Sovereign Insurance say they will be there when you need them – but dying Christchurch man Wayne Croft would disagree.
Mr Croft was insured for more than two decades with AMP. When he took that insurance, he was as healthy as an ox, and his mum and dad were both still alive.
He was covered for life, until he bumped into an old schoolmate - an insurance salesman for Sovereign. Come to us, the old mate said, so Mr Croft did.
But now he's dying Sovereign won't pay out, citing reasons that would not have applied had he stayed with AMP.
Now Mr Croft is surviving on food bought by his friends, who are also helping pay his bills.
He was diagnosed with terminal prostate, lymphatic and bone cancer late last year. Sovereign says because he did not disclose some minor matters at the outset that are unrelated to his illness, he cannot receive one cent of his payout. That means making ends meet and getting the treatment he needs is now virtually impossible.
He and his wife Jules are cherishing every minute they have together at the moment.
"I'm terminal," says Mr Croft. "It will be a bonus if I see Christmas, according to the specialists. A couple of times already I've been sent home and told me to put my affairs in order because the cancer's so fast. But I refuse to give in. I'll take every day as it comes."
Crofty's dad died in his 60s of prostate cancer. As a result he has had a full-body medical every year for the past seven years.
But in the seven months between check-ups, he got one of the most aggressive cancers his urologist has seen. He is now riddled with it and inoperable.
"I've never seen a cancer that is that fast and aggressive in my whole urological career," says Dr Frank Keuppers.
One saving grace he thought was that he had always had life insurance.
"I'd had life insurance my whole life, my whole adult working life so I was pretty comfortable with that scenario, that I thought I'd taken care of all that.
"So I decided to focus on trying to beat it, because there's no way I'm going to let it try and beat me, and also focus on enjoying my wife and my family."
Mr Croft had life insurance with AMP since he was 18. But two years after being given the hard sell by Sovereign, he switched to them.
At the time he says he disclosed his medical history and gave them access to his doctors and previous insurance company records to make sure his cover was comprehensive.
Sovereign disputes his version of events and is refusing to pay. They say he failed to disclose four things at the outset: that he had urinary tract issues, was on a common drug for gastric problems, had a history of depression and that his mother had died from a heart-related issue.
But Sovereign admit none of these things relate at all to his current cancer - they simply make his life insurance policy void.
Mr Croft says he never tried to hide anything and was not required to take a medical.
"The last seven months have been so stressful. I love my wife to bits, she loves me to bits but there's tension there because it's so uncomfortable, and I know I'm going to die, and I know that there's no security for her and it's the reason why I took this life insurance up."
A lot of the tension comes for their struggle to survive day-to-day. The phone has been cut off and they live off Jules' below-average salary.
He is on a cocktail of powerful drugs, including morphine and steroids, but his only chance at extending his life even slightly is non-Government-funded chemotherapy. He needs six sessions at almost $7000 a pop. At the moment he doesn't even have enough money to feed his family.
He has had one session of chemotherapy thanks to donations from both complete strangers and old friends like Karen Scott.
"I decided I had to do something about it," she says. "I couldn't sit by and watch what they were going through and the stressful way they had to live."
Karen has organised a fundraiser tomorrow night at a bar in town to help pay for Mr Croft's chemotherapy.
"He has a terminal illness, he's going to die. Why should he be able to stress every day, and why can't he have some simple pleasures in life? He needs that insurance money to have the chemotherapy, to have some nice times."
"This is not a sad, sombre story, don't get me wrong," says Mr Croft. "I am one of the most positive people you'll ever meet. What this is about is protecting other people and protecting myself."
Campbell Live speaks with Dr John Mayhew, Sovereign clinical director.