Wealth Exposed: Insurance Planning for High Net Worth Individuals and Their Advisors

CHAPTER 2

My-Oh-My, How Far You Have Come!

Please indulge me for a moment. I’d like you to take just 30 seconds to close your eyes, relax, and then think back to your first apartment....

REMEMBER YOUR FIRST APARTMENT?

Did you see it? Did you take a look around? Remember the furniture, the posters on the wall, the shag carpet? I’m willing to bet that, when you opened your eyes, you had a smile on your face. It seems that the farther we have come from those earlier, simpler times, the more we can smile about them. And, oh, my, how far you have come.

Chances are your look back probably didn’t end with a visit to your first apartment. If you’re like most people, your mind probably took you on a quick journey through time—a fast-forward to your first home with your spouse; the home your kids grew up in, and finally, to the magnificent house you now call home. Whether that happened for you or not, the point I’m leading to is that you have come a long way. At each stop, your life grew richer (and not solely in monetary terms), but it also grew much more complicated. Sometimes, remembering whence we came can help place in a proper perspective not just what has changed, but also how those changes impact the way we navigate a more intricate lifestyle.

How Life at the Next Level Changes Everything

Consider your lifestyle when you bought your first home. You had just enough furniture to fill the rooms, and the only valuable things you had were the gifts from your wedding and your old LP collection. ...