[speaker001:] Some years ago now, I left teaching, erm, and joined Abbey. I went on an induction course down in Bournemouth, which was all technical, er, I came back to see my first clients, and I cringed at the thought of it. Can you imagine, you know a teacher, I thought I had to tell them every minute detail of these plans. All that business about allocation of units, I'm sitting them this. I mean, I still now, cringe at the thought of it. Because that isn't what the clients want to know. They want to know that you know it, and they want to feel confident that if they ask you question you can answer it, but they very much want to know what it does for them and how much it's going to cost them basically. Erm, perhaps the easiest way to talk about it is, it's a fact that one point three million, quarter inch drill bits are sold in the U K. In fact they were sold last year in the U K. Now, one three quarter inch drill bits. I mean can you imagine people stopping their friends outside the D I Y store and saying you must buy one of these bits, it's absolutely superb, look at the metal, look at the shape, it's absolutely wonderful. They haven't been bought for what they are have they? They've been bought for what they do. They've been bought for the fact that all over the country there's all these holes in the wall and people are putting up shelves, building furniture or whatever. So it's very much what it does, and not what it is. Erm, another way of er, er, talking about it. You're going to a friend's for a barbecue on a hot summer's evening, and you're walking up the drive and you can smell the barbecue sizzling away. Er, er, and your mouth starts to water, and you're thinking, this is going to be great. You get to the barbecue, and amongst other things they're barbecuing sausages, and you think super. Well if they actually took the time to explain to you what went into those sausages, you probably wouldn't eat them at all, would you? But, because of the smell and the taste and everything, you're quite happy to er, eat the sausages. You go for the sizzle, not the sausage. So that's what we're going to be talking about now. Turning features into benefits. We'll think you'll agree, after we've been through the Covermaster Plan, it's choc-a-bloc full of features, waiver of premium, escalating premium, insurability option, life cover, selective periods, bonuses, you name it, there's hundreds of features of the plan. We're going to look at how we can talk about them as benefits to the client. There's two ways of doing it. Er, the first, the most straightforward way is to name the feature..., if you want to briefly describe it if it's appropriate, and I mean briefly,... then use a link phrase like what this means to you... and come out with a benefits statement, something that the client can relate to, and the final piece in the jigsaw is to ask the client how he feels about it. What does he think? How do you feel?... Erm, let's take waiver of premium, and go through that process. Andrew, is there a feature in this plan called waiver of premium, what these means to you is that if you're off ill for a long period of time, through accident, ill-health, whatever, Abbey will actually still pay them for you, until you're well again. How do you feel about that? It sounds good.
[Carol:] It sounds great. Yes, nice and simple. Don't go into all the technical details without er, six months er, payable until you return to work, reach sixty or die, payable for by reduced allocation to the units according the age and sex, etcetera, etcetera, and tell him what it does for him. In the Covermaster Plan, Andrew, there's something called waiver of premium, what this means to you is that if you're off work through illness for a long period of time, Abbey's going to pay the premiums for you. How do you feel about that? Great, I'll have that, I'll have two in fact, yes? Keep it short, keep it simple. [writing on board], keep it simple. It's stupid, but having said, yes, remember that. Now there's another way of doing it, which done well is more powerful. But you have to think about it and it comes with practice, which as you obviously sell more and more of these plans, most of which have got waiver of premium. First of all what you do is disturb the client, or put another way, you create a problem,... and then you solve it, with a feature,... and then you ask, what do you think, how do you feel?.... If I take the same example, waiver of premium, erm, and I'm relating to knowledge that I will have got through the plan your future document, if I use Andrew again if I may, if I say to you, Andrew, erm, you explained earlier that erm, if you're off work through ill-health, your employer will actually pay you for six months, and then it stops. That's true isn't it, yes? Can you see that maybe, if at some time in the future, you do have er, some bad health, or perhaps get involved in an accident, that after a period of time, it might be difficult to actually find the money to pay for this plan we're establishing tonight?
[speaker001:] yes
[Carol:] Yes, well the good news is, that there's actually something called waiver of premium on the plan, which looks after exactly the, looks after exactly that case. Yes. If you're off work for a long time, Abbey's going to pay the premiums for you, until you get well again. How do you like the idea of that?
[speaker001:] It all sounds fine.
[Carol:] Yes, you disturb him. Some people will actually say, if I could add something to the plan that would cost you just a little bit more, which means that if you're off work through illness, the company, Abbey will pay the premiums for you, would you be prepared to pay a bit more.
[speaker001:] No.
[Carol:] Most people would say yes, actually, if you put that way. But what do you say, well the good news is, it's not going to cost you any more. It's automatically included. So you can do that as well. But, if you do it that way, it's often more powerful, because you're relating to the client's circumstances. Either way, keep it simple and get the client to tell you what he thinks. Are you happy with, with the idea and the way I put it across, yes? Speak to me.
[speaker001:] Mhm, yes,
[Carol:] Yes, good, because you're going to have a go at it.
[speaker001:] Oh.
[Carol:] You might have known that was coming, mightn't you? What I want you to do is shout out as many features of the plan as you can think of, and then in a minute we'll look at changing them into benefits. So, off you go.
[speaker001:] Escalating premiums.
[Carol:] Escalating premiums, yes.
[speaker001:] Unit linked.
[Carol:] Unit linking.
[speaker001:] Whole of life
[Carol:] Whole of life,
[speaker001:] Erm,
[Carol:] Come on, we've been through all this
[speaker001:] Terminal illness.
[Carol:] Terminal illness benefit, yes.
[speaker001:] Waiver of premium.
[Carol:] Waiver of premium.
[speaker001:] Death benefit.
[Carol:] Death benefit, or, yes.
[speaker001:] Paid up
[Carol:] Sorry.
[speaker001:] Paid up
[Carol:] Paid up option.... Right.
[speaker001:] Insurability
[Carol:] Insurability.
[speaker001:] Flexibility
[Carol:] Flexibility, yes, you can change... levels of cover, selected periods....
[speaker001:] Possible option of surrender value at the end of
[Carol:] Yes, surrender value,... and partial surrenders, yes? I think we've probably got enough now, how many have we got? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, right. I'm going to ask you as an individual to choose one. And just to put together a way that you can change it from a feature into a benefit, using either of those ways. Or you can just give yourself some bullet points because you don't need to write out the and's and the the's and whatever. But we'll ask you to select which one you're going to go for, and as I know we've got a room full of gentlemen, let's start with the ladies first. Kim, what would you like?
[David:] Erm, waiver of premiums,
[Carol:] Waiver of premiums, crafty. Er, Shirley? Flexibility Flexibility, oh that was the one you gave me, yes. Er, Janet?
[Janet:] Unit linking.
[Carol:] Unit linking. Sue?
[Sue:] Selected period,
[Carol:] Selected period, right, Andrew?
[speaker001:] Erm, surrender value.
[Carol:] Surrender value, David?
[David:] Whole of life. Gerald?
[Gerald:] I'll take death benefits.
[Carol:] Death benefits, Philip?
[Philip:] Escalating premium
[Carol:] Escalating premium, Ilias
[Ilias:] Partial surrender
[Carol:] Partial surrender, John.
[John:] Oh, terrific,
[Carol:] I haven't written that have we?
[John:] Terminal illness.
[Carol:] Terminal illness. Right, everybody clear on what you're going to do? Spend a, a minute or so, putting your thoughts together, you can write it out if you want to, or you can just give you bullet points, what you've chosen you're going to change into a feature. If you start to go on to the other p, side of the page, start again. Keep it simple, yes?
[speaker001:] [clapping]
[Carol:] And try and personalise it, I don't mind if you refer to any information that you might have gathered during the evening, a bit like I did with Andrew. Yes, but assuming that those people were being paid at work for six months, and then there was a problem. You can give them children, you can give them anything you like to try and personalise it, but keep it simple.... Right, are we ready?
[speaker001:] No, not yet.
[Carol:] No, no, we don't want any essays.... Keep it simple... [clapping]
[speaker001:] You're not giving him time off again, are you? You know, I mean, all this freedom? [clapping]...
[Carol:] As you're finishing off, let me explain what we're going to do. Erm, I'm going to ask, first of all, for a volunteer. Since you're all going to have a go, you can who'd like to volunteer, so who would like to volunteer. Who's going to volunteer, Gerald's volunteered. Oh, we've got two here. Gerald will start, er, and he will talk to you as if you were a potential client, but so he can actually relate it to somebody, he'll choose one of you. One of your colleagues, anybody in the room, and if you, when you are the potential client, when you talk to Gerald or whoever's talking to you, er, as if you're a potential client, relate to everything he says. If he says you've got six children and you work at the local factory, you do, yes? You respond in kind. Erm, and he'll finish it off by asking you what you think about it, and obviously you respond to that. So Gerald who're you going to start, have as client.
[Gerald:] I'll have John.
[Carol:] John, right, off you go then. So Gerald to John, what are we talking about?
[Gerald:] Erm, death benefit.
[Carol:] Death benefit, right.
[Gerald:] O K then, O K then John, er, looking at your erm, at your fact file, we see here that we've actually got erm, twice the amount of your salary erm, for life cover, which your company which your company actually offers, offers you. O K?
[John:] Yes. [clears throat]
[Gerald:] O K, so at the moment, you've got two times your salary erm, life cover. Let me ask you John, how would you actually feel if you were made redundant tomorrow? How would your family actually er, benefit?
[John:] Well because I've only got the life cover, then er, that cover would disappear.
[Gerald:] O K
[John:] Er, and I'd have to start thinking about where I am again.
[Gerald:] How do you actually feel about that?
[John:] Not too happy.
[Gerald:] Not too happy. O K, if I could actually show you a way where there's not such a problem today, how would you feel then?
[John:] It depends how much it cost.
[speaker001:] [clapping]
[Carol:] O K, that's great, yes? Related to him, worried him, and offered him a solution, yes. Good, so John it must be your turn now, so you can select anybody else in the room, and go through the same process.
[John:] Alright, erm, Janet.
[speaker001:] [clapping]
[Carol:] What, what are you talking about John?
[John:] Oh, erm, terminal illness.
[Carol:] Terminal illness, right.
[John:] Janet, erm, obviously we'd examine your circumstances from time to time, erm, but er, there are obviously perhaps areas that concern you. Erm, if you were diagnosed as having cancer, and was intending to be dead in nine months, what would your reaction be to that?
[Janet:] How can I put that, keep me, how can I look after myself as I obviously won't be able to work, and look for ways about er, getting my house in order before I er, finally die.
[John:] Well yes, of course you would, that's obviously quite a worry.
[Janet:] Mm, it is, yes.
[John:] Quite a concern. Well, how would you feel if I was to tell you that within the policy it was possible that the sum could be paid, it might even be paid up before death.
[Janet:] yes, like what? What's the test?
[John:] Well if you had er, your illness and so on, and the other debts that you may have, erm, and bearing in mind that you actually only have the nine months, you might be a little bit more er, [clears throat] a bit luckier than that, but how about a holiday in Disneyland?
[speaker001:] [clapping]
[Janet:] Gosh, that's like going to hell isn't it? [clapping]
[John:] Well would that, that, that's what, would that be of interest to you?
[Janet:] No, but there's plenty of things I would like to do, people I'd like to see, yes, yes. There's certainly things a bit of extra money would make enjoyable in the last few months.
[John:] Right well, I think I can show you a way on how to go about that.
[Janet:] How much more would it cost?
[John:] Ah, well that depends on how much you want to spend.
[speaker001:] [clapping]
[Carol:] No, it's not going to cost her any more, because it's included in the plan, so it's not going to include, so it's not going to cost her any more
[John:] No it doesn't
[Carol:] Good, well done. Well personalised. Yes, er, very good effort. Erm, is it, would it, it showed you not to put words in her mouth, but I mean, it was nice to talk about Disneyland.
[speaker001:] [clapping]
[Carol:] It brought a lovely humour to the situation, erm, but maybe to ask her what she'd likely to do, like to do in those er, last er, nine months or so. Good. Well done, John. Janet?
[Janet:] [sigh] Oh, I wish I hadn't chosen this particular one.
[Carol:] [clapping]
[Janet:] Can I ask, address another table,
[Carol:] N, yes, anybody, yes.
[Janet:] Right, David I'll talk to you.
[Carol:] About? About?
[Janet:] Erm, unit linking.
[Carol:] Unit linking. Right.
[Janet:] Right, David, you said you'd been approached by another insurance company, er, I could obviously say, I recommended Abbey Life, and I'm tied to that, but I actually joined because I think they're a particularly good company, in that what, in the use they make of the money that I'm paying, actually goes, performs very well. And I'll explain this a bit more. Erm, we, when we first came into the industry, erm, we brought in a totally new policy that the funds to provide the pensions and action, we put into unit trusts. You know, do you know anything about unit trusts?
[David:] Not really, no
[Janet:] Well it goes into a pot, and it, it buys into different funds which are invested in different markets, erm, to give you some examples, erm, we can invest in property, we can invest in some securities, government securities, er, we invest in the Stock Exchange and we have managers who look after these funds, and they perform extremely well. And if you go and have a look at the tables, you find that Abbey Life actually makes your money grow faster than a lot of other insurance companies. And the benefits of this is that er, as you know, erm, inflation takes over, and we measure our spending power against that, five pounds in your pocket today, won't buy what tomorrow, what it bought this year, and next year, what it would have bought this year. So we have to keep ahead of that, because we're planning the benefits for you, twenty or twenty five years' time. So we have to make sure the money you pay to us, actually is going to grow so it gives you a very good return on that money in twenty five years' time. So we put it into this pot and we invest it in as many funds and spread the money out, so if, if one fund doesn't produce very much in return, another fund will, and so we in fact, get a better spread throughout the market, than you could do as an individual. I mean you could go out, and you could put a little bit of money in the building society, or the bank, or you could have a gamble on the Stock Exchange, but we have two advantages. We have erm, managers of these funds who have a lot of expertise, a lot of experience, we've been going over thirty years now, and we've grown extremely quickly because of the expertise of our managers. We give our expertise for nothing really. It doesn't cost you any more, you just throw them in for free. And the other thing is you clearly get a good spread of the market, and we know that this method will produce erm, a return for you which will keep your spending power ahead of inflation. Is there anything you'd like to ask me?
[speaker001:] [clapping] Can you please go through it again for me.
[Janet:] I must have had a death wish choosing that.
[Carol:] Janet that was a lovely, clear description. Erm, but, how could you have improved it?
[Janet:] Well I would have liked him to participate more, but I didn't know how to lead him.
[Carol:] Yes, yes, you needed to involve him, erm,
[speaker001:] [clapping]
[Janet:] yes, that's my trouble.
[Carol:] But, erm,, it was too long wasn't it? It was too long, and you didn't involve the client. But I've, I've honestly got to say on your behalf, it was a lovely clear description of what happens as well, and there were some nice positive statements about Abbey er, and er, why unit linking is worked for Abbey, etcetera, so lots of it was absolutely great, but
[Janet:] You've got to count your words when you're playing the recorder.
[speaker001:] [clapping]
[Janet:] One thing I would say, it's very difficult to put over, is to get over, of the part you've paid back
[Carol:] it is, it is You've just, you've just got to ask, ask his opinion, is it important to you that you get a return on the money that you invest with us, yes? Or do you feel comfortable making decisions about where you're investing your money, or would you be happy for somebody else to do it? Either way you could offer him
[Janet:] Yes, I see, yes... er, I said, I could have said if you had been given a hundred thousand pounds how, or fifty thousand pounds how would you invest it?
[Carol:] Yes, if, if, if you can involve him more, but obviously this is a very nerve-racking situation, and er, the description was great, please
[Janet:] [clapping], yes, the description was a death wish thinking that was
[Carol:] Right, Philip
[Philip:] Escalating premium.
[Carol:] Escalating premiums, talking to?
[Philip:] I think David, because he didn't answer Janet.
[Carol:] Right.
[speaker001:] [clapping]
[Philip:] Right, O K, here goes. David, just looking at your situation, I know you're er, a young chap and you have a young family, and we've er, discussing your existing circumstances and I can see that at the moment er, funds in the family budget are a little bit tight. If I could show you a way of keeping your premiums at an affordable level but still obtaining the li, the level of life cover that you need to be of to your wife and your family, would, would that be of interest to you?
[David:] Well it's er, if it's cheaper then yes.
[Philip:] Right, O K, well we have er, a feature in the er, in this particular policy which is er, full estimated
[Carol:] Stop, stop, you've done it, just leave it
[Philip:] You know, quite a useful
[Carol:] No, no, no, just leave it. You did it very well, you're in danger of talking yourself out of it. You needed to stop there because he did it very well, didn't he? He personalised it, he told him exactly the benefit of escalating premiums, and he couldn't say anything other than yes, because it was what he wanted. But that was very good. Very good.
[speaker001:] [clapping]
[Carol:] That's the hardest part. Right, David?
[David:] Well I'll go over the other side, Andrew.
[Carol:] Andrew, right. Presumably. Erm, Andrew, er, I, I find that earlier on the, the only life cover you've really got is one that you took out a few years ago, a very small one, and you took that out for a set number of years. So you took that out when you were twenty, and I believe it's er, finishing when you're fifty.
[speaker001:] Yes, that's right.
[David:] So you've got, after that you've got nothing. There's nothing coming after
[speaker001:] Nothing at all
[David:] How do you feel about that? About all that, all those premiums you've paid and you're fifty one, and all of a sudden you've got nothing at the end of it?
[speaker001:] I can't say I've ever worried about it, I just thought I'd look at it when I got there.
[David:] Mm, so what if could erm, could come up with a policy, that you pay your premiums in, but it covers you for the whole of your life. So that no matter when you die, whether you're a hundred and twenty or whatever, you can get the sum that you've assured, well that won't help you, but your dependents will. Would that be of interest to you?
[speaker001:] It would yes.
[Carol:] Yes, good. Er, one good example, as cited er, er, a term policy, if you couldn't cite one that he had himself, you could cite examples so that people know about it. A little bit of a tendency to talk too much about it though. Yes, keep it bit shorter and simpler, but, just the right way of going about it to illustrate the point. How would you feel if you'd been paying this money for ten years and then you lived, you lived after than, and you got nothing for it basically. We're talking the whole of life. Good. Erm, Andrew?
[speaker001:] Erm, I'll look at Ilias.
[Carol:] Right.
[speaker001:] Right, erm, as you've heard, this policy is basically for your protection, but it does over a number of years, acquire a bit of savings. Obviously,th, there is four or five years there's nothing to speak of, but after that it does acquire more. So like yourself, you've got a daughter, who perhaps fifteen, twenty years' time, will be getting married, at which point the policy could be surrendered to put towards the cost of the wedding. Or when you retire, it could be used as a lump sum to set yourself up initially for your retirement, so how would you feel about that?
[Ilias:] Yes, I would be in trouble.
[speaker001:] you'd have more savings.
[Carol:] Yes, yes, good. Good, because you set it out, as as, er, you gave a scenario where the money would be useful to the fu, the future, so that was, that was good. Erm, you could have got to the close a little bit earlier, but then it, I think you were just finding your words, that was good, well done. You related it directly to Ilias. Ilias, who're you going to talk to? No it's got to be somebody who hasn't had a go, otherwise the system falls down, doesn't it. Shirley, Kim, somebody close?
[Ilias:] Shirley, if sometime in your life er, you need money er, for example, er, you're in when you're a start of marriage, and you have mortgage, how will you go to?
[Carol:] Er, with difficulty.
[Ilias:] Well in er, this policy any time if you want to surrender so if you need er, some of the money, you can get that money or any time.
[Carol:] Will it affect my life cover then?
[Ilias:] yes.
[Carol:] O K, that, that was, that was a good er, it was a good setting the scene, because you related it to Shirley. Shirley came up with a stat, with a question, which is a very important question, will if affect my life cover? Obviously it depends how much you take out. But if you start talking about taking some of the cash from the fund, you've got to tell the clients it could affect the cover that they've got, because it isn't a savings policy. But it's a bonus isn't it, because they've had all this protection on this and they've still got some cash building up. O K, good. Shirley? I'll go with. Right so if we pay you by five yearly value in three months, and invest for initially life cover of twenty thousand, and that's O K for now. And we take you three years along the line, so your husband dies, and you've now got a young child. Do you think twenty thousand is going to be adequate.
[Sue:] No it probably wouldn't be.
[Carol:] Well this policy is actually flexible, you can actually if you do have children, you can then increase the life cover.
[Sue:] That's exactly what we want.
[Carol:] Well done Sue, you actually stopped her finishing it.
[Sue:] Oh
[Carol:] You did it, you did it very well, yes, but you needed, I know you were going to, you needed to say at the end, is this important to you, or is this something you would like on your policy. Good, well done, Shirley. So Sue, it must be you, to
[Sue:] Who's left?
[Carol:] Kim? Kim, I think, is it?
[Sue:] Right, [clapping] Kim, erm, we talked, we talked earlier about life cover er, on death, on the death of your husband. You actually have three children under the age of seven, and if your husband died while they were still young, still in education, heaven forbid, but these things still do happen, it might be that you think that you would need more cover at that point in time, than later on, maybe when the children have left home. Would it be fair to say that that's a good statement to make?
[David:] Yes, it would be, yes.
[Sue:] How would you feel if you were able to designate more life cover for a selected period of your choice, er, and then, maybe alter, er, the cover later on, so that you can have higher cover at certain points in your life, to cover these critical things, like your children's education, while they're growing up erm, at any point in the future. That's it.
[Carol:] Good, well done Sue. Erm, yes, selected periods. Well presented, well personalised, did they have to finish it?
[Sue:] No
[Carol:] Yes, before you started repeating. It's very difficult to keep it simple, it really is. I mean, I know Gerald went first, and I know he's been in the business a long while, but he actually managed to say it all in about three sentences. That's experience, but that, that's what we're aiming to a, er, achieve. Kim, last but not least, it's to Gerald,
[David:] Hello [clapping]
[speaker001:] [clapping]
[Carol:] That was nice and short and simple, well done.
[David:] Do you want it or not?
[speaker001:] [clapping]
[Carol:] That's it, that's it.
[Gerald:] Do I get a waiver of premiums with it?
[speaker001:] [clapping]
[Carol:] Lovely
[David:] You've put me completely off, now.
[speaker001:] [clapping]
[David:] I knew I'd got kids written down here for a reason.
[speaker001:] [clapping]
[David:] Even started whether there's not two extra, but it costs more.
[speaker001:] [clapping]
[David:] We were talking earlier, and I understand you liked to ride at the weekends, and you're often competing on your horse, er, ha, if you were to have a fall, and erm, you had a back injury, or erm, you sustained an injury that would you keep you from work for a substantial amount of time, er, how would you feel, would you be able to pay your premiums? Would it be a problem to you?
[Gerald:] Well, not really, not to begin with, because I get erm, sick pay from work, I get that for six months.
[David:] But if it's an on-going problem that, would possibly keep from work, let's say for a year.
[Gerald:] Yes, then it would be a problem.
[David:] Right, well we, we have something which would actually solve that, erm, which would be of benefit to you, and would actually cut in at the six month period, and would continue paying your policy and your premiums, until your retirement age if necessary. Would that be of interest to you?
[Gerald:] Oh, yes, yes.
[Carol:] Good, well done, Kim. You weren't put off by all the bawdry earlier, well done. In fact, well done everybody, because it sounds a simple thing to do. When we actually got down to it, it wasn't quite as simple was it, and I think every one of you were personalising it really well, and making an excellent start. Good. That actually brings us to the end of the Covermaster product. We've spent nearly all day, talking about something what you knew about. Well hopefully you've found it of benefit. What we're now going to look at is living assurance. Now, so we can actually distinguish between the two policies, which are very similar in lots of ways, we're going to start again by looking at a video. Now this video, erm, was compiled by Dr. Marius Bernard. Dr. Christian Bernard, the South African surgeon, heart surgeon, his brother. He was talking at the Life Assurance Association er, convention in London I think it's er, three year ago now, in er, nineteen ninety, it must be ninety one, because I went on a course then. Erm, and he can tell you better than me, really the benefits of living assurance. So I'd like you to, as you did this morning please, move your chairs all round, close the blinds, and er, it's the, the second video of the day.... If you want to, it's going to last erm, about half an hour.
[John:] Right, fine.
[Carol:] Have you heard of Dr. er?
[speaker001:] Yes
[Carol:] Oh, right, well.
[speaker001:] Do I have to things to talk about it,
[Carol:] Yes, yes, yes. Oh, by the way, you've got to work through this video. You know your workbooks that you've got, he's actually asking you a few questions relating to the statistics that er, Dr. Bernard's going to mention, so can I ask you to get your workbooks and a pen, just so that you can jot down some of the information. You have to listen quite carefully.
[speaker001:] What do you mean workbooks?
[Carol:] I mean workbooks.
[speaker001:] Oh.
[Carol:] Yes, these things.
[speaker001:] I thought those were for
[Carol:] Everyone found their's.
[speaker001:] No
[Carol:] They were given out yesterday, Philip.
[Philip:] Were they? Oh, how silly of me.
[speaker001:] Again I didn't like to say that, [clapping]
[Carol:] Has he been hassling you?
[speaker001:] Yes. Page ten. [video on] Please welcome Dr. Marius Bernard. [applause, and music]
[Gerald:] Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, er, looking at you and listening to you, it's certainly different to the operating rooms that one's used to working in. Er, don't feel a bit disappointed that during my presentation I'll be expecting to this hospital, I'll take you to the operating room, er
[speaker001:] Please, Sorry
[Gerald:] But certainly it's very real to what we're going to talk about today
[speaker001:] That's O K
[Gerald:] I'd also like to say, Mr. Chairman, that er, I didn't recognise the hospital you said, where we did this operation, [crowd laughs and claps], erm, if you want to, see me afterwards, I'll tell you that you take at the hospital. But you've got to be an erudite to be able to understand that. Ladies and gentleman, I'm very honoured really indeed, it's a privilege to be part of being here today, as part of the insurance industry. I believe very gratefully, and very sincerely about a great tomorrow, and my profession is striving to bring that to the health of peoples and nations. I've been very fortunate to be able to become part of your industry, to see part of your contribution to my patients for the great tomorrow. I'm not an insurance man, I'm a doctor. I couldn't care about the insurance companies, although I love your where I choose. I can care about my patients, and I sincerely hope that you will make it possible for my patients when their diagnosis is made, to have that knowledge that financially, he has a great tomorrow. [clapping] I believe that insurance is an honest attempt to provide financial security and independence when you need it most. And you really need it most when your health starts failing. When the diagnosis of the illness is made, think around your clients and your relatives, because that opportunity to generate the financial security and the friends you need, is threatened by the guilt. Now where does the doctor come into this? I want to go back the year, nineteen hundred, and let's hear the causes of death, because when many infectives caused by viruses and the bacteria, the life expectancy for a male was fifty, and for a women was fifty four. If I was born in that period, I would be dead already, and you wouldn't need to listen to me [clapping] But if you look at this as far as the medical profession and the insurance profession need each other, what happened to these people when they develop an infective condition? Pneumonia for example. It was very easy, they either died, four or five days later, very cheaply it used to cost ten pounds to die. It was a very cheap affair. Or they recovered, but what happened? When they recovered, there was no destruction of the heart, lungs and they could go back and work, a young person, as if they'd never been ill. But if they died, there was a very young family, a young wife, needing financial independence that was given to them by you, with a life insurance policy. Really it's a death insurance policy. That's what it is. Now the medical profession responded to this state of affairs, and created antibiotics, I can assure you today, that if you die of pneumonia, you can sue your doctor, with the greatest of thought that you'll get paid. And they've developed vaccination and immunization, so the infective conditions are no longer causes of death.... You see now that the most common cause of death is what they call the of diseases resulting from degenerate lifestyles, and I'm very proud [clapping] and I'm very proud to tell you that although I come from South Africa, and you might not think I'm very intelligent, as you sit here, down here and there, I can sign your death certificate already. Fifty percent of you will die of heart attacks, twenty plus will die of cancer, and ten percent will die of strokes. And it's getting worse. Why does this happen. Longer life expectancy. Your life expectancy as a male today is seventy four years, and for the females of the species, and we love them, your life expectancy is eighty years. Isn't it amazing? So what we doctors gave you, you developed this lifestyle. You should thank your doctor. Thank you for curing my pneumonia and, now I'm going to abuse my body. I'm going to smoke too much [clapping], I'm going to smoke too much, I'm going to drink too much, I'm not going to do enough exercise, I'm going to put on too much weight, I'm going to stress myself too much, and I can talk to you five days about those conditions. If you're going to insurance, think then, just think with me back, have you seen that? [clapping] You remember this man? He thinks he's thin, for a Merry Christmas, test the health of your eggs. You could just as well say the same for him, death in a box, but it is a, and now the next advert, with him now, the next advert is even better. [clapping] More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette. Can you just imagine me advertising that today. I would be shot before dawn. Now, what's happened because of this debilitative lifestyle. It has developed two types of condition. The wonderful arteriosclerosis, and the wonderful cancer. Who will get this arteriosclerosis, as you sit here, let me tell you again. If you just born you're free, at the age of five, fifteen percent is attacked, at the age of eight, it's forty percent, and eight of you over forty, congratulations, you're all got arteriosclerosis. All of you. Now what is arteriosclerosis? It's a deposit in the arteries of fat. It looks the English breakfast fixing it up for, that's what [clapping] and if you, if you want to look at an X-ray, you will see that the arteries of the body, those are the arteries, bring the blood supply is blocked with arteriosclerosis, and there you can see the English breakfast, the yolk of egg, the butter and all these things that are in there, causing a blockage of the artery, not enough to that muscle, and a heart attack, death and all these unbelievable things, that give me a little bit of income. [clapping], [clapping]. I had a very serious patient er, the other day, and I treated him and gave him six months to live, but at the end of six months, he didn't pay his account, so I gave him another six months. [clapping], [clapping].
[speaker001:] [cough]
[Gerald:] Now God in his wisdom unfortunately, unfortunately blocked the most important arteries of the body. Not the arteries to your toenails or the tip of your nose, but the arteries to what we call the vital organs. The coronary arteries, heart, heart attack. Carotid arteries, stroke. Aorta, aortic surge, renal arteries, free kidney failure, these are what blocked arteries can do. Can you hear the dread disease conditions entry there. Now what happens when your arteries get blocked? is that you get a pain in the chest, a piece of your heart dies, if you have a heart attack, or the whole heart dies off and you have death. One of the easiest diagnoses in my profession. [clapping] There are more than a hundred and fifty thousand heart attacks in your country every year. That's not true, don't you believe it. It's more than three hundred th, three hundred thousand. That was the slide of approximately eight years ago. It's a galloping form of death, due to modern lifestyles,. That's the brain, that's a stroke, the brain is a very sensitive part of the body, and as you know in this very topic of debate, if the brain don't get enough blood, er, for three minutes, you've got permanent brain damage and the only occupation that's suitable is that of a politician. [clapping], [clapping]. There are more than a hundred thousand stroke victims in your country every year. Kidney disease, ten thousand new, five thousan, ten thousand total, five hundred new cases. That's a beautiful slide of carcinoma of the rectum, just to give the r, the carcinomas,, especially for you, carcinoma of the lung, as we say in Africaan's, weaker, that's nice. That's what you get from smoking. There are more than two hundred and forty thousand people in the United States who die of cancer every year. And that's the quickest hospital, because we've responded again in the medical profession. Do what you have done, abusing your bodies. We said if you want to abuse your bodies, we're going to take every bloody pound you have in your pocket away with you, with the most modern medical treatment, bowels. Heart-lung machines, that a machine that I can use, when you're put in a heart-lung machine, I stop this machine, I keep this machine going, and I take out your heart, and your, your heart, I drop it on the floor, pick it up, wash in Parmolive soap, and put it back again. All these things I can do, to prevent death. [clapping] Young babies, baby are there days of care, and look what we get. Isn't it amazing. Are you going to be sure that that money is available to provide for this. Isn't that beautiful? Isn't that the most beautiful photo you've ever seen in your life. No applause, no cheers, you know that's made to feel here. This is, it's your heart, ladies and gentlemen, with a normal heart muscle. Now when you abuse your bodies, and you get the coronary artery disease, what happens? That heart becomes looking like that. It looks like it's been on the M twenty five on a Friday night, and every tyre's been over it. [clapping]. Now that normal heart you saw, you saw that normal heart, I would ask you if it was in a twenty five four year old man, do you think that man is alive or dead? [clapping] Yes, he's dead, he was killed in a motor car accident. [clapping] And the heart of that that's been on the M twenty five, is the patient alive or dead? Twenty two years later, and there he spends, with the, was our eight heart transplant patient. Sam says before he had his heart attacks, he had five six, I'll have to change the story. Twenty two years later, and there he spends, with the he was our eighth heart transplant patient. Sam says before he had his heart attacks, he had five, six, I'll have to change the story, he has a heart transplant, he developed diabetes, and he's later amputated. Do you know when he comes down here, he complains about this. It's like my when he was eighty, they asked him how do you feel? If I think of the alternative, I feel bloody well. [clapping], [clapping] But, but it is very serious. He has one complaint every time he comes and sees us. What's that? Money. This operation and this threat to his health, has created a lack of possible to regenerate the money needed for him, and his financial independence has been threatened. You from the insurance industry, twenty five years after heart attacks, when he should have died, despite the modern medicine. After twenty three years, after the heart transplant, eight years after osmosis, I want to give you his secret, guess what he's got. He's got a life insurance policy. It's amazing. And that life insurance policy to him, is of no help. He needed something new, because we in the medical profession, in responding to your new diseases, from the abuse of your body, have created the situation that you've got to insure yourself, that financially independence, not because you're going to die, but because you're going to live. And that is the way that we develop the concept of great living insurance. Creating these insurance to die is the number one need for financial independence, because we as doctors are going to spread the news with our modern lifestyles, because unlike the pneumonia patient you're not going to recover and go back to work, unlike the, the heart transplant, as the heart transplant, or the heart attack or the cancer patient, maybe at our expense. Invest money. Give you an example. If any of the you, I challenge to go to your bank manager tomorrow, and say to him, I've had a heart attack, I'm not going to pay my loan of a hundred thousand pounds. Do you know what happens? He'll get a heart attack, that's what happens. [clapping]. That's just the things we do, with the coronary arteries, we do coronary artery by- passes, I can, I can sew like any woman, I can darn your socks, we stick the veins on and we re-establish the the heart going a bit faster. Now, three hundred thousand men and women suffer heart attacks each year in your country, but many will survive. Think about the word survive, before I tell you, what does that mean, survive? We as doctors say, we're so bloody wonderful, you know we're very important. We're so wonderful, our patients survive. If he drops dead when he gets out of hospital, we no longer care about him, as long as he survived. Who is going to survive. Seventy seven percent will survive five years, fifty eight percent survive ten years, and forty seven survive thirty years, and we are improving. We are the miracle men have decided that you're not allowed to die. Let us promise you, you are not allowed to die any more, we are going to s, to improve our treatment, and you're going to survive, but with daily, increasing threat to that financial dependence that you've so keenly want, that you want for your loved ones. Do you want see your? Isn't that beautiful? Have you seen anything like that? That's the lungs. I wish I could talk longer because I'd like to tell you about the lungs, but er, time's still. A twenty four year old woman came to see me for treatment on the ward, a smoker. I had to investigate her, and I diagnosed that she had cancer of the lungs. There's someone out already. She came to see me a year later, total loss of weight, total short of breath, hardly, she's struggling to keep body and soul together. She says to me, I cannot continue, she's dead already, I will never forget her face, never. Now what would have happened if her broker came to this convention and heard about their disease, and two years ago sold her a disease policy, that would have given her two hundred thousand pounds, on the diagnosis of the disease. That little girl had to struggle on because the flat rent had to be paid, she had to struggle on because she had a car, kids had to go to school, until she died. Now if she had two hundred thousand pounds, what would it have given her. She could have stopped working. She could have spent quality time with her children.
[speaker001:] [cough]
[Gerald:] If it happens to me, I will say, I'll take that two hundred thousand, and go to Hollywood, and spend the night with Madonna, that would have been my choice. [clapping] It would have been Madonna's choice too by the way. [clapping], [clapping]. Thirty percent of all people in your country, your country, suffer from a condition called cancer, and ninety percent will be life threatening. How long they survive, if you look at my age, I'm a male, thirty five, [clapping] forty seven percent, forty percent will survive at least er, five years. If you look at the Chairman, here this afternoon, sixty four, twenty nine percent will survive. But on the whole, of the diagnoses of cancers made today, more than fifty percent will survive more than five years. Have you ever seen a person with cancer of the lung, cancer of the stomach? Have you seen what their survival means? It's a slow progression to unableness to perform their daily needs especially to start with the threat to the person, of opportunities to greater income. Only crystal will pay up on the diagnosis, and make it possible. Like Samuel stated, in a woman suffered strokes, seventy eight percent will survive at least one, have you ever seen a person with a stroke? Have you ever seen a person with a stroke? It's not only the patient, who lies there paralysed and unable to talk, and unable to move, it involves his whole family. His whole family is locked into caring, working wives have to give up work to come and help them. There's a clue, there's a clue for the need of insurance, not because you're going to die, but because you're going to live, and that is the reason why I'm prepared to cross this world. I don't ask you to sell better, ladies and gentlemen, I don't ask you to sell itself for certain companies, I'd like you to, but I don't. What I ask you and I insist, that for a great tomorrow for my patients, you tell them about it. Just tell them about this product, what it can do, and I assure you of the results. You never have to tell a person who's had a heart attack, you never need to tell a woman when her husband has a stroke, I have to. Help me, give me that great tomorrow, by enough financial security. Look at what we've done to each other, er, to ourselves, in the young, in nineteen hundred, eight percent of people had heart attacks, six percent strokes, cancer, four percent, total eighteen percent. And now, with the way that the human take it to the medical profession for giving them a longer life expectancy, thirty percent of people are diseased. Twenty one cancer, and nine percent strokes. It varies from cancer, in world statistics. You must watch our statistics. In America, it's been shown that statistically, that men have got more children than women. So be very careful with statistics. [clapping] This is the figure of your country, I think are very significant, of the reduction of death rates of people, are getting higher and higher, and the time that's spent through illness off work, and there's an increase in survival after the diagnosis of the dread disease. Ladies and gentlemen, that's why I'm very proud. I've been very lucky, I'm not being charitable, but I've a lot of luck. I've been lucky to be able to launch the first concept of dread disease insurance, in South Africa you might have heard about us. It's called living assurance, launched August ninety eight, for Standard Life Assurance and Wallace. When we changed the concept of insurance totally, and we have said that the sum assured will be paid out on the diagnosis of the disease, and not on death or anything else. We then created the first product which heart attacks, strokes, cancers and certain coronary artery disease, which I can see. I believe you can see why, first of it it's most common, and second to coronary artery disease, I'm a cardiac surgeon, I want my piece of the action too, so we keep as well. [clapping] We have a lot of privacies, and a lot of things until we change them, and you know why we changed it, because you went out and saw your clients and told them products and they reported you, and you came back and said but what about this, what about this? And we responded to the need that you, and I don't think you will ever appreciate it, I cannot thank you enough for your input in this product of yours. You made it what it is. Until we increase it by surgery for disease of aorta, renal failure, therapy for blindness, replacement of a heart valve and organ transplant.
[speaker001:] [cough]
[Gerald:] And then the danger of lungs and in which I do quite well, and you can say to us, and we earn it. Multiple sclerosis and any terminal illness. Why any terminal illness? Just in case, somebody escape that net of dread diseases [clapping] The lucky ones. If your doctors says that you're going die within twelve months, we will accept it as a diagnosis of a critical illness. Erm, we are getting through on that, are you going to suggest on it? We are going to improve and produce what I believe the optimum product eventually. And you know it, it's amazing how since my involvement for the last two years in Great Britain, all the problems that you have with critical illness, all the problems. All those things about definitions, standardisation and all that.... Do you know what, they said it's not justified, tell that to the young farmer of thirty four with a dread disease, his policy when we pay him two hundred thousand pounds in his hospital bed. Say to him it's not justified on his policy, I want the money back. It seems that it is not clarification of definition, tell that to the woman who looked for two, thirteen years after a stroke husband and they had to wait for his death, that you didn't sell him a dread disease policy because there is not clarification of definition. Tell the young mother whose child has just received fifteen thousand pounds after the diagnosis of leukaemia, that you shouldn't have filled the policy because the contexts where not standardised. No ladies and gentlemen, dread disease insurance is a success because it's needed today and tomorrow, and it works. What does it do? and then I'll finish and I'll summarise. If you want me to come back, I'll speak for another five hours. [clapping] What does it do? Think about it very careful, it attains to the threat of loss of own ability. The person has his financial independence threatened by disease, is helped by the dread disease insurance. Compare it with life insurance, death insurance. It accelerates the pay-out by one day, two days, ten days, thirty days, of the death plan, because it pays out on the condition, that's going to be the cause of the death, and not on the death. So it accelerates death. So death insurance, dread disease insurance,, go to much, will do it far better, just quicker. That's all we can do. Inability to work, permanent disability, it accelerates permanent disability because ninety five percent of the conditions that cause the disability will pay out years before you have a disability. I am would claim now for a man who has a disability claim. His accountant said that my stroke is weakening his left arm, he's right-handed. He can speak with a bit of slurring, so what. He says he's got loss of memory, without a stroke, I have that as well, so that makes no difference. He comes and he wants disability. He is not disabled, and yet he makes like he never would have the diagnosis of disability recognised. But dread disease insurance recognised his condition long before disability, and finally what does the dread disease insurance do. It does something even more wonderful, it accelerates critical illness diagnosis by paying out on the disabling condition like loss of limb, where it creates a situation where the permanent person get paid out even before he has a critical condition, because that condition threatens his chances of paying his daily needs due to financial independence. And to continue ladies and gentlemen, I don't think you know where I come from, I've got illiterate parents, you might say that you can see that. My father was a missionary had come from a dusty little town in South Africa, I've got many wonderful experiences in my life, I've had experience of heart transplant. I've the experience of being in a political party that says one man, one vote, release Mandela, and all these things that we were nearly shot for. Today they let prisoners of South Africa say it, it's amazing. But I was also involved in an insurance policy that has been made available for my patients, when they have that worst moment in their lives, you've got cancer, you've had a stroke, to know that in this threat, to what's going to happen to them, they at least have financial independence. I believe that creates the great tomorrow. Life is not only quantity, it's quality as well. You have that choice, that chance to do that for my patients and I tell you, to be with you, to be part of you, I'm as a, I learn for you, I think of you, and I can just tell you, I wish you all the best, but I won't forget your responsibility to help the medical profession to make, with the work they do for a better tomorrow possible, due to your work, your hard attempts to give that financial ability through the best insurance policies on the market today. God bless you, everything of the best, thank you very much. [clapping] [music plays]
[Carol:] Would you like to take a five minute stretch whilst before we continue. Right....