Who’s Inspiring Whom?
Brett G., West Gosford, Australia, writes:
I was referred to a lovely young couple several years ago. The values and goals they relayed to me were well considered, vivid and were communicated with a significant amount of emotion. I was a little taken aback at their openness. I learned that the wife, who had been a happy, healthy, working mother, had suffered a brain tumor and had had surgery to attend to that. She was unable to work, the chemo had taken her hair, and the radiation had given her almost constant headaches. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, you could not meet a more grateful, happy human keen to ensure she lived each moment and gave the best possible life to her three young daughters. To give you an idea of her character, although gravely ill herself, she spent some of her spare time talking to cancer patients at the hospital to help them through their experience.

From a financial perspective, the family had been “managing” with very little room for luxuries. Looking through their paperwork, I found that with her former employer she had income protection insurance and also total permanent disablement and death insurance. Our team pursued a claim for them. We arranged back payment of the income protection to the time she was first diagnosed, which resulted in a $36,000 lump sum and then regular monthly payments. This was a large amount of money to them, and the ongoing monthly payment was the difference between surviving and thriving.

Unfortunately, she eventually passed away. I attended the funeral where her husband mentioned me in the eulogy as being pivotal in having supported and enhanced the final years of the family’s life together. During the last phase of her illness, they were even able to pay for some treatment they could not otherwise have afforded.

Upon her passing, we arranged the payment of the death benefit and this allowed the family to grieve without further stress. Six months later, they used some of the money for Dad and the three girls to go on a family trip of a lifetime skiing in Canada in memory of their mother. The memories were so great, they are going again this year and the dad recently e-mailed me some pictures and a thank you for making the holiday possible.

A Family Tragedy Avoided
Debbie P., of Walnut Creek, Calif., writes:
My team and I discovered that one of my client couples had a lethal combination of investment assets, homes, various life insurances and an out-of-date estate plan. If my clients had passed away, their children stood to directly inherit over $4 million each on their 21st birthdays. This was never their intention, and they agreed that this would have ruined their children. They were very happy to make the adjustments to reduce that burden on their children. They updated the documents to put assets in trust until their children are of a certain age and performance milestones are achieved.