to be insured or not to be insured

Am no a big fan of insurance, well, especially the agents, considering their sometimes-less-ethical-manner in approaching prospects. However, finding a post concerning insurance on my Facebook's friend, I find it pretty hilarious. I think my agent-friends should meet her and try to talk her into insurance :D

Here's the post:

 

"banyak yang menawarkan berbagai macam produk asuransi, katanya itu untuk masa depan..sebenarnya masa depan apa yang mereka tawarkan? masa depan di akhirat kah? kenapa kita tak ingat kewajiban kita sebagai muslim untuk berzakat setiap bulannya...zakat penghasilan kita perbulan bukan memikirkan memupuk harta ketika kita lepas pensiun...untuk anak2 cukuplah kita bekali mereka dengan ilmu dan akhlak yang baik bukan harta yang berlimpah...toh ketika kita meninggalkan dunia yang fana ini, hanya sehelai kain putih yang menutupi kita dan pengadilan di hadapan allah adalah amalan2 kita di dunia...nasihat dan muhasabah bagi diri sendiri ..."

 

Let me try to translate it:

"many offered insurance products, said that they were important for our future. But what kind of future actually that they offered? Was it a future in heaven? Why don't we remember our obligation as a Moslem to pay zakat (kind of tithe) every month, instead of pondering of piling wealth for our retirement? Our children, it's enough for them if we provide them with knowledge and moral, not with wealth. Don't we realize, when we leave, there will be only a sheet of white cloth to cover us, and the court before the Lord will be our good deeds in the world. Let this be an advice and evaluation for ourselves...."

 

The comments column was filled with encouraging words from her friends, well, except for one, who (perhaps) tried to knock logic into this lady's head, by mentioning that, insurance is needed to protect us in unexpected events that may occur. With me, I don't defend her, nor blame her. It's her right to have opinion like that.

 

FYI, yours truly just surrender her policy. Because why, people?

1. I agreed to the policy under false understanding that I understood what I was doing, what the agent was explaining about. Another FYI, the agent was my "mentee", religiously told me about her "calling/passion" in insurance, diligently approaching me, until I said OK and out of sudden, she disappeared slowly from my presence. She quitted her company without telling me.

2. After she left, I found out that that moment I was under her leader's agency. I met him once, to retrieve my lost policy, and he gave a pretty good impression. He tried to talk me into his agency, almost lured in, but no, no, thank you.

3. This guy was quite hard to contact with. It took me to ask help from my first agent, then she connected me to her friend, who was very cheeky and chatty. I knew it from an almost 1-hour convo by phone, over 30 minutes of it was her complaints about her leader, a.k.a. my then agent.

4. After almost 2 years without contact from/to anybody in the company, I was baffled when I read an unfamiliar name in my report sheet. Another agent-replaced-without-telling-the-client?

There I had it. In addition, EVERY month I struggled whenever the calendar showed 10 (the due date of premium payment), and I was more than happy to cut the feeling off. So, I texted my second agent, told him that I wanted to quit, thankfully he didn't ask questions, and now I'm already in the middle of surrender process.

And I feel relieved.

Well, I don't know what will happen next. I did have quite a serious treatment last year, when I contracted Hep-A, but hey, it's Hep-A, it's a self-limited virus XD, but to my defense, I wouldn't and I can't count on my policy - which I didn't understand almost-at-all - to help me with when needed.

FYI, I do translation work for a famous magazine in the insurance world, so almost every month I am presented with a number of great stories, moving testimonies that may whip you to the bones oh-those-who-have-little-faith-on-insurance.

I know insurance is a good thing, but looking at the manner and the products offered here (most of them emphasize the INVESTMENT side), I hereby decline myself from this industry, until one day I have a proper understanding about insurance. And a fixed or bigger income.