Comedy is often just tragedy with a punchline.
For disability insurance marketers, the process of telling the public about the concept of income protection can end up sounding like vaudeville with a sales brochure.
Agent: "You should consider insuring your ability to earn an income."
Consumer: "Oh, I don't need that. I'm healthy!"
Agent: "You still may have a 25 percent chance of suffering a disabling illness or injury of three months or longer before age 65"
Consumer: "That's OK. My employer has workers' comp."
Agent: "Workers' comp just covers disability that's work-related. Fewer than 5 percent of disabling accidents and illnesses are work-related."
Consumer: "Well, then, Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) will take good care of me. Right? … Why are you groaning?"
The moral here is that educating the public about how the U.S. private disability insurance market works can take hard work, and patience. Agents and brokers have to have enough of a sense of humor to address the same misconceptions over and over again.
We've tried to contribute to the 2016 Disability Insurance Awareness Month (DIAM), which started Sunday, by offering a collection of seven new DIAM cartoons, based on great illustrations from the past.
For a look at the cartoons, read on. (And please consider posting your own, family-friendly ideas for captions in the comments section below.)
1. Reality tolerance
"Talking about my work analyzing the effects of cancer and heart disease on disability claims seems to have magical powers. It made that nice young man who was chatting with me disappear."
Image: Lee Conrey
2. Underwriting
"I wonder what that disability insurance company thinks about … men who sleep with teddy bears?"
Image: Lee Conrey
3. Benefits bells and whistles
"You'd like a … honeymoon benefits rider?! I'll ask about that along with the millinery rider. And the floral supply rider …"
See also: Milliman Updates Software
Image: G. Patrick Nelson
4. Priorities
"My, Son, how lovely. So much nicer than you using the money to protect yourself against financial devastation …"
5. Conflicting motives
"I suppose I should buy disability insurance … But then I'd lose the joy of thinking of my wife and three children living in our car."
6. Compliance
"Mandatory paid sick leave. Mandatory paid school meeting leave. Mandatory paid family leave … Where's MY government-paid figure-out-all-the-leave-programs leave?!?"
Image: Lee Conrey
7. DIAM
"Those banging noises coming from upstairs? Oh, that's Ms. Smith, from the insurance agency. Last May, she became a little too aware … "
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Image: Lee Conrey
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