You’ve probably been approached once or twice by financial advisors or insurance agents since the start of this pandemic.

Some of you may have wondered why we’re more active now. Could it be the extra time and the work-from-home opportunities? Is it because we need income so we need to make a sale.

More importantly, what did you feel when you were approached?

Clients I’ve approached since the start of the pandemic gave me different responses to this question. A handful of them said they didn’t mind since I was sincere about helping them. Some of them were honest enough to say that they felt like I was just out to get a sale.

But majority of them were thankful, especially after our session.

Financial Advisors – not Just Sales People

Because of financial advisors who care more about the sale than helping people, it has continuously become challenging to break the stigma that we are just after a person’s signature.

I can’t stress this point enough: We are not just into sales.

There’s a reason why we’ve shifted to carry the role of being financial advisors or financial consultants rather than insurance agents.

Yes, financial consultants ARE technically insurance agents, but the former becomes more necessary when it comes to life and health insurance. We deal with people’s lives and securing their income from unwanted rainy-day scenarios. Advisors who focus more on the sale are hard to find during crisis situations, which is why it’s important to choose your financial advisors wisely.

And this pandemic we’re in is such a crisis situation.

Pandemic as a Crisis Situation

For those who have consulted with a financial advisor will know this: Crisis situations are exactly what we have been preparing you for.

We define a crisis situation as a period of time wherein uncertainties overcome the norm.

During such situations, risks of losing property, losing income, getting sick, or losing a life are high. What more can be evident than what people are facing now?

Lives have been disrupted as we go deep into the 3rd month of the community quarantines.Industries have been forced to pivot in order to find ways of surviving the crisis. Many people have lost jobs and some have their income streams greatly reduced. 

We all have seen the statistics. As of June 20, 2020, we have 20,600 active cases, 1,150 have passed away, while 7,650 recovered.

Life Insurance for those who passed away

With the risk of acquiring the virus still high and the absence of an absolute cure still a fact, life insurance becomes all the more necessary during these times.

Those who have their life insurance policies know this: If they pass away during the crisis, the future of their beneficiaries will not be as affected compared to those who don’t have one.

Why is that?

The life insurance amount that your beneficiaries can claim should be enough to provide for their needs for a good amount of years. This means that their lifestyles will not be as impacted; their lives won’t be badly disrupted.

How much life insurance do you need to have? The easiest way to compute this is take your annual income and multiply it by 10. Why ten?

Think about it. If you’re insured for 10 times of your annual income, that means your family can continue to live for ten years with the same amount of income that you will have provided for them when you were alive.

If you’re insured for less, it’s time to review and revisit your policies with your financial adviser.

Health Insurance for Long-Term Recovery

Having adequate funds to get COVID19 treatments is key to survival.

With the long-term effects of the SARS-nCov-2 virus being more serious than originally thought, having the necessary financial means to survive during the treatments becomes all the more critical. Even if a patient survives the critical stages of an infection, they may need further treatments for any lingering effects the virus had on the body, especially on the lungs.

Also, most insurance companies don’t cover COVID19 infections as critical illness until the effects of the infection lead to the likes of organ failure and transplants. This means that people can only claim critical illness insurance when it leads to such.

With this knowledge, one would think that getting critical illness insurance is only necessary if you catch the virus. The problem with this line of thinking is that people forget that getting insurance goes through medical underwriting.

If medical underwriters reject insurance applications due to COVID sickness, then this protection strategy will not be feasible.

This is why getting critical illness insurance is necessary to manage the risks of the pandemic as well as the long-term effects of the virus.

People Need Insurance Now

This is the main reason why financial advisors like us are still selling insurance during the pandemic.

If we had been allowed to, we probably had been one of the frontliners performing out duties in securing people and their income from unwanted scenarios. Thankfully, the insurance commission allowed us to perform our consultation services and offer insurance protection via digital means. This gave us the channel to reach out to more people and showcase the importance of what we offer.

Moreso, it allowed us to educate people and protect them at the same time.

People need health insurance to have a better fighting chance should they contract the virus. PruLifeUK offers free coverage against COVID following certain parameters.

Second, people need critical illness insurance to have much needed funds for the expensive treatments to survive critical illnesses. I previously shared our family’s experience in battling such a disease.

Finally, people need life insurance to give their families a fighting chance at life in case they pass away.

Three simple reasons that fuel our drive to do our duty in protecting people and their families from the critical effects of this pandemic.

These are the reasons why we still promote and sell insurance during a pandemic.