Why insurance agents talk about everything, but death

"So, who did you vote for V?" she asked, as soon as she got into my room with a view.

"I am not supposed to tell you that," I replied.

"Really?" she questioned. "Have we taken to hiding things from one another!"

"Yes, hiding a few things, here and there, never did anyone any harm."

"I see your saffron shirt has turned orange."

"Yes. All that sweat in the heat. It was very hot at the electoral booth"

"Hmmm."

"What is that you have in your hand?" I asked.

"Oh these are some pamphlets."

"What pamphlets?"

"Oh, there was an insurance camp in office," she replied.

"Okay."

"You know I spoke to this guy who had come to run the camp."

"Hmmm. And what did he say?"

"Which is what I am still wondering about."

"As in?"

"You see, I always thought that one bought a life insurance policy as an insurance against untimely death."

"Right."

"So that when one is not around, the money that the insurance policy pays out, ensures that the family continues to maintain a similar sort of living standard."

"That should be the number one aim while buying an insurance policy."

"But I didn't get the same feeling after attending the office insurance camp," she said.

"Why?" I asked.

"The guy who had come to run the camp, spoke about investing. He spoke about tax saving. He talked about insurance policies launched especially for women, and so on."

"Hmmm."

"I mean, all that is fine, but he didn't talk about the most basic fact."

"Which is?"

"That life insurance is an insurance against untimely death. He didn't use the word even once or even talk about the frailty of life."

"There is a reason for it."

"Which is?" she asked.

"When insurance agents are trained, they are specifically told not to talk about death or dying, when they are trying to sell an insurance policy."

"And why is that?"

"It comes from the fact that people don't like being told that there is a possibility of untimely death. Everyone is not going to die of old age. Or that in case of the untimely death of the person buying the insurance policy, the insurance pay-out will help the family."

"Hmmm. But aren't we all going to die one day?"

"Yes. One day which is very far away as of now. Or so we like to believe. Buying insurance reminds us that may not always be true."

"Oh and I thought that death is the only truth in life."

"It is."

"Then?"

"You are clearly in a minority who thinks along those lines."

"Oh."

"As Thomas Gilovich and Lee Ross write in The Wisest One in the Room—How You Can Benefit From Social Psychology's Most Powerful Insights: "Psychologists over the past thirty years have demonstrated time and again that the tiniest change in how a question is worded or how an option is described can radically alter how it is understood—and therefore how people respond.""

"What does that tell us in this context?" she asked.

"The thing is this, if life insurance is sold as something one buys in order to insure the family against untimely death, people don't buy it. Hence, you have all the frills attached to life insurance, everything from investing to tax saving."

"Hmmm."

"The interesting thing is that most insurance policies being sold by life insurance companies are not pure term insurance policies. They are basically investment plans masquerading as insurance policies."

"Oh."

"Most so called insurance plans sold in India have very little insurance built into them. And because of that most people and their families are not adequately insured."

"I can see where this is heading."

"Yes. Hence, in case of the untimely death of the policyholder, the insurance pay-out is never really enough to take care of the family in distress."

"Yes."

"And all this happens primarily because of our inability to accept that death can come any time."

(The example is hypothetical).

Vivek Kaul is the author of the Easy Money trilogy.