When financial planning becomes personal

Jillian Larkan
Head – Healthcare Consulting

 

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A real life lesson about how theoretical financial planning suddenly becomes real

Editor’s note

At GTC, we believe true financial planning goes beyond numbers – it’s about life planning.  In this personal reflection, one of our senior advisors shares a deeply human story of a life-changing health event which she puts into context, reminding us all of the real-world consequences of proper planning in terms of insurance, investments, and financial decisions and how they impact on relationships and living a balanced prepared life.

Heart attack… Just saying the words still feels surreal.  It’s one of those events that happen to other people – until it happened to me.  And yet, I lived through it.  The seriousness on the faces of the doctors and nurses in the emergency room told me what I didn’t yet comprehend: this was a life-threatening event that, somehow, hadn’t ended mine.  No one knew why it happened, or whether it might happen again.  As my cardiologist later put it, mine was ‘a once-in-a-lifetime event’ that he hadn’t seen before.

Before this incident, I lived what most would call a healthy, balanced life.  My cholesterol and blood pressure were well managed.  I didn’t smoke, drink excessively, or carry excess weight.  I exercised regularly – in fact, my heart attack struck halfway through a four-hour mountain bike race.

 

The tests that followed – ultrasounds, angiograms, enzyme markers – told a confusing story.  By all accounts, I shouldn’t have survived, but I did.

Although I survived, I also had changed.  I have learned a few things that I think are worth sharing – lessons that go beyond the personal and speak directly to how we should all go about planning our lives around assessing risk, choices, relationships, and financial planning.

Risk planning:  Tomorrow is not guaranteed

Accepting how much money is deducted from my pension fund to pay for my group risks has always been – perhaps a greater consideration to me than believing in the benefits.  It’s always a real cost and an intangible benefit.  Until the benefit becomes tangible, as it did for me.

Despite the wording in GTC’s proposals and annual statements that we help people plan for retirement – for tomorrow, I (like most people?) never really envisaged tomorrow ever coming.

In GTC’s retirement funds (being an industry norm), a portion of each contribution goes toward risk benefits such as life cover, disability, and severe illness insurance.  Many members question why their retirement balance doesn’t grow by the full amount of their contribution (being the amount paid for this insurance), until an event like mine makes the value of that deduction very tangible.

When I had my heart attack, I qualified for the severe illness benefit that was part of my retirement fund.  That payout offered not only financial relief but also emotional assurance.  It reminded me that risk planning isn’t about pessimism – it’s about protection.

Had the outcome been worse, my family would have been supported through the payout of the life cover, also built into the fund.  The benefit, a multiple of my annual salary, would have provided financial security when it was needed most.  While academically I was aware that our group life was ‘unapproved’ (which means that the benefit would be paid to my family without tax being deducted), it is only now that I’m truly appreciating the future benefit of this as opposed to an ‘approved’ life cover benefit (which is still subject to tax) or not having any cover at all.

I am deeply grateful to our fund’s financial adviser – a stalwart in the industry and a senior member of the GTC team – for ensuring that these benefits were previously proposed, and I am equally grateful for these benefits which are paid for by my employer, GTC.  They were designed for precisely this kind of ‘unthinkable’ moment.

Life choices: Living beyond survival

After three days in hospital, I was discharged and back at work shortly thereafter.  I was (mainly) physically fine – but mentally unprocessed.  I then started asking deeper questions:

Am I truly living fully?  Am I using my time and energy wisely?  Would I be proud of what’s said about me when I’m gone?  I have always loved my work.  For more than 40 years, I’ve helped people make sound financial decisions – guiding them towards a secure and comfortable retirement.  My own experience re-defined what security means, realising that this definition only resolved a portion of a fulfilling life.  Growth, curiosity, and purpose were additions that I now made which also matter.

Less TV time is now an outcome.  I pursue things that energise me.  Learning a new skill, exploring a passion previously ignored, and simply saying yes to long-postponed goals and ambitions are now regular achievements.  We can’t choose what happens to us, but we can choose how we live.

Relationships:  The true measure of wealth

I now see relationships differently.  The people around me, my family, friends, and colleagues, and how I engage with them, have become my barometer of the true measure of my wealth.  I want to ensure my loved ones remain protected.  I’ve reviewed my Will, I’ve confirmed my life insurance, and I’ve redone my estate plan.  Previously these same actions felt like chores, they are now tangible acts of love.

Business response:  Rethinking care

Looking back, I wish I had sought counselling after the event.  At the time, I told myself I was ok, returning to work almost immediately.  I now recognise that emotionally I wasn’t ready.

Mandatory leave, counselling, and financial check-ins, all of which are available through my employment contract, have previously been read by me almost as if I was the advisor (which I very often am) and not the client.  I am now the client and I now appreciate how important each of these additional interventions are.  I should have used them.

Most employers have always got good HR policies and procedures in place.  GTC certainly does.  Notwithstanding this, I still don’t believe these same T’s and C’s are either properly understood by staff or appreciated regardless of the instructions and the original sales pitch.  I urge Trendline readers – whether they are retirement fund members depending on their company sponsored scheme, or retirees utilising their own unfolding financial plan – to read the small print and understand what each of these paid-for benefits can deliver, and when.

It’s not always just about the payout.  Financial planning isn’t planning at all if it doesn’t  address the human side of the equation.  Regardless of one’s view of wealth, money is always only a means to an end and not a destination.  Providing for contentment and contingently providing for physical and emotional healing are just as important (and maybe even more so?) than long-term financial security, and the resultant trappings of a successful retirement strategy.

Closing reflections

There comes a time when we all take stock – sometimes by choice, sometimes because life insists on it – of where we are in our circle of life.  My wake-up call came suddenly on a mountain trail.  Yours might come differently, but it will come.

If I could leave you with just a few thoughts, it’s these:

Plan for the expected and prepare for the unexpected.

Have the difficult conversations with your financial planner now, not later.

Review your insurance cover, your Will, and your savings.

Ensure your loved ones are protected.

But also – live.  Pursue what excites you, nurture the people around you, and grow continuously.  Your financial planning isn’t actually about money, it’s about the lives it touches.