You must opt for a life insurance policy. If your finances allow, you must also get health insurance as well as home insurance. This way you would be able to save yourself from any sudden financial crisis. However, you need the best of persons when it comes to an insurance advisor. In this article, we will take you through five steps to hire the best LIC advisor in Delhi.

1. Always prefer a certified advisor

Your insurance advisor must have proper certification from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA). This proves that he/she is not there to trick you or fraud you. Moreover, the guidelines laid down by this agency make sure that you are protected on all fronts. If a person is not certified by IRDA, legally he is not entitled to advise people on insurance. He may end up in jail. Therefore, before selecting an agent, make sure that he/she has all the necessary certifications.

2. He must be through with investment solutions

You must understand that insurance agents are much more than just a salesman. They must have a proper understanding of financial planning. They should be equipped with all the necessary information about the financial world, both domestic as well as globally. More importantly, your LIC advisor should have a proper understanding of your family and financial standing. This way he would be able to suggest you the best insurance for you. It is advised that you should first develop a good friendship with the advisor and only then allow him to enter your financial realm.

3. He must have a complete understanding of the product he wants to sell

The insurance advisor must have a thorough knowledge of all the insurance policies that his/her company sells. You should sit down and have a long conversation with him about the pros and cons of various policies. You must understand that every insurance company sells a hell lot of policies. Not all policies are meant for you. Your insurance advisor must suggest you the best policy for yourself after understanding your family and finances.

4. Does the follow-up?

He/she is a cheap insurance advisor if he/she forgets you after you have bought the insurance policy. This is not what a responsible advisor does. Even after you have bought the policy, you may have a hell lot of questions to be answered. He/she must update you about the product premium and all the necessary details to make the best of your insurance.

5. He must help you while fulfilling your claim

When a claim arises, an advisor plays a very important role. He is the sole contact person between the insurance provider and the policyholder. He must understand all the formalities that need to be fulfilled for a successful claim. If your claim is denied there was no point in opting for that insurance policy. A good insurance advisor will stand by you when you need him/her the most.

I have been experiencing an insatiable thirst to seek to answer this nagging question about whether insurance is a necessity in our country today. While the subject of insurance is broad and multi-faceted, I will seek to break down the perception of this subject so that our minds for a moment are not engrossed with the surreptitious picture of insurance agents’ incessantly cold-calling potential clients or pursuit of claims arising out of insurable risks by claimants.

Data from the Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) shows that the level of uptake of insurance in Kenya is at an all-time low of 3.3 percent. This cannot be compared to developed economies like South Africa where the numbers are at 14%. Many explanations have been advanced to show why Kenyans are still averse to taking up Insurance related products. One prominent argument is that the Per capita income (GDP) of the average income earner cannot be enough to support payment of premiums. The other school of thought is that the savings culture of Kenyans is still wanting.

While the arguments above may hold water, the fundamental understanding of insurance has not been taught to most of us from an early age. The subject of insurance I dare say is still shrouded with a lot of secrecy and misunderstanding akin to the mysticism surrounding ancient religions. The language used is still rather technical to the average person. I realize that at this point I must correct myself quickly and note that every profession has its language; for an engineer has to use engineering language, an architect the same etcetera. Insurance also has its language but if its proponents profess that it benefits almost all of humanity, shouldn’t it be clothed in language that is not so grandiose but easily palatable to the common man?

The responsibility of the stakeholders in the insurance industry is to bring customers’ perception to how insurance works in a language they can understand. This would entail offering a basic insight on what informs the underwriting decisions on various insurance products by insurers. I want to suggest that it would benefit insurers to have open days where they invite people and educate them on the fundamentals of insurance, on the meaning of risk, why insurance is important to any economy and most importantly the benefits of insurance at a personal level. Apart from honing their sales skills, sales professionals need to align themselves properly with the market in order to understand and respond well to their customers’ needs. More often than not, sales people are perceived to be aggressive, over-achieving individuals who are not honest and are quick to point to clients the dotted lines in the application document. This negative perception must stop. Insurance sales people contribute immensely to the overall economic growth and offer important services without which an economy could not function well.

Now back to our overarching theme. Any society is fraught with risks. The risk of death by accidents, accidental injury leading to permanent or temporary disability, the risk of fire arising out of man-made or natural sources e.g. lightning, subterranean fire etc, the risk of accidental injury at the place of work owing to the nature of employment, loss of luggage while travelling and many more. What insurance does is simply to classify the above mentioned risks and price them into premiums. The premiums are then pooled and it is from this pool of funds that claims are settled. The guiding principle here is that a risk should be quantifiable. A close analysis of your immediate environment will reveal many known and unknown risks. Insurance companies manage losses that arise out of insured risks. Think for a moment the costs borne by the insured if there was no insurance to mitigate these risks. Imagine a petrol station owner being held liable for damage by fire arising from his petrol station to his neighbors. If the owner does not have public liability insurance, he may find it difficult to raise money to meet his legal fees and hence may not protect his business. This is because the cost of a claim can far exceed what a business is able to raise and necessitate the shutting down of a business altogether. Many examples abound where insurance solve practical problems and mitigate a host of risks that can cripple businesses and slow economic growth. At a personal level, medical insurance is very vital. Think for a moment the rising cost of Medicare and consultancy fees not to mention the increasing costs of pharmaceutical medicines.

But there is an antithesis to such a healthy explanation and this is advanced by some who argue that risks are only imagined hazards. They posit that a risk is imagined and only ceases to be a risk when an actual occurrence happens. Some even counter a proposal to take up insurance dangerously by arguing that they have, for example, not been admitted to hospital for a number of years and see no need to take up a medical cover. While it is important to live healthy and avoid the hospital and its attendant costs, it would be farcical for one to wish they had a medical cover in the face of a medical emergency.

In conclusion, insurance is necessary to any growing economy like Kenya in spite of the low uptake. It not only creates employment and puts in abeyance the worry of meeting risks; it is an indicator of economic growth and a sign of a thriving economy. More needs to be done to educate the masses with regard to this subject. The responsibility lies squarely at the court of the regulator to put pressure on insurance companies to increase the uptake of insurance in the country. Incentives must be given to companies that have the highest level of penetration to make sure they maintain their influence and widen the market. Is insurance necessary? Indeed it is. Next time someone dissuades you from taking up an insurance plan, think again.

I’ve enjoyed many of the recordings of Chinese classical music I’ve been able to hear.

This one is no exception, but is not at the top of the list either.

The basic concept was to center this collection around the theme of bamboo. The title is not meant just as a poetic image, but to really describe the contents.

All the tracks are related to bamboo, from “Heart Touching Sound of Bamboo” to “Bamboo Singing in the Moonlight.”

Also, the wind instruments used are made of bamboo, and there are ten kinds used here: di, xiao, sheng, Chinese panpipes, guan-zi, ba-wu, kou-xian, lu-sheng, bamboo leaf and hu-lu-si. Some of these are traditionally Chinese and others come from other ethnic groups.

The two most common are the Chinese bamboo flutes, the di and xiao.

The di is very common and popular in Chinese music. It resembles a flute. It comes in two common varieties: the bang-di which is soothing and soft and the qu-di which has a strong, high-pitched sound.

The xiao (or dong-xiao) is usually made of purple bamboo, yellow withered bamboo or white bamboo. Its sound is soft and pitched low, and it’s commonly used in concerts.

The sheng is very old, dating back to the early years of Chinese civilization. It’s basically a collection of bamboo flutes of different lengths bound together.

Bamboo is closely related to music in Chinese. They use the phrase “si zhu” — silk and bamboo — to refer to music and musical instruments.

It’d be interesting to know when this music was produced. The small pamphlet included with the CD is little help. One of the producers is old enough to have graduated from college in 1962. Then he went to study music at Fujiang’s College of Art – and there his bio stops. During the Cultural Revolution did he spend ten years on a pig farm learning from the peasants? Is this music officially sanctioned by the Chinese Communist Party as it was during Mao’s lifetime? We’re not told.

The other producer, however, is listed as having some credits connected to Buddhism, so that implies this is a post-Mao product (though the current regime is not friendly toward any religion).

The flaw in this collection is that all the tracks are aiming at producing a mood reflecting the peace and quiet of a bamboo grove. They are slow and sedate. Beautiful in themselves, taken by one by one, but after a while you start to crave some variety, some contrast.

This is a good CD to play when you just want to lie down and space out. It’s not going to make you start dancing, but it’s more compelling than the usual New Age stuff people buy.

Prepare to be soothed if not particularly entertained.