CHRISISM #66 - MS - Increase Awareness

21 May 2018

Do you know or know of anyone who is suffering from multiple sclerosis? Whenever I ask this question of any group of people to whom I am presenting (be it small or large), at least one third of the people in the group raise their hands – and often considerably more than one third. Multiple sclerosis is a lot more prevalent than most people think, and we need to increase our clients’ awareness of this – especially those clients between 25 and 35 years of age.

When I first started in the life insurance business as a 23 year old in 1978, I was typically sitting in front of a lot of people of a similar age to myself, and I distinctly remember what was younger people’s biggest medical fear – and that was MS. Remember – AIDS didn’t appear on the scene until 1981, and thanks to all the “grim reaper” advertising campaigns around AIDS, it pretty much took over the mantle of young people’s biggest medical fear.

Indeed, MS had every right to be young people’s biggest medical fear due to its following characteristics:-

  - MS was a medical condition that could attack anybody at any time (especially at the younger ages) for no apparent reason – the average age of diagnosis of MS in Australia is around 31.

  - It was degenerative and incurable

  - It could take up to 40 years to kill you – which also makes it a pretty expensive medical condition

I don’t know about you, but I reckon that ticks most of the boxes for a scary medical condition!

Because of AIDS, MS has tended to fly under the radar with younger people to some extent, which is why it is so important that we increase awareness and bring it to the table, because, as I outlined in Chrisism#18, accident related traumas, neurological conditions (most notably MS) and cancer are the most relevant “traumas” covered under a Trauma policy for clients between 21 and 35, and therefore these are the medical conditions that we should focus on when introducing the Miracle Product to our younger clients.

In the last 40 years, nothing has changed in relation to the boxes that MS ticks to make it an extremely scary medical condition, but because it often flies under the radar, it is essential that you share the above information with each and every one of your younger clients moving forward.

The Risk Workshop by Chris Unwin

Are you a financial adviser who would like all of your clients to have appropriate types and levels of personal protection? But perhaps you feel you need a more structured and client friendly engagement process?