We've all seen news stories or known of someone who suffered illness or tragedy, or had a child succumb to a debilitating or terminal illness. Aside from the emotional toll, these circumstances often severely impact the ability of one or both parents to earn and provide for their families.
Wayne Lennan's blog below may be a little unpalatable, but it begs consideration about taking the next step and doing something to - quite literally - ensure future financial stability for your family.
Childhood Expo Highlights the Need for Insurance
I recently attended the Child Alliance Childhood Expo at Newcastle Panthers. I couldn't believe how many businesses and products there were to service the needs of families with young children. There were educational products and services, health products and services, child care services and much, much more, in fact it was quite overwhelming!
All the products and services had something in common: they all promoted family harmonisation as being the holy grail of a happy life and they're right. Let's face it, if everything is going well at home pretty much everything else is going well too.
What amazed me was that people who were intelligent, caring parents, looking for more options to improve their own lives and their children's, were completely ignorant about their financial security. Let's face it, we all want to give our kids the best start in life, with good health and educational opportunities, it's normal, in fact I tend to think it is hardwired into most of us to hope that our kids will do better than we did.
I spent most of my time at the expo talking to young parents, asking them what they think is the most important thing they can offer their child besides love? Nearly all of them answered "financial security and opportunities to be their best". My next question was how do you give that to them? Their answer: "by working hard". A great answer, as long as you can work hard. Most of the people I spoke to had no personal insurance outside of their superannuation fund and even then, most didn't know how much they had or had even considered how much they might need.
Seriously, I can't believe that people who obviously love their children and want the best for them can be so uneducated and ill informed about what could be the most important financial decision of their children's lives.
Imagine just for a moment, the picture of the perfect family: happy, healthy and successful. Then, there is a terrible car accident, the Mum is left fighting for her life and the father is killed instantly....
What happens to the kids?
Does anyone know? Not one person I met could tell me what was going to happen to their kids, if something happened to them. Most ummed and ahhed and then mumbled something about their retired parents taking the kids.
The fact is most people don't have a plan, they usually don't even know they need one because we all walk around thinking we are going to live forever and for those of us that have come to terms with the fact we are going to die we like to picture it happening very peacefully at the ripe old age of 90 or more, after fulfilling all our ambitions and dreams. Unfortunately for most people, that’s not how it will happen. Somewhere along the line there will be accidents, illnesses and maybe even premature death at a fairly young age.
While we can't always control what happens in our lives we can have a plan to deal with it. Just like you teach your kids the family emergency plan in case of fire or flood, you need an emergency financial plan to help you deal with life's unexpected turns.
Do you know what will happen to your kids if something happens to you?
If you’re not sure, I would urge you to sit down and talk about it with your partner, your parents and especially your insurance adviser and your solicitor. Every parent needs a plan to make sure their children are protected even if they can't be around.
Call Insurance for Living for help with your own personal emergency plan.
02 4925 6125
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