Macquarie urges advisers to educate on heart disease

Financial advisers should use Heart Week to educate their clients about the costs of heart disease and the need to take preventative measures.

This is call made by Macquarie Life head of underwriting and claims Dr Sally Phillips, who said heart conditions were the second highest cause of claims.

Heart attacks, coronary artery bypass surgery and angioplastics represented 14 per cent of the company's life claims, Phillips said.

A 2009 study found the total cost per heart attack on average was $281,000, something advisers need to highlight in client conversations, she added.

"It's not only from a health perspective that we need to consider this; we also need to think about how we're looking after ourselves and our families from a financial point of view too," Phillips said.

"For advisers, this means educating their clients about the need to protect themselves and their families if the worst was to happen," she said. "Insurance, like medicine, can play an important role in helping to ‘cure' at least some concerns if someone suffers a trauma, such as a heart attack; if the appropriate level of insurance cover is in place before such an incident occurs, it can take a lot of the pain, at least in a financial sense, away from the event."