The power of income protection (and sound financial advice)

It’s every parent’s worst nightmare. Little Stephan Joubert was only eight months old when he was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a cancer of the adrenal gland. After six months of harrowing treatment, he was on the way to recovery, when he suffered a post-operative stroke, leaving the left side of his body paralysed. Doctors found two blood clots on his brain, and a lack of oxygen during the stroke caused further brain damage. 

“You go into autopilot,” says Stephan’s mother, Alta. “It’s incredible how you manage to find the strength to cope. It’s your child. You can’t give up. You just have to carry on.”

In this case, the story has a happy ending. Today, in what Alta describes as a miracle, Stephan is a happy and healthy child. He’s also a big brother: earlier in 2021, the family welcomed their second son.

Apart from the stress and trauma, the ordeal could have destroyed the young family’s finances too. What ultimately saved the Jouberts from financial hardship was the fact that they had taken out critical illness cover and income protection with Bidvest Life following the recommendations of their adviser a few months before Stephan’s birth.

They largely forgot about this policy. “We understood the main parts of our cover, like we’d receive a payout if one of us died or got critically ill. And we had income protection. But that was about all. We never thought we’d never need to use it,” she said.

It was only about a month after Stephan’s diagnosis, at their annual review with their adviser, that Alta and hubby Hermanus realised they’d each receive a 10% payout of their critical illness lump sum amounts.

“With Bidvest Life’s Critical Illness Lump Sum benefit, kids are automatically covered at no additional cost if the parent takes out Critical Illness Lump Sum cover. If both parents have the Critical Illness Lump Sum benefit with Bidvest Life, we pay out on both policies for the same child,” says Bidvest Life’s Chief Marketing Officer, Zanele Ntulini.

In Stephan’s case, the first claim was paid out on both policies following his initial diagnosis. A year later, a second claim was paid on both policies when Stephen suffered a stroke.

The money came at a time when they really needed it. “Because we didn’t have to worry about making ends meet, we could focus on our child and on getting him better. We were one of the few families we knew who didn’t have to get help from the public or their families, or have to worry about arranging fundraisers,” said Alta.

For Alta, the intermittent and unpredictable nature of Stephan’s treatment meant she needed time off work to take care of her son. Bidvest Life’s claims department told her she also qualified for an income protection claim, and helped her with the forms and claims process. “This payout for acute stress highlights the importance of having income protection in an industry dominated by lump sum benefits, that would probably not have paid out for this condition,” says Ntulini.

In February 2021, Hermanus and Alta welcomed their second son to the world. This time, Alta qualified for another claim through Bidvest Life’s Childbirth benefit. This meant she received 12 months of her premiums to cover all the extra expenses that come with caring for a newborn, like nappies and clothing. 

For Ntulini, two things stand out about the Joubert’s story. “For one, this highlights the massive role that a financial adviser can play in the wellbeing of their clients. Their adviser clearly got their needs spot on. Life happens, and it’s important for advisers to talk to clients upfront, encourage them to do annual reviews of their policies, and make sure they’re always covered for the right risks,” she says.

“And two, it underlines the fact that there’s just not enough awareness of income protection, which is an incredibly underestimated insurance category by consumers and advisers alike. Clients often underestimate the knock-on effect (both physically and financially) when faced with an injury or illness. Income protection cushions that blow.”

Needless to say, Alta is a huge evangelist for getting the right financial advice. “At the time we took out the policy, part of me felt like I was wasting money. I couldn’t have been more wrong. For most families going through a medical crisis, finances are one of their biggest challenges. It doesn’t have to be that way.”