SPEAKER_02: 0:10

Hello and welcome back to that Homeland Harp. Today I'm joined by Rebecca and we're going to talk about something very, very important to everyday Kiwis. Hey Rebecca. Hi. What are we talking about today? We're talking about under insurance.

SPEAKER_01: 0:23

Under insurance?

SPEAKER_02: 0:25

What does it mean?

SPEAKER_01: 0:26

So it's either the lack of insurance altogether with Kiwis or the they may have insurance, but it's not enough, or it's the wrong type of insurance. Okay, let's expand on each and one of those topics. So about 70% of Kiwis are underinsured. Or in general, either don't have insurance at all, like I said, but only around 38 have even life cover. 38%.

SPEAKER_02: 0:54

38% of Kiwis have only life cover. What happened to the other 62%? Exactly. What are they up to?

SPEAKER_01: 1:03

I mean, you know, 30-something do have health, but a lot of the ones I think that have life cover see the uh importance of insurance. So they're probably the same ones that have the health cover as well, quite frankly. Um, and then it's even less, I mean, income and mortgage protection are I think it was like 18% last time I looked at at the um percentages, and trauma was 20-something.

SPEAKER_00: 1:26

So it's a lot of missed, like a lot of gaps.

SPEAKER_02: 1:32

Yeah, that that scares me because if you think about it, like I'm sure most of those people will have mortgages or will have some sort of debt or will have families, will have kids, will have something worth protecting.

SPEAKER_01: 1:46

And even if they don't have the debt, they've got rent. Like if they don't have a mortgage, they've still got rent, they've still got expenses, right? They've still got to live. So not having anything to cover their income, which is their biggest asset, is pretty scary.

SPEAKER_02: 2:01

It is very, very scary. Okay, so what can we do to help our average everyday New Zealander?

SPEAKER_01: 2:07

What should be what they should be thinking about right now? Just getting in touch and having that chat with us. Look, it it's scary because especially at the moment with cost of living and everything going on, finding the money for insurance. I mean, we understand it's always difficult. Um, but having a little something is better than nothing. You might still be underinsured. So, you know, it's not great. But at least having something at the end of the day. Um, and we can figure that out. Like, you know, you might have a budget in mind, we can figure out the best thing that you can get for that amount. You might be surprised by what you can actually get, you know.

SPEAKER_02: 2:46

And it comes down to lifestyle as well, right? Like if you can afford five carp of coffee a week or a takeaway, you can afford insurance.

SPEAKER_01: 2:57

Exactly. That's how I see it. Yeah, especially the younger you are. I mean, you know, twenties and thirties, even into your forties, it can be reasonable, you know, reasonably priced. Obviously, the older you get, the more expensive it does get, but the older you get, the less cover you probably need as well. Because your debt will be going down or whatever the situation is, right? So the younger you are, the better it is to get it locked in place. And also health-wise, like get it all locked in place while you're healthy and it's a lot cheaper.

SPEAKER_02: 3:27

I was about to say when you don't have as many conditions and stuff. Yeah, this is crazy. Sorry, I just got distracted because my dog is running outside. Um I'm gonna go after her. She's fine. She'll come back, guys. Don't worry about it. By the time you're listening to this, I'm sure she's safe at home. But um, the the key, I think, here is you know, you can't rely on your family and friends setting up give a little pages.

SPEAKER_01: 3:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 3:53

And that's always been my message. Like every time I see a give a little page, and there's so many young people these days that something happens to them, whether it's uh an accident, you know, car accident, sports injury, whatever, or whether it's illness, you know, cancer, it's huge in New Zealand. And um, nobody is immune, nobody, you know, is we all eventually die. It's I've gone dark on you guys. But it's true, right? Like it's those things that we really need to address. But what can you do to have a better quality of life? And I mean, right now I'm reading this book, and it's definitely definitely changing my perspective on life. It's called When Breath Becomes Ear, and it was written by Paul Kalanithi. And it's about the surgeon, he's a neurosurgeon, you know, he's in the top uh peak of his career, he is absolutely fantastic, he's one of the best, and he finds out he's got cancer and he's 36, you know, and he's like my age, so and he's about to die, and he knows he's only got a few years to live. So he is absolutely reassessing his whole position on life and death. And that's the thing like nobody plans to get cancer, right? But you can plan what will happen if you do get cancer. Absolutely. How do you want to spend the last 12 months of your life?

SPEAKER_01: 5:14

And how do you want to leave your family going forward? Because they've lost a loved one, which is traumatic enough. But imagine losing your loved one and then losing your home. Right. Like if especially you've got young kids, anything like that. Having that certainty that, you know, it's horrible enough that you're going through that, but knowing that they will be okay, I think would take a huge weight off anybody that's going through something like that.

SPEAKER_02: 5:40

Yeah. Did I tell you a story about this woman um in Wellington I was helping out one year? She is um, she had cancer, right? So get this. She, her and husband come to New Zealand, he works for wetter workshops, etc. Um, they live in Miramar, fantastic, cute little family. They've got two daughters, I think, by that stage. She gets pregnant, she has twins, and um finds out during pregnancy that she's also got cancer, like really bad brain cancer, and they have to operate and stuff like that, but they can't do much while she's pregnant, or she has to terminate the pregnancy. Anyway, she ends up having um her children, her twins, and then um she ends up having all these different treatments down to her and things like that, and she's out, like out to it. It's um it was really, really sad. So the whole community have rallied around them, and we were team tagging, you know, we were uh coming and helping with the babies and with the groceries and cooking, etc. etc. Because she was on um like a partner support work visa, and he was on a work visa, so they weren't even, you know, New Zealand citizens or residents, so everything was costing them three times more, ten times more, and it was very, very sad because they suddenly were stranded in a foreign country, they couldn't go back um to where they've come from for various reasons, and they had to come up with hundreds and thousands of money for her treatment and for someone to help her with the kids. And I remember I arrived one time, it was right before Christmas. I thought that was my Christmas deed for the year, and um and she was waiting in the driveway for me with the baby, and she was just like, Here's the baby, I'm off, I'm going back to sleep because I'm just exhausted. And to me, it was like, wow, you know, like this is what you don't think about when you hear of someone oh, they have cancer. You don't think about all these little things that add up to their day, and her caring for the newborns, and you know, it was just taking everything out of her body to be dealing with cancer, chemo. Um, and I mean, exhaust it's exhausting enough to look after babies, yet alone twins. Okay, and then without the cancer, you know, and then she also had that on top, and her husband would run home in between his um work because he had to continue to work to provide for them. So um, you know, seeing that firsthand and how it's affected their family definitely opened my eyes to what happens and the effect cancer has, or you know, any other long-term illness on the family. And it was really, really sad. I think in the end, she um they ended up going back, they ended up going back home and somewhere else for more support because they just couldn't continue the way they were. But if you had the money, if you had insurance, then you could afford to get, you know, 24-hour help, for instance. You could get made, um, you know, housekeeper that will help you with all those things, or you could afford for your husband not to work or for your wife not to work and help you to be there for you. So it's just all those things that people don't really think about.

SPEAKER_01: 8:40

Yeah, and it comes back to the education point as well, right? I mean, I say every time I think now, but uh explaining that and and getting people to think about those situations, like what would actually happen. Because no one wants, I mean, you said about going a bit dark before, but no one wants to think about it, but that's what we're here for. We do get quite dark, but that's because we have to think of the worst case.

SPEAKER_02: 9:03

We have to, exactly. Um, my favorite phrase was always prepare for the worst.

SPEAKER_01: 9:07

What was the No I know the one as well?

SPEAKER_02: 9:11

The worst, expect the but uh expect the best, right? Like you you hope for the best. Hope for the best. Hope for the best. Yeah, hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. Yeah, and uh and I think that's the best balance of both because you can't just go around life closing your eyes and ears, going la la la, nothing's gonna happen, we'll be fine. I mean, look, just my kid, my goodness, my second child, he is a disaster, walking disaster. I don't know what's up with the kid, but he is like, he thinks he's invincible, you know, nothing can happen to him. So the other day I get a phone call from school. He uh cracked both of his adult teeth, the front adult teeth, like there's pieces missing. And he actually knocked his baby teeth that way at school. Like both of them he hit got hit in the face with the ball. I don't know, I don't know, but he lost both of his baby teeth at school, the front ones. Yeah, then the adult ones grew and he ran into the pole, like literally, with the face open, poof, front teeth. Managed to get him to the dentist, then managed to fix it up a little bit, but you know, and I keep explaining to him, you don't have any more teeth coming through. This is it's not a continuous thing. This is your last lot, please, please take care. But like, that's what I mean, you know. And for him, goodness, I'll be insuring him up to a zoo, god forbid. But like, he is nuts. I don't know what's up with that kid, and I love him dearly, and he's the most empathetic child out of the four I have, but I don't know what's up with that. You know, he walked at seven months, and um, and when he walked, stop now, right? No, and he would just bang his head everywhere and just roll down the stairs and do all sorts. So, you know, he's got no fear, he's got zero fear, and he keeps telling me he wants a motorbike.

SPEAKER_01: 10:57

Oh gosh, if he can just injure himself like that, running out of there.

SPEAKER_02: 11:00

I know, I was like, no, you're not allowed to, but yeah, definitely get the most phone calls for him from school, rest assured. But um, yeah, and that's that's what I mean, you know, like insure your kids when they're young, because especially the ones like him that are accident prone, something always happens to them. And that way, in the future, if they do need to have, you know, hip replacement, I don't know, leg replacement, bolts in their shoulders, whatever, whatever, you know, you've got that insurance in place. Absolutely. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Rebecca. This has been a very interesting topic. Thank you. And for those that want to hear more from us, we will be running a webinar soon. So um get in touch with us and we'll send you some details. The webinar will cover all the different insurance products that um we have out there and various case studies where insurance could have been handy. Thank you so much.