#Smartlady

Shucks , i had fever, sore throat and flu again last week 😦 Just recovered like 2 weeks plus ago ? And now again…

I did alot of portfolio reviews and resolving shortfalls lately..so my appointments took quite long like 2-3 hours.  Talk non-stop alot…Plus the weather is very hot…so i had a bad throat infection which lead to fever.

It’s been almost 3 months since i last blogged about #Smartlady. Coincidentally , some of my clients are readers of my blog ! I didn’t know that ! SG is too small. My clients referred them to me because their friends were looking to enhance their insurance and savings/investment portfolio. They mentioned that they enjoyed reading Smart Lady posts. They didn’t know it is me when their friends gave them my number too until they saw my whatsapp picture. So they requested that i blog more on Smartlady because it helps them to look at things in another perspective. I didn’t know that #smartlady posts have such an impact on some of you because i just blog from my work experiences and also cases i encountered recently. But im glad that it helps and thank you all for reading this humble space of mine. I will try to update more. Maybe once a week ?

Well ,the last time i blogged about #Smartlady was in Jan ? After that i was quite busy with alot of work and portfolios. Such that i have alot that i want to share but i cannot find the time to draft it down here. I haven’t been updating here often because i kept falling sick and have alot of backlogs and meetings to fulfil when i get back to work after my MCs.

Just a few days ago , i was preparing a Death Claim document…it hit me that i should blog about #Smartlady. Will do a #Smartlady on savings next !

Well for the last 3 months , i have worked alot of portfolios for women (age between 22-35). Some are working , some are stay-at-home-mum and some are still schooling in university. My female clients prefer a female adviser because they find female advisers comfortable to talk and confide to especially when you talk about child birth , husband problems or female body parts.

From my clients whom i spoke to and from what they told me about their friends , most of them don’t really depend on their husbands to take care of their financial portfolios (insurance/savings/investments). Some are even attending workshops or classes to learn more about finance and trading so they can make passive income.  Even some stay at home mums are doing saving plans bit by bit with the allowance they were given. Because they are not working , they have to make their money work for them instead of saving in a bank.

Recently i spoke to a lady with a medical issue. She is 28 and asked me to take a look at her portfolio and advice on her shortfall. So we started from the basic..which is insurance before we look into her endowments and investments. So i took a look at her portfoilo. There are 1 term insurance, 2 endowments and 1 accident policy. She has no critical illness coverage. And with her current medical issue , it can lead to something serious if relapsed. That is why she is relooking into her portfolio. She told me that her friends “strongly recommend” her to BUY TERM and INVEST THE REST.  The reason is because Term plans are cheap. No doubt Term plans are cheap (death term plan). Her dad’s friend who was an agent recommended a whole life insurance. But due to peer pressure, she followed her friend’s advice to go for death term insurance. So now she has a medical problem , she was afraid that it will worsen and want to add critical illness coverage which she lack of. But she knows with her condition now , it is very hard to get it fully covered. She is only 28. Still young and has a long way to go.

She told me her advice to young people is  “Do what you think is good and right for you. Do not follow others blindly… you can ask for suggestions and opinions but just don’t follow blindly. Go seek professional advices. “

When she told her friend about her medical issue, that friend just ‘disappeared’ and may have blocked her from whatsapp. She doesn’t blame her friend because it is her decision to follow her friend’s advice. But she was just disappointed that her friend “disappear” on her just like that.

Besides knowing what you want and what you need, you must also know WHAT YOU HAVE.

I got a call to process a death claim from someone close i know. A family member just passed away and the whole family doesnt know what he has. When a person pass away, his/her family will be busy mourning, grieving and settle all the funeral matters. After the funeral , the hospital bills , debts,  loans or letters will start coming in which the family has to settle. And that is when everyone will be checking on the insurances or endowments policies etc the deceased bought when he was alive. Hoping there are claims that can be made to help to ease the financial burden.

Sometimes the deceased’s family members doesn’t know what he/she has and they have to end up going to every single company to check. It takes alot of time and energy especially when you are still grieving. Yes, whatever is in the bank account of the deceased belongs to the family. but all the loans , medical bills etc will all also go to the family members who are still living.

So it is good that you keep your files and documents properly. Let your family members know what you have and make the documents easy to find. Because sometimes in the case of emergency or when you need $$ for medical bills , these documents can help you alot. Insurance companies will not know if you are diagnosed with illness or death or not unless you submit the claims with your supporting documents. So maybe you can submit a claim but you forgot or don’t know if you have or not and ended up not claiming. There are also deadlines to submit some claims.

Imagine you are in coma or unconcious, nobody will know what you have. You may be healthy and active now but you won’t know what will happen in the next 20/30/40/50 years later. Anything can happen to anyone. The youngest one i know was a 22 year old with brain tumour. His headache persisted for quite while and only when his vision turned blur then he go for check and realized there was a tumour.

It is also important to know WHAT YOU HAVE.

I had done reviews for some clients’ old portfolio. Some mistook their endowments for life insurance which they can claim when they are down with criticaill illness and some have accident plans that can claim for sports injuries but they were not aware that they can claim. Only after i explained then they realized that. I guess the reason is because their advisers never meet up to review often or for years so all were forgotten. Some thought their life insurance covers criticail illnesses but there was not and it covers only death. Some had late stage critical illness but no early stage. Most young students or working adults have insurances which their parents bought when they were young but most i met only covered for death and whereas some have coverage of about $35,000 only which is not sufficient.

So know what you have , how much you have and what they are for is important.

Maybe some of you don’t find it a need to look at these things now.
But trust me, with people around me facing financial difficulties because of illnesses or death , clients whom i did the claims for and people whom i have spoke to with medical illness , don’t wait until things to happen then look into these things. Because it will be too late. Especially when it comes to insurance which has sensitive medical underwriting.

For the last 2 months , i have been doing alot of reviews and resolving the shortfalls for my clients’s insurance and savings portfolio. So all these are based on my experiences.

If after reading this post and you realized you don’t know what you have and what they are for ? It is time to dig them out.