The Secret Life of Pets
Yes you’re right – I am a financial planner so why am I talking about pets? Bear with me on this and it will all become clear shortly!
For those of you not familiar with the movie, The Secret Life of Pets is a Toy Story-esque theme in so much as it imagines what our pets do when we’re not about. How I wish I was a fly on the wall last Friday?
This is our beloved dog, Charlie. He is a typical lap-dog. Although at times full of energy and bouncing around, at other times he’ll happily laze around.
On Friday, during the three hours or so I was out of the house meeting a client. I come home and Charlie appeared in his lazy-mode just lounging in a sun-spot in the hallway.
I tried to take Charlie for a walk as usual but when he tried to get up he could not stand. Like all dogs he loves his walks so I knew something was up. Our Vets were very accommodating and booked me in straight away. It turns out in that 3 hour window he managed to dislocate his hip! The dislocation was bad and it ended up slipping back out of the joint another 2 times over the weekend.
In total I visited the vets on 6 occasions! Each occasion incurred a charge.
Of course when it comes to a loved one the cost is not a concern at the time, but thankfully I had insurance (my wife had arranged this as soon as we got Charlie). Charlie managed to incur nearly £700 worth of costs over the weekend alone!
On Monday morning he was admitted to have surgery. This is estimated to cost another £2000 (at the time of writing the surgery has not yet occurred).
That’s a total cost of nearly £3000 over a weekend.
As I make my insurance claim I am horrified to find that although I am covered for £3000 per annum, the insurance policy has a limit per condition. You’ve guessed it – we have no where near enough cover for this claim. We will get some of the money back but essentially we need to dip into savings to pay for the majority of this cost.
As a financial planner I regularly review the life and sickness policies I have for me and the family to ensure they remain suitable as our circumstances change. In fact, I made a number of changes last month increasing my cover and reducing the cost.
However, I neglected to ever review the pet insurance that my wife arranged since we originally purchased it, having fallen into the trap of thinking “that is sorted”!
This got me thinking…
How many of you reading this are in the same position with your cover?
You may indeed have life, critical illness, income protection insurance etc. but when was this last reviewed?
Is it still suitable for you?
What has changed in your life since you arranged it?
Most of us spend a lot of time each year shopping around for car insurance but we don’t give the same thought and consideration to the cover we have arranged for ourselves.
If you have fallen into the same trap as I did with my pet insurance, it is probably time to review your existing arrangements and ensure they’re up to scratch.
If I can help in any way with this, please feel free to contact me to book an initial review (at no cost) to ensure you are your loved ones have the correct cover.
