When my staff called a client recently, she said something none of us expected.
“I don’t remember who he is.”
We were doing our usual rounds, checking that every client has GIRO set up for their policy payments. It is a small piece of admin, and it exists to prevent policies from lapsing by accident. I expected this call to be another quick reminder.
At first we thought it was a mix-up. Maybe she had forgotten my name. Then we spoke to her brother, and the real reason came out.
What had happened
A few months earlier, she had been in a serious traffic accident. She spent months in the ICU. When she finally regained consciousness, much of her memory was gone.
When I visited her, it was clear how much her life had changed. She needed walking aids and spoke with difficulty, and she told me she had to relearn her alphabet. She had lost years of memory, to the point that she once asked her family, “Where is Lee Kuan Yew?”
Her brother had come back from overseas to care for her. She told me she felt grateful, and also guilty, knowing how much her family was giving up to look after her.
It was hard to take in that someone so young and so full of life was now rebuilding from the very beginning.
And yet, in the middle of all this, she thanked me for the claims we helped her through, for the cover she had in place, and for the fact that when everything else had been shaken, at least the financial support was there.
How close it came
What has stayed with me most is how close she came to losing even that.
When my staff called her, she was not on GIRO. Her premiums had fallen due right around the time of her accident, while she was in the ICU and in no position to pay anything. That call reached her within the grace period, and we were able to keep her policies in force.
If the call had come after the grace period ran out, her policies would have lapsed and the claims would have been denied. Getting the policies back after a condition like hers would almost certainly not have been possible, because reinstating a lapsed policy usually means declaring your health again.
All of that could have turned on a payment that nobody was able to make, in a month when she could not even remember who I was.
Why I take the small things seriously
This is why I insist on details that many people see as admin, and GIRO is one of them.
Life cover, disability cover and critical illness cover are there for the worst moments. But those are also the moments when you are least able to deal with paperwork. A hospital bed is not where anyone remembers a premium due date.
If you are reading this and want to check your own position, three things are worth doing:
- Put your premiums on GIRO or another automatic payment. It is the simplest protection against a lapse you never intended.
- Make sure someone in your family knows what you hold and who to call. In her case, it was her brother who helped us understand what had happened.
- Keep your contact details up to date with your insurers and your adviser, so the people trying to reach you can.
None of these takes long, and all of them matter most at a time when you cannot do them yourself.
What it comes down to
I am grateful she is still here, and grateful her family had that financial support when they needed it.
She reminded me again why this work matters. When lives are at stake, there is no such thing as a small detail.
