average lives.
At least we are not trapped in the deep ocean or suffering from an earthquake.

But at the same time, there is this little issue.
We tend not to tell people of all the blessings that we receive.
The good things that happen to us.

This will not do.
People tend to dislike insurance and some even hate it.
It is time for us to highlight some ways insurance has affected people positively.

Travel insurance saves lives.

We tend not to think insurance as a life saver.
After all, it is just a contract, not some superhero.
How can a sum of money jump in front of you and push you away from the incoming truck?

This woman found out that her travel insurance had actually saved her life.
Mary Holland was in Saigon when she contracted a fever.
Her insurance representative helped to arrange for a doctor to diagnose and treat her.
She had dengue for a week but no one thought of testing her for it until the insurance rep directed the doctor so.

Wrong Doctor.

In Singapore, we tend to take our medical competency for granted.
But in many developing countries, not all doctors are well trained.
The experienced insurance rep made a fateful judgment call and saved Mary’s life in the process.

The truth is we are vulnerable when we are overseas and experiencing a foreign situation.
With your travel insurance, you are just a call away from getting help.
No matter how seasoned of a traveller you are, it is great to have that option available.
And this SOS hotline is open 24/7 at a low cost.

Want to know more about the coverage of your typical travel policy?
Read more here.

Life Insurance changes your fate.

I knew Cindy from my days working at one of the insurance companies here.
She was smart, well-educated and pleasant looking.
With a Bachelor in real estate from NUS, she could join the property firms here.

She chose to join the insurance industry instead as a management trainee.
Later on, I discovered that her sister was an insurance advisor.
It seemed to be too coincidental.

Years later, Cindy revealed why she had chosen this field.
Her father passed away when she was in her primary school.
And her mother managed to bring the three kids up despite her modest pay as a kindergarten helper.
All her children graduated from the local universities which was quite an achievement since it was a single income family.

It was made possible by her father’s foresight.
He had bought life insurance to protect his precious family.
Due to that, the family did not lose the house.
Neither did the mother have to work 2 jobs to make ends meet.

Cindy’s mother was able to mould all of her kids into successful, contributing members of the nation.
Life insurance was the forcefield that shielded the family from the usual financial impacts associated with the passing of the main breadwinner.
It made perfect sense why Cindy and her sister had embarked on their own insurance careers to help others in the own capacities.

Continuing to help others to get on the right path.

You don’t hear these stories until you have grown close to the person.
Just because the loss of a family member is too painful for one to bring it up easily.
This is the silent power of life insurance.

It was more than money.

Deborah Nixon had problems getting life insurance for her husband who had cancer previously.
After several tries, she managed to convince one insurer to say yes.
In a cruel twist of fate, her husband’s cancer relapsed.
This time, it took him away from Deborah.

As Deborah described her emotional losses here, it was apparent that the life insurance proceeds made it much easier to cope with the demise of her beloved partner.
Insurance gave her time and space to recover fully from the tragic loss.

Anthony was terminally ill.
He activated his insurance payout and used it for renovations at his house.
It enabled him to spend a month at home in the company of the loved ones instead of the hospital.

The company of the loved ones can be more comforting than the best medical treatment.

These are examples of how insurance can help in ways more than just money.
The opportunities that a claim payout can provide to the policyholder and his/her loved ones are priceless.

Recall your own losses.
How much would you give to be able to spend an additional week with your loved one?

Health insurance gives you a fighting chance.

Illness doesn’t discriminate.
Young or old, thin or plump.
It can strike anyone anytime.

That is why Victor had obtained a health insurance when he had the chance.
When kidney cancer struck, he did not have to worry about the surgery cost.
He focused on his recovery and managed to get his life back on track.

In Singapore, we have taken our healthcare insurance for granted.
Sometimes there are some mistakes with the LOG (Letter of Guarantee) but most of the time, the insurance companies get it right.
We do not hear about the most of these cases because we are focusing on our recovery rather than telling your friends about how good your healthcare plan is.
After all, it does sound like we are bragging.

Summing it up

Too often we hear about the negative side about insurance.
Rogue agents, unacceptable service or frauds.
What we fail to realise is that it is not all to insurance.

People who benefit from life insurance often keep quiet about it.
Not because they intend to but it is associated with some tragic moments in their lives and thus, they will rather not recall that.

Painful memories.

But it is not hard to imagine insurance doing good most of the time.
In this era whereby social media is king, insurance companies will be publicly roasted if they screw up royally.
If you have had any doubts about insurance, we hope this will have altered your perspective.

Take a chance on insurance.
It is really good!

www.ClearlySurely.com aims to eradicate the knowledge gap between consumers and Life Insurance. Our Vision is that one day, every Man, Woman, and Child will be properly insured.

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