When Nicole’s* world fell apart, her doctor told her, “Enough. You need to rest. You can’t do this.”

Family violence can take a dreadful toll. Nicole wasn’t coping, and she and her support network knew it.

“Do you have income protection insurance?” asked her doctor.

She did, but Nicole was initially sceptical about the process. A financial adviser by trade, she’d helped her clients with their claims before. And she’d fought long battles on their behalf to keep the claim moving and get her clients paid.

“But my own experience with MLC Life Insurance was second to none,” she says now. “It surprised me in a good way, because I wouldn’t have been able to fight (for myself at the time).”

Nicole says that without her claims consultant it would have been a “whole other story” for her and her children.

“She was so respectful of the times I wasn’t up to having conversations,” Nicole says. “She didn’t hammer me (for replies). She kept me up to date all the way through as to what doctors of mine she was speaking with to get information. And when it got too much at times, she said, ‘that’s okay, we’ll do it next month’.”

Nicole also says that not having to re-enter the waiting period when she claimed within 12 months, which she did several times, was also a big help.

“Life goes on, doesn’t it? Even though you’re falling apart, the bills keep coming. The kids needed me. (I had) medical costs for (one of the children) who was ill. You know, it was just full on,” she says.

Nicole is now back at work and prides herself on being a good adviser to her clients. Although she doesn’t share her personal story often, conversations about life insurance often come up in her role and she is a strong advocate of the security and protection insurance brings. She’d rather her clients ask her to stop talking about life insurance than not talk about it enough.

“It provides certainty at a time when your world falls apart, (which) none of us thinks will happen to us,” she explains.

“You know, from one minute to the next – you get up one day and your whole world changes, and it’s never the same again. You just don’t know. So put yourself in a position where you have a choice. Where you don’t have to have a fire sale on assets. Where you’ve got certainty.”

*Customer name has been changed.

Have questions about life insurance?

It’s important to review your cover regularly so it continues to meet your needs at a price you can afford. Speak to your financial adviser about this or other life insurance matters – they can help.