This article was contributed by Tang Khan Loon, Director, Business Development and Strategic Partnerships, Financial Alliance Pte Ltd. It first appeared on LinkedIn and has been republished on Nudge with permission. The information herein is for general information only and is not intended to provide legal advice on any general or specific matter.
My mother was admitted to a hospital in the morning of 10 March 2022 and passed away at 11.20pm the same day due to a ruptured brain aneurysm.
An aneurysm is a bulge in a blood vessel caused by a weakness in the blood vessel wall, usually where it branches. As blood passes through the weakened blood vessel, the blood pressure causes a small area to bulge outwards like a balloon.
Two years ago, I lost my father due to a rare disease called Guillain Barre Syndrome (GBS). GBS typically occurs after an infectious disease in which the immune response generates antibodies that crossreact with gangliosides at nerve membranes. This autoimmune response results in nerve damage or functional blockade of nerve conduction.
He was admitted to the ICU on 1 January 2020 and passed away on 7 February in the hospital. He was in the ICU for a total of 38 days, unconscious throughout.
When these unforeseen incidents happened, my family and I were affected emotionally with grief and sorrow while being required to react fast for funeral arrangements.
After the funeral, we then looked into the estate settlement matters, such as application for probate and attending court hearings, at a time when we were still grieving.
Facing sudden death and settling an estate can be tricky but my dad who was in the life insurance industry for 45 years had the awareness of the important of pre-planning. He pre-planned everything so that we have the peace of mind!
Because of his pre-planning, we managed to organise the funerals of both my mother and father with pre-arranged funeral services and subsequently had a smooth handling the estate settlement according to their wills.
From this traumatic experience, I would like to remind my friends on the following:
- Review your life insurance, hospitalisation insurance and long-term care insurance – you will never know when you need it! Life insurance is like a parachute; if you don’t have it the first time you need it, there is no second chance.
- Write your will and make your Lasting Power Attorney (LPA) NOW! Review these documents if you have them.
- Pre-planning funeral arrangements in advance before the need for these services occurs.
In my future posts, I will share more details on what I had experienced in these three areas for your reference.
I hope this post will help you to take immediate action to review your life insurance coverage, your will writing, estate planning and other pre-planning requirements.
Additional note to my fellow peers in financial planning industry – financial consultants/financial planner/Life Insurance agents/estate planners – who are reading my post: Please keep up your good work to make sure that all your clients have the proper and comprehensive pre-planning in case any unforeseen incidents happen to them. You are their VVIP!
