I like to read what I sign. So, when my agent asked me to put my signature next to the “x” on a printed form while buying a life insurance policy, I balked. I wanted to fill it up myself, I said.
The first thing that struck me was that the
form ran into 5 pages of really small font. After the usual stuff regarding my
name and address and phone number, I entered tortuous territory. My height
(umm…5 feet 11?), my weight (78 according to the weighing machine in my gym, 75
according to what I tell my friends, 80 is what it really is), my chest size in
centimetres (no clue), waist size in centimetres (10 centimetres more than what
I would like it to be) and so on.
Still more difficult questions were coming.
No one seems to have told the insurance
company that I do not understand their language. They use words that have no
meaning for me. For example, have I ever lapsed a policy? What on earth is a
lapsed policy? I could not find an explanation, so I said “no”. Have I ever
been declined insurance? Wait a minute: I am paying money to you, what is going
on? They also wanted to know if I will bungee jump, join a circus as a trapeze
artist, drive a race car in my spare time, or jump off a mountain without
wings? Most assuredly not I said. Do I suffer from a 100 diseases that I had
never heard of? I travel to work by the Mumbai local train and that qualifies
me as fit for the Olympics.
Even if I did I would not know it, and I calmly
answered in the negative. Do I drink (alcohol) or smoke (cigarettes, beedis,
cigars), or chew (tobacco, gutkha)? Do I drug myself senseless? Have I ever
seen a doctor? (I wish I had never).Do I have all my teeth? The only thing they
did not ask me was if I kicked the neighbour’s cat on a daily basis. The last
page was 30 lines of fine print that assured me that if I ever mentioned
anything that was untrue, the most horrible consequences would visit me.
Most of us do not go through this exercise.
We just sign next to the “x” and our agent fills up the form. When we get the
policy, we dutifully file it, again without reading any of it.
What is it with insurance application forms
that make them complicated and unfillable? Well insurance contracts are unequal
in nature with the company knowing far less about you than you know about the
company. Hence the company needs to know as much detail as it can. A word of
warning to the wise: it is in our interest to fill up the form as truthfully as
possible. Claims are settled based on the answers filled out.
Fine print and jargon are second nature to
an insurance company because they need to protect themselves against fraud.
Maybe they need to remember that most customers are honest and processes must
be designed to help the good guys.
But you can trust www.policylitmus.com to make things
clear to the insurance buying public. No fine print, just crystal clear
unbiased information. Compare over 1000 policies and 50 insurance companies,
without having to reveal your contact details.
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