Facts worth knowing:
- You stand a 1 in 8 chance of suffering a disability before age 65
- One year of disability can use up ten years’ worth of savings
- More homes are lost through disability than death
- 1 in 6 South African men and 1 in 7 South African women will suffer from cancer
- Many cancer patients are alive five years after diagnosis, with many dying of old
age
- Every 17 minutes, someone buys life insurance, who will not live to pay the second
premium
Good risk management is managing those risks that you are capable of managing and
insuring against those you cannot. In the financial planning context the risks you
cannot manage are your death, disability and severe illness before retirement. These
events will interrupt the income required by yourself and/or your dependants, and
will also interrupt the accumulation of capital for retirement. Clearly you must
insure against these.
Risk cover cannot reverse tragedy, but it does make the future easier to handle
as it enables your family to face life without the added pressure of financial burdens.
Your financial plan with address the adequacy of your existing death, disability
and dread disease provision and will quantify the level of any possible shortfall.