You see, he'd be doing quotes for a modest budgeted premium - let's say $50 a month - and he'd have a little bit of disability income protection, a little life cover, some TPD, the tiniest pinch of trauma cover ($20,000 was typical), and even sell $50,000 of accidental death - and he must have been the only man I ever knew who sold passenger accidental death benefits, which is specialised to the vanishing point.

At the time I suffered from the view, which I have seen shared by many since, that you should try and do one job well, and leave the other cover areas for a later review if they could not be properly dealt with now.

Recent events have challenged that view. A claim with some publicity featured a client who was surprised to discover that they would receive no payment for their lost leg under their TPD policy.

Most modern TPD policies eschew what were considered to be gimmicks - a schedule of benefits that would result in lesser payments for a variety of incapacities.

The schedule was thought to be something from a bygone era - like the advice from sales managers that you should walk down the street with your shoulder rubbing on the wall, so that you would fall into the first open door.

But, as recent events show, perhaps that insurance broker was right.

The important thing is to at least make sure the client gets something in the event of any contingency, and build up the level of cover later.

This is because they simply cannot help but see the whole process of insurance as a sham when they suffer an obvious catastrophe but receive no payment for it.

So spread that cover dollar around.