My story is not that uncommon. A family torn apart because of money.
My life’s work has been based around life insurance. It’s not a passion, that’s for people who sell ice cream. The word passion is over used and common, so dull. Mine is a crusade. A holy mission to bring the gift of life insurance to every Canadian I can.
Why do I have the fervor of a religious zealot? It’s because of my life story. What happened to me and my family. The devastation of not having life insurance destroyed a beautiful family. This calamity was 100% avoidable, but my late father, in his infinite wisdom, whispered the worst 4 words in the English language: “I can self-insure”. Once those words left his mouth our family’s fate was doomed.
What does “self-insure” mean? It means, the person thinks they have enough money to be able to handle death without life insurance. Now this is where the story becomes interesting.
My Dad was worth approximately $10 million. All his worth was tied up in real estate. That’s a pretty nice nut. So, in my Dads mind he had plenty of money, rental income and life was grand. If he died, his wife (my Mum) and kids would simply split the assets. 4 kids, 1 Mum, that’s a cool 2 million each right? Not a bad pay day when pops decides to push up some daisies. Seems pretty simple so far?
Dad dies. The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) assess Dad’s estate as owing $2.5 million in tax. The CRA give us 31 days to come up with the $2.5 million to pay the tax bill. Holy sh!t Batman!!! WTF do we do now?
There is NO life insurance. No liquid cash. Just real estate that now has to be sold fast to pay the bill. You know what happens when you have to sell real estate fast? You have to sell it cheap. We sell $5 million of real estate for $2.5 million to pay the tax bill. Dads estate is now down to $5 million.
In this family saga, two of the 5 people hold the full $5 million in their name. This is supposed to be split equally between the 5 parties. Do you think it was?
Let’s put it this way, my Mum, one of my brothers and I no longer speak to two of our siblings. Bye bye family.
What a crying shame. A total and utter unmitigated avoidable disaster.
The solution is so simple. Buy life insurance. Don’t wait till it’s too late. dropdead term life insurance (www.dropdeadlifeinsurance.ca) is the best and cheapest life insurance solution you could wish for.