Who's Looking After You? EVERYTHING IS EXPLAINED DOWN TO THE MOST MINUTE DETAIL
Who's Looking After You? While you're looking after your success, who's looking after YOU? You could be focusing so much on the wonderful, positive things you're doing that the dangers may not be seen - - until it's too late! The secret is to take good care of your financial kingdom before grave problems arise. What could happen (that insurance can't fix)? Here's a partial list: 1. Lead-based paint litigation. Some insurance policies now exclude coverage for this. Better check your policy. 2. Lawsuits by tenants. The judgments on these may be well over your insurance coverage. Worse yet, your carrier could take the position that you did something "intentional" and refuse to defend you. 3. A guardianship can take away your control over all your assets. 4. Probate would mean needless expense and delay for your family. 5. Federal Estate Tax takes savage hunks from all you've acquired over a lifetime. All of these dangers can be avoided or softened - - if you know how. WHAT ARE THE THINGS WE HOLD MOST DEAR? WHAT MUST WE PROTECT WITH ALL OF OUR STRENGTH? HEALTH - Without it, we can't thrive and achieve - for ourselves and the ones dearest to us. WARMTH - Happiness, peace of mind, security. FREEDOM - To find our own best and highest use for ourselves and to determine for ourselves where and how we want to live our lives - - all without government encroachment. BUT THIS IS WHAT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT - - We all want a safe,comfortable place to sleep and live. We crave respect from the people who know us. We need love every day, be it romantic love, love from parents or from our children. All of these things can be damaged by losing our financial security. HOW WOULD WE HANDLE POVERTY? Just think how vulnerable we would be in poverty. That's why we are here for this time together - - to explore ways to protect things which are precious to our lives. If we were without assets, look what could become of our cherished foundations: Health - Without money, health is nearly impossible! Bad diets; drafty, dirty places to live; not enough heat (or cool); sub-standard medical care; fewer, if any, choices about where to get medical care - - These things all add up to dangerously bad health. Most of all - if we've been used to having money and suddenly don't - think what a terrible depression would do to our health. Safety - How safe would we be in the projects? If we've newly come to poverty and haven't learned survival skills, how would we be if we had to walk to just get to a grocery store in a strange, poor neighborhood? Warmth - If we were poor and dependent upon a relative, how much happiness can we expect? If we couldn't help our children or our grandchildren when they needed financial assistance - - how would we feel? What if social workers had complete control over where we lived, what we wore and what we had to eat - - how much spiritual joy would there be in our lives? Of course, our church may (or may not) be there for us to give us spiritual strength. But how would we handle it if we were the object of church charity? Freedom - Without assets, freedom would be a thing of the past. Travel would be impossible, choices on where to live would be gone and social workers would decide on where to "place" us. Association with the people we want to be near may be denied us. (We may be poor and in Tampa and everyone we love may be poor and in Detroit.) If we are destitute, we're not free to pick up a telephone and talk to people who nourish us. When our choices are gone - we're no longer free. How do we get to be poor? 1. Be sued by someone who can really ruin us. (For example, if we caused a bad auto accident and the judgment against us was much more than our insurance.) 2. Lead based paint damages cases can be ruinous. Especially if our insurance company will not defend environmental hazard cases. The defense costs alone may be enough to bring about financial destruction - - even if we win the case. 3. Sudden disability such as a serious head injury in an auto accident or fall, or anything which makes it difficult to manage our affairs could set in motion a guardianship action against us. If this action succeeds, all of our choices are gone. The guardianship that is there to "protect" us could lead to financial ruin. 4. A prolonged nursing home stay could take away all of our assets as well as our freedom and dignity. Disability could come to any of us. How it is handled by planning ahead makes the difference between comfort and misery. Imagine being a welfare case in a nursing home - being "placed" with a roommate who has nasty habits and losing all control over our lives! 5. Finally, in the event of our death (and it will come to us all), a probate action dragging through the court system could take away thousands of dollars needlessly from our families. What kind of memories would our children and loved ones have if we were so negligent as to leave them with huge legal bills? HOW CAN WE KEEP FINANCIALLY SAFE AND WARM? THAT'S WHY WE'RE TOGETHER - -TO LEARN ESSENTIAL SURVIVAL SKILLS Who's Looking After You? |