You may have seen the Four Corners story last Monday about Life insurance claims, or you probably had better stuff to do.

But we wish to make a few points:

I agree Life insurers are capable of very bad behaviour at claim time – but they are all equally capable of it. Commonwealth is no worse than the others in my experience (30 years). The worst behaviour I have seen recently was from the ANZ Bank/OnePath (it was gobsmacking in its audacity and heartlessness). We deal with them all and we know the next fight with them is just around the corner.

A good adviser at claim time will just about eliminate the need for a lawyer. None of the people on the show had an adviser, but I can assure you if any of these people were our client, they would not be on that TV show complaining.

But consider this, if you buy your cover from the bank’s adviser, and you later ask that adviser for help with your claim, what position is she now in? You want her to go thump the Claims Manager’s desk for you, but that’s her very own employer she is trying to extract money from; ferociously advocating for you is not a good career move. If you have cover through the banks, appoint a non-aligned adviser to your policies.