My parents have been seeing their financial adviser, Peter, for over twenty years now and they’ve always tried to encourage me to go see him to try and sort out my debt.
I’ve never been bothered by it as I’m only 47 and I own a successful architectural firm and figure it’s only natural to have a bit of debt – after all you need to spend money to make money.
But last year my parents asked me and my sister Helen to come along to an appointment with them to have some input into their estate plans. Peter says it helps to avoid arguments later on down the track if you get your beneficiaries involved in discussions.
Anyway during our discussions my parents brought up how much debt I was in but Peter wasn’t alarmed at all. He just said it was important to have a back-up plan in place in case something happened to me or my business partner, Bill.
Well Peter seemed to have a good head on his shoulders and I started thinking what would happen to the business if either Bill or I were not around to keep things running along smoothly and keep our big clients happy. So we went to Peter about a business succession plan and just in time too.
I never thought anything could keep me away from my business, but last month I broke my wrist in a squash accident and was physically unable to do my job. Luckily my business expense cover kicked in, allowing us to hire a manager and a really good draftsman to take my place.
All in all it’s worked out really well. Our clients are happy because we’re still on track with their office plans and we’re happy because we got covered just in time.