Munich Bastian Kunkel should already pick up many readers in the first few lines in their attitude to the subject of insurance. Nobody wakes up in the morning and says: “Great! Today I’m really keen on dealing with my insurance policies,” he writes in the foreword of his book “Totally unsettled”.
But even if, understandably, nobody likes to take care of their insurance, the prevailing opinion is that this is an inevitable evil that needs to be dealt with. The policies are then filed in a folder in the study or in the basement. But even then, no one can say with certainty whether a man or a woman is really well insured.
In the past few weeks, the author Bastian Kunkel has succeeded in creating a bestseller with an approach of casual writing, understandable attempts at explanation and plenty of advertising on his own behalf. He manages to break down the barriers when it comes to the tiresome subject of insurance, even for the people who belong to the group described at the beginning.
In book form, Kunkel is thus continuing on the path that has already given him a large number of followers on social media channels such as YouTube, Instagram or Tiktok. There he also explains in humorous words and without the usual technical jargon what often sounds like technical jargon for the normal customer in the insurance conditions. Such low-threshold access should certainly be beneficial for the business of his agency “Versicherungen mit Kopf”.
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In the book, Kunkel asks the right questions in the individual chapters and also provides the right answers. This does not result in a guide, as there are already plenty in this area. Instead, the author tries to take the customer’s point of view and starts much lower.
Bastian Kunkel: Totally (un)insured.
Financial Book Publisher
Munich 2022
240 pages
15 euro
It is about simple but absolutely justified questions such as “Which insurance is (basically) useful?” or “How do you report damage correctly?” to common mistakes, false expectations or even myths that still hold up if they are considered to have been disproved long ago.
For example, one should not listen to parents, grandparents or friends when it comes to insurance. Either there is dangerous half-knowledge from there such as “The insurance never pays anyway” or it is possible that your own decision is sabotaged, which you have only just made your way to after a long period of familiarization with the matter and careful consideration.
Criticism of your own industry
The fact that hardly anyone likes to deal with insurance is also due to the bad reputation that has prevailed for decades, which the industry has largely blamed itself. Bastian Kunkel does not protect his own industry, but openly says that he himself is sometimes embarrassed about it.
It’s about black sheep, among whom the motto “hit, knock down, cut off” prevails when dealing with customers – which means nothing other than that many representatives are only concerned with the quick conclusion of a contract and then never be seen again. Then Kunkel is also ashamed of his own industry, as he describes in his book. Such an admission should certainly not damage his own reputation.
Nevertheless, Kunkel surprises in a number of places with unexpected depth. Whenever the casual narrative style turns into a guide that gives tips that you don’t get with a quick online deal.
Then he explains the monstrous word best-performance guarantee, with which the customer of liability insurance receives the best possible service that is available in Germany. Even if it can be found with another provider. Or he explains terms such as “waiving an abstract reference” in disability insurance. Certainly no customer knows what to do with that either. But if the clause were not in the contract, the insurer could refer its customers to another profession that they could possibly still practice, even if their occupational disability was proven.
It’s the mixture of introductory information and background knowledge that makes “Totally unsettled” worth reading. From the point of view of the industry, things are probably getting a bit muddled when, for example, people ask what happens if the insurer goes bankrupt. But these are exactly the questions that customers ask themselves during a consultation. Bastian Kunkel’s book is thus also a customer approach to a sometimes unapproachable industry.
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