Working with the protection industry and knowing about value added services may well have saved the lives of Teladoc Health’s Dave Marcus and his wife Emily.
Speaking on the final day of Income Protection Action Week, Marcus who is director, European client management at Teladoc Health, revealed why he is such a huge advocate for the services.
“Three years ago, it was these services that saved my wife Emily’s life when she was told she had polyps and she had colon cancer,” Marcus told Income Protection Task Force chairwoman Vicky Churcher.
“Two weeks after she finished chemo and got the all-clear, I was told by my own doctors ‘Stop bothering us. You don’t need to worry’.
“They said: ‘You’re fine. You’re in a good place. You’ve had pnuemonia. You’ve had a chest infection’.
“And I had non-smokers’ lung cancer.
“I was about three or four weeks away from being inoperable.”
Duty of care to reminding customers
Consequently, Marcus (pictured) said his message to advisers was to remind them of their duty of care to tell customers, pre- and post-sale, about value added services.
“Because I’m in a really good place,” Marcus continued. “We’re both cured. We’re both happily married now.
“Sometimes in the dark moments at night, I wonder if I wasn’t in the industry, would I have known that I had access to a virtual GP?
“And the reality without that Teladoc GP, I wouldn’t be here today. And my income protection, critical illness claim would have been Emily’s life claim.
“So my message is talk about them. Get people to understand them and remind, remind and remind them.”