Men’s Health Month: This year, grow some income protection

Nic Smit, Chief Product and Pricing Actuary at Bidvest Life

November is Men’s Health Awareness Month – and we know what that means. We’re going to see some shocking attempts at mustaches as we raise awareness of men’s health issues, like prostate and testicular cancer and suicide. 

When it comes to men’s health, an adviser’s role is clear: help your clients make healthy financial decisions that keep them and their families protected when illness, mental health issues or injury strike. 

Bidvest Life saw the highest number of claims in its 27-year history in 2021, with claim volumes increasing by 44% compared to 2020. Mental health issues, largely due to anxiety, burnout and depression, were the fourth-most common reason for claiming on income protection, behind cancer-related claims. Here, prostate cancer continues to be the most common cancer for men in South Africa. As an industry, we can’t ease their health issues. But we can certainly ensure that they can take the time off to recover without having to worry about losing their incomes.

That’s why income protection benefits should be the number one priority for every working South African – and financial advisers have a key role to play. It’s up to you to ensure your clients know their real needs and risks and are covered correctly. By prioritising income protection benefits, they are protected from life’s curveballs and have claim certainty.

That means asking questions like: 

• Do your clients have both temporary and long-term income protection in place? 
• Have you provided them with effective cover for critical illnesses that provides for both income and lump sum needs to focus on their recovery?
• If so, have they selected the right waiting period to suit their needs and do they understand the impact of that decision at the claim stage?
• Do you have clients who were previously uninsurable due to their occupation? They may now qualify for cover.

The fact is that many clients think that because they have medical aid, they’re covered for what life throws at them. They’re wrong. Often, medical aid doesn’t even cover all their medical expenses, let alone keeping the lights on and the groceries bought while they are unable to work. 

Many critical illness products in the market will only start paying out when a prostate cancer sufferer has a Gleason score of 6 or above and in some cases only from a Stage T2. The fact is that the quicker men get treated, the better their chance of survival and life expectancy. At Bidvest Life, we don’t even look at Gleason scores, which means we start paying claims sooner for less severe cancers, giving the client the best chance at treatment and a better quality of life. Not all policyholders are so lucky.

Ultimately, even a short-term interruption in income places a client’s entire financial plan at risk. Let’s make sure they have cover where they need it – and that’s not their upper lip.