A key contributor to your family’s lifetime quest for enduring financial security and a retirement of independence and dignity is a successful investment strategy.
A successful strategy must always be driven by a well thought out plan, not simply speculation as this will not lead to lasting investment success. Raj first wrote about the importance of a plan last year for unLTD*.
Recent events have underlined for us that a successful investment strategy is of secondary importance only.
THE most important question is this: Do you know more or less what would happen to your family financially if you didn’t wake up tomorrow? Over the last two years, as the deadly COVID-19 pandemic left swathes of the global population in its wake, you can’t fail to have questioned your own mortality at least once.
Like the majority of people though, you most probably stopped thinking along those lines as soon as you could and you may still be trying to get back to ‘normal’. You are, after all, only human.
But this is a mistake because the fact still remains that if you don’t know the answer to this question, your investment concerns should pale into insignificance. Your immediate concern should be finding the answer to this question.
The answer lies within your life insurance plan. You may well find that it was adequate when it was originally put in place (such as when you renewed your mortgage or on the birth of your children) but as your life has progressed, it may not have kept up.
Moreover, as your fortunes hopefully deepen, you may find that there are a number of ways to use life insurance as an estate and tax planning tool – not just as an insurance against premature death.
The adequacy of the life insurance that you carry is not always the issue either. Whether you hold it optimally from an estate planning standpoint is important as well, and even whether your beneficiary designations still reflect your current wishes.
The easy way to find the answer is to sit down with a high quality financial planner between now and the end of the year and call the question. Amid all the time and energy that we spend on our investment portfolios it shouldn’t be difficult to do this.
Raj Shah is founder of Blue Wealth Capital and has been shortlisted for Financial Planner of the Year and Investment Adviser of the Year. Raj can be reached at: raj@bluewealthcapital.com
Fiona Shah is operations director at Blue Wealth Capital. Fiona can be reached at: office@bluewealthcapital.com
www.bluewealthcapital.com
