Unless you are living under a rock, you must have heard some horror tales about people landing into insurance hell. Many have purchased savings or investment policies and presumed that they are right protection plans while others may declare wrongly in their proposal forms and have their claims denied.

Most blame their insurance agents for selling them the wrong insurance policies; others point their fingers at the insurance company for the lack of empathy or underperformance. In other instances, the government takes the flak too.

Singapore’s most popular person to blame.

We tend to blame someone for our insurance predicament. Granted that other parties may deserve it, we must remember that it takes two hands to clap. More often than not, we have to take personal responsibility for the bad decision that we have made.

The demon lives within

Think about all the wrong purchase that you have made and understand the reasons why you end up buying them. There must be a common theme there.

See that air-fryer that is sitting at the corner of the kitchen cabinet and collecting dust? You realised late on that you actually hate fried food. How about those cans of chicken soup that remain untouched? If you care to admit, your new swanky two-seater sports-car is impractical for a large family like yours.

When Mom bought too many cans of ready-to-eat spaghetti.

So why did you do all that?

Because your neighbour shared some lovely golden wings with you and your husband could not stop effusing about them.
Because the 1-for-1 deal at the supermarket was going to expire.
Because you could not stand your obnoxious colleague having a better vehicle than you.

Feeling of inadequacy.
Fear of missing out (FOMO).
Envy.

These feelings and many other emotions drove you to these impulsive purchases.

The parallel runs true with insurance

When it comes to life insurance, we observe the same phenomenon occurring. When you follow your feelings without thinking, you make the worst insurance decisions.

You may feel obligated to buy because the insurance advisor has brought you to a posh place. Your friend has been raving about how his investment is faring and you feel like you must at least replicate that. And if you buy now, they throw in $100 worth of NTUC Fairprice vouchers!

As these in-the-moment feelings fade with time and the result of your rash decision appears, it may be already too late to remedy the situation.

Insurance may not be always available to you.

Take control of your emotions and decisions

The processing of arriving at a decision should remain the same, whether an advisor is involved. It should be logical and dependent on your insurance needs. It should not be founded on random emotions.

While some advisors are applying various emotional tricks to elicit these feelings, it is part of the sales tactics employed by sellers in every trade.

Case in point: You never blame the supermarket promoter for your over-purchase of beer.

Learning how to ignore your swirling emotions and make an informed decision is a skill that benefits you in almost every facet of your life, not just insurance. This is especially true when it comes to big ticket items or long-term investments.

We can’t possibly help you decide on the brand of jeans or size of TV but our Discovery feature is definitely nifty to guide you towards the right direction.

Wrapping it up.

We are not defending the pushy sales tactics or mis-selling by insurance consultants. We are just sick of hearing all-too-similar horror stories about good people ending up in insurance purgatory.

This can be avoided by making a calm, rational decision without involving your feelings.
Always place your actual protection needs at the forefront when assessing your financial plan.

Stop listening to your feelings and you find that the emotion that stays till the very end is none other than happiness.

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.