Why Michael Jackson got it right

Have you ever heard the story of when Eddie Van Halen got the call from Quincy Jones to play the guitar solo on Michael Jackson’s Beat It? His initial response was “eff off, this is a windup!” and he put the phone down 4 times as he didn’t believe it was Quincy on the phone and someone was playing a practical joke.

What he didn’t get, but Quincy did, was that when you need a specialist job done you call a specialist. Incidentally, Eddie’s record label considered it so uncool for him to play on Michael’s record that they prevented him from appearing in the video.

So I have conversations with generalists all the time about Relevant Life Insurance. They often have more professional qualifications than me (chartered, grand wizard etc) and some tend to look down on me as a lesser mortal for that reason. But when we get into the nuts and bolts of a conversation about Relevant Life Insurance, many of them think relevant life insurance is fairly new, that here’s only a few providers and they’re pretty much the same product across the board?”

For Relevant Life Insurance there are currently 7 providers, if you discount the ones offering supplementary relevant life policies to group schemes. Like any insurance contract the devil is in the detail.

Here are the main points to consider:

1. Is it transferable to another company or personal cover?
2. If so is there any further underwriting?
3. Is there any loss of benefits on transferring from Relevant Life to personal cover?
4. What are the multiples of income for levels of cover?
5. What income is allowable?
6. Are there automatic increase options?
7. What are the financial underwriting limits?
8. Are there any other benefits to the contract?

So just as I wouldn’t use a plumber to do my electrics, a drummer to play a guitar solo or a GP for my brain surgery operation. I wouldn’t use a generalist practitioner for my business protection. You might get it right…or you might not, in fact you’ll never get to find out.

Incidentally, Eddie never made I dime from that solo, he forgot to ask about payment!