Adrian Garside

I was speaking to a client yesterday and she commented that she needed to tell the people who provide their life inusrance that her partner has diabetes. She doesn’t.

Life Insurance

For Life Insurance (and Critical Illness & Income Protection) they work on the principle that the information they hold on you must be correct at the time the policy starts.

So, if you applied last week, but haven’t started the policy yet, and something happens you must tell the insurance company. If you’ve started paying premiums already, and your health changes, well that is OK… I mean, from the insurance company point of view.

Usually these policies have guaranteed premiums for a set term. Some have reviewable premiums and if you are thinking of taking a reviewable policy out you should check that the reviews are age dependent only – so no health questions asked. They usually are, but check.  Avoid a policy that checks your health again part way through – it could become seriously expensive just at the point when you need it.

Catching up on Missed Premiums

If you miss a payment or two but really want to keep the cover running, the insurance company will ask you to complete a ‘Declaration of continued good health’ – complete this honestly – technically the inusrance has stopped and you are starting it again, so it is like applying again. If there is a fair time between applying for the insurance and starting it they will aslo ask for one of these forms to be completed.

For Life Insurance, if you are starting a policy again, then it’s worth casting around to see what premiums are like these days – premium rates are considerably lower than they were a few years ago.

For Critical Illness Insurance, the older policies are better than newer ones, so it is likely to be better to try to keep the older policy running if you can.

Car Insurance

When you renew your policy, car insurance companies alwasy ask you every details again – this is becuase they need to know. If you get a new car, get a speeding ticket, change your estimated annual mileage, mod your car, tell them – better safe than sorry.

Travel Insurance

If you pay for this annually and your health chnages, yes tell them. And if you plan on doing sports on holiday, tell them.

Household Insurance

If you buy new stuff that has value, tell them – better safe than sorry. Usually there are limits where they are uninterested, but as a guide I would tell them about anything you buy worth over £500 – you’ll soon find out if their limit is higher.

photo credit: Catholic Aid Assoc

LOL, I searched for ‘insurance’ on the royalty free photo website… this isn’t the kind of insurance I recommend, but I do know some who do…

I’m reading an awesome book at the moment – The Invisible Gorilla.

The comments on the back cover do this book more justice than I can do:

“It isn’t often you come across a book that is rigorous but also witty, one that is sound science but also relevent to evryday life – but here is it. Clever, illuminating, by turns shocking and delightful, this book, if you take it to heart will change alot of your bad habits and could even save your life”

“This book will delight all who seek depth and insight into the wonder and complexities of cognition”

“We all have incredible confidence in the accuracy of our senses and the tales they tell us about the world we live in. Through clever experiments and captivating stories The Invisible Gorilla shows us our confidence is misplaced”

I’m hoping that by backdating this post, you’ll have watched the video above first – did it seem unusual? If so, you are in a minority. If you missed the unusual bit, that is not a failing, just like if you saw it, it is not a triumph.

However, if you saw it, you will not understand how any of us could miss it – yet 70% of us miss it. How can that be? You need to read the book – just becuase you saw the unusual part of the video, doesn’t mean you have no interest here.

If you missed it, and now you know it was there, you will shake your head in mystification.

And that is where this book heads – lots of real life stuff – how car drivers don’t see motorbikes ‘He just came out of no where’, how they get away with so many continuity errors in films and why witnesses to stabbings providing completely different versions of the events.

This book explains how your mind works and keeps it light and amusing at the same time.