Ondoy and insurance
By Randell Tiongson on September 29th, 2009Insurance has been something people felt they do not need. The Philippines is one country that is severely under-insured in both Life and Non-Life (Property & Casualty).
Insurance is still the best tool for risk management by virtue of a risk transfer mechanism. For those who are wondering if their cars and properties are covered by insurances… yes, if they have the proper coverage such as Flood and AOG (Acts of God).
Loss of life and property is crippling, financially and insurance can really help — despite not being popular among us Pinoys. Maybe it’s time we look at insurance in a new view.
Insurance companies that do not ‘re-insure’ will be in trouble, that’s for sure!
Check out my old blogs about Motor Car Insurance
We must always be prepared… financially, and more importantly, spiritually. My 2 cents.
“For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away.”
(Matthew 24:38-39, NIV)
One way to really maximize the benefits of insurance is to have an army of insurance agents fully knowledgeable about the importance of each peril. In so doing, we would be able to provide a more thorough insurance coverage beneficial to all policyholders.
Proper education and training to theses people is an important factor.
Honestly, insurance companies are at fault too by focusing too much on direct marketing rather than mass media as a tool to educate the public about the importance of insurance. Little do people know that their comprehensive car insurance should include “Acts of God” otherwise, they’re not covered. Simple things like these should already be a given knowledge that is sorely lacking.
Thank you for making me realize the importance of insurance. I’m able to sleep peacefully knowing that our cars are insured, I have set aside for my retirement, medical and will be able to leave some for my kids.
My car got flood last year by typhoon “Frank” in Visayas on July last year. Purely absolute luck, my wife renewed the car insurance with AOG coverage on it just about a month before the typhoon hit us. But honestly, we were hoping for a less coverage to reduce the cost. After what has happened, we did not take insurance for granted.
My wife and I even took the licensure exam for life insurance agent. This is also one way of reducing the insurance cost by insuring yourself and your family.
Just sharing!
My wife and I are life insurance agents. At some point in our profession, we stopped offering coverage for Critical Illnesses because nearly all our prospects thought it was too morbid based on their confidence they would not have cancer, stroke, heart attack, etc., as they lived a ‘healthy life’ style.
We had ourselves covered with Critical Illness rider, but just at the minimum until a friend of ours claimed a 500,000 peso coverage due to an early-diagnosed cancer of the cervix; she is alright now and lives a near normal life. We then increased our coverage but because we had aged by 3 years, the premium got higher, so we obtained coverage lower than we wanted.
…..And then, my wife was diagnosed of breast cancer 4 months after we increased our coverage. How we wished we got a higher coverage 3 years earlier when our premiums were considerably lower!!
Nevertheless, almost 750,000 Critical Illness and disability claim proceeds helped us a lot in the treatment of my wife. As of this day, we have spent more than 2 Million pesos on her treatment.
Every responsible adult, please ponder on these:
“Who will be giving me, say, Million pesos in the event that I’d need such an amount for medical treatment?”
You have a 5th tire (a spare) tire in your car although you have a brand new car and wheels, and you have a comprehensive car insurance despite being a very careful and defensive driver, so that you will be assured of continuous transportation service. Don’t you think you and your family should have the same kind of assurance?
Insurance is something you should buy although you think you don’t need its proceeds yet, because when you’ll need its proceeds, nobody will sell it you.
In Christian Life it should be assurance that in the time of death we should be with the Lord. In our earthly life it should be insurance… I agree with the basic insurance coverages like life and/or health as in illness riders (however given the premium and its exponential rise…)balance your resources – life insurance should be the baseline… But to some extent I don’t agree that insurers should be trusted with your wealth management…I would suggest learn and manage it yourself… As to the property insurance like houses and cars these are necessarily important with the full coverage as much as possible. I remember the typhoon Milenyo and my car was strucked by a huge tree – I shouldered the repair by my own money because I did not include the AOG rider… From that time, I learned my lesson well…Just be cautious with the terms and conditions of the plan you are going to sign up – read carefully and do extra research never trust your agent – do your homework!
Hi mr. Randell,
Question lng po, advisable po ba kumuha ng health care insurance.?
@ Raymund. Simply put, yes.
It is very true about insurance. It is very true that we all need insurance because this is a good help to us in many different was. example is accidents, calamities and other problems we will encounter. Insurance is a big help to us. in choosing insurance company we need an accessible and a trustworthy company like Prudential Life.