Who exactly is Cathy Newman?
If you are asking this, you have missed out the internet story of the month.
We recap this real quick for you.

Cathy Newman is a presenter on Channel 4 News who has recently interviewed Dr Jordan Peterson. The latter is a Canadian psychologist who has gained some fame through his fascinating YouTube lectures. In the now infamous interview, Cathy fired a series of provoking misandrous questions at Dr Peterson who kept his cool and answered them with a rarified dignity that is hardly seen these days. He also turned the table and left her gobsmacked towards the end of the video.

Enjoy the gotcha moment!

In the interview, Dr Peterson opined that disagreeable people tend to do well in the corporate working environment. He also suggested that Cathy was one as she was definitely willing to risk offending him in search of truth. It got us thinking.
Would Cathy Newman and other disagreeable people make a good insurance advisor?

Our answer is a resounding NO.

“So you are saying.”

The now notorious phrase by Cathy represents why she will make a horrible financial advisor.
She. Does. Not. Listen.

You probably have learnt this a million times from Prudential ads – Always Listening, Always Understanding. Although that invokes an image of a stalker in our twisted mind, the importance of listening cannot be understated when it comes to financial advisory.

Insurance may be cookie-cutter in some manner but how one utilizes the different products varies from person to person. You and your next door neighbour Brian may have the same number of children, earn the similar amount of money, drive a Black Toyota Vios and even wear the same brand of boxers. However, your parents are dependent on you financially while Brian’s ones are rolling in gold coins.  Of course, you need a different insurance portfolio! A Cathy Newman- esque advisor does not consider these. She simply hears you talking and replies.

“So you are saying you want to buy the best insurance plan out there? Sure.”

Willing to risk your well-being for the pursuit of her happiness.

What Cathy sees in front of her is not an esteemed psychologist but an ideological male chauvinist that she has to tackle. She does not care about Dr Peterson and what he thinks. All she intends to do is to grill him so as to achieve her own objective.

Should Cathy or a disagreeable person become a financial advisor, all she does is to advance her own agenda. She is certainly going to put her own interest above yours and if that means selling you an unsuitable policy that earns her more commission, so be it.

Having problems with your claim and looking for Cathy for assistance? She will avoid you like how she handles the scam calls from the fake Chinese police – by pressing the “reject” button.

Blame others for her mistake.

When Cathy misunderstood Dr Peterson’s stance on transgender name-calling and was corrected by Dr Peterson, she insinuated that he had changed his tune. It was her inability to listen to Dr Peterson in the first place but she blamed him for that with a fake allegation.

Can you imagine what will happen if you bought a policy from someone like Cathy? She will not do a proper fact-finding exercise with you. She will just constantly assume the answers on her own and make you sign on the dot. When anything goes awry, she will proclaim that she has dispensed the proper advice and it is you who has inadvertently lied.

Many have put their trust in advisors who are practically Cathys and have their claims rejected or reduced by the insurance companies because of false declarations. Some have happy endings but many do not.

Deflecting blame to you.

When Dr Peterson refused to be stirred by Cathy’s accusation, Cathy changed the topic to lobsters. Even upon doing so, she had no idea what Dr Peterson was referring to and made another crazy allegation. She had obviously not prepared well for the topic.

When you have a question about your financial plans, your Cathy-like advisors will not answer them directly because they simply do not have an answer. They will ramble on with some technical jargons or some pointless fable so that you will forget about it all together. Instead of admitting that they do not have all the answers (nobody does), they will try to deflect and distract.

You definitely do not want an advisor who does not offer you any clarity and only seem to confuse you further. Being a layman, you are daunted by all the unfamiliar insurance terms that she is sprouting. You feel a little stupid not being able to comprehend what she is saying but in actual fact, it is her responsibility to make sure you understand.

Wrapping up.

Disagreeableness is not a trait that we welcome when picking an advisor.
We want an altruistic person who emphasises and who listens.
Someone who places our interest on an equal footing as their own.
However, we recognise that it is not easy to identify them.

Thankfully, it is easier to spot Cathy Newmans.
You should never allow someone who is brash, evasive and downright irresponsible to be your insurance advisor.
Be like Dr Peterson and say no when you have to.

www.ClearlySurely.com aims to eradicate the knowledge gap between consumers and Life Insurance. Our Vision is that one day, every Man, Woman, and Child will be properly insured.

All Cathy Newman Memes are originally posted on this awesome article on the Medium.