Scottish Widows has released an educational video to commemorate the 35th year since South African pioneer heart surgeon Dr Marius Barnard came up with the idea of critical illness insurance.
The video, which networks and financial advisers can request to use on their websites, aims to educate and engage people about the need for critical illness cover (CIC), a policy which pays out on diagnosis of serious and critical illnesses to help people meet their daily living expenses.
The video, which FTAdviser is showing in full above, aims to explain why it is important to help "safeguard" the financial welfare of families, according to Johnny Timpson, protection specialist of Scottish Widows.
Mr Timpson said: "Very sadly, Marius died of cancer in November 2014, and his final words to me were 'Johnny, my race is run'.
"He asked a promise of his daughter Naudene, a film maker, to make a TV documentary to mark the 50th anniversary of the first heart transplant, and a promise of me to help her and make it freely available to financial advisers as an educational aid for both them and their clients.
"He also asked I safeguard and advocate what he regarded as his greatest achievement, the creation and development of accessible and affordable critical illness cover that delivers on the promise of insurance, providing benefits and support to vulnerable policyholders, when they need it most.
"He has passed this baton on to all of us and we must carry it forward. His work to create critical illness cover has helped to improve the financial resilience of thousands of people every year and we, as an industry, need to find better ways to show the critical role that this type of insurance plays in safeguarding the financial welfare of our families."
In 2017, a documentary filmed and produced by Naudene Leisegang, daughter of Dr Marius Barnard, commemorated the 50th anniversary of the first human to human heart transplant.
The successful surgery was carried out by her father, along with her uncle, Dr Christiaan Barnard, and a team at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, on 3 December 1967.
We feel the video makes a lot of sense and brings home the message about the need for critical illness insurance.Alan LakeySeveral years after this, Dr Marius Barnard was touched by the financial poverty of a woman dying of cancer who was still struggling into work each day to provide for her family.
It was this that prompted him to approach a South African insurer to come up with a policy that pays out on diagnosis of a severe or critical illness.
Originally called dread disease cover, this was changed to critical illness cover.
Alan Lakey, founder of CI Expert, said: "I was lucky enough to talk to Dr Marius Barnard when he was over here about eight years ago.
"I think the video Scottish Widows has done brings home the reality of what the insurance is about, and brings across the fact it was a medical professional who came up with this [cover], which is important - it's not something a provider came up with.
"We have linked our site to this video as we feel the video makes a lot of sense and brings home the message about the need for critical illness insurance.
"It is all about the human element, and you need this to get the message across. If a picture is worth 1,000 words then a video must be worth about 5,000 or so."
Find out more
Financial Adviser columnist Jeff Prestridge has given his thoughts on the documentary from Naudene Barnard. Turn to page 20 of this week's issue for details.
simoney.kyriakou@ft.com
