[hr]<\/p>\n
Submitted by:<\/strong> Mark Everingham [hr]<\/p>\n The oldest of four children, Mark grew up in a fairly \u2018traditional\u2019 family, where dad worked and mum stayed home to raise the kids. At age 20, Mark had just started his financial services journey, working for a credit union, and was yet to give much thought to a career as a financial adviser. But this all changed when his father suffered a heart attack.<\/p>\n \u201cDad had a heart attack in December 1996, and had triple bypass surgery in February 1997,\u201d Mark recalled. \u201cA whole range of complications occurred after that, including further bypass surgery, hernias, etc. He ended up permanently incapacitated as a result.\u201d<\/p>\n How would she provide for the family? That image is burnt into my mind<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Mark watched as his mother sat next to his father on the hospital bed after the first bypass operation: \u201cDad was covered from head to toe with what looked like alfoil, with tubes everywhere. He looked like he was dead. But it was the look on mum\u2019s face that has really stuck with me. It was the shock of facing the complete unknown. She had no idea what would happen if dad didn\u2019t survive. How would she provide for the family? That image is burnt into my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n After returning home from the hospital, Mark\u2019s father, Bill, was faced with not only the task of his own recovery, but managing the financial impact of all that had happened.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing told by the doctors that I couldn\u2019t work came as a bit of a shock, because that\u2019s what I\u2019d always done,\u201d said Bill. \u201cI was very lost. Still to this day it takes a lot to get used to the fact I\u2019m not going to work every day. I was very concerned about what was going to happen to Julie and the kids.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re trying to deal with the illness, and the subsequent issues that can come from that, as well as the financial side of things. To have someone to deal with the financials, and not have to worry about it, would have been a tremendous help.\u201d<\/p>\n Before the heart attack, Mark\u2019s father had no knowledge of how he could protect himself and his family.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t that my dad was negligent in any way towards his family \u2013 he simply didn\u2019t even know this kind of solution existed. Things are different now, because there are more advertisements for insurance, encouraging people to get their affairs in order. But 20 years ago, that didn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n \u201cThat lack of education meant he was completely unprepared.\u201d<\/p>\n Bill was lucky enough to hold an account with an industry superannuation fund, through which he was entitled to a minimal amount of life and TPD cover. The benefit was just $15,000. But he had no-one to help him through the process of collecting that benefit.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was completely unadvised about what was in his super fund,\u201d said Mark. \u201cHe was left on his own to try and get the proceeds out of the super fund and get the claim paid.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s got a file as thick as two phone books of all the records he had to keep over the two and a half years it took to be deemed permanently incapacitated in order to receive the claim. That\u2019s not a slight against the insurer or the super fund, that was just the nature of his condition.<\/p>\n \u201cThe amount of stress that put on him, to try and get what little amount of money was available to him, I think made his situation worse. That look on my mum\u2019s face when she was in the hospital transferred over to dad when he was faced with trying to manage his own affairs, because he had no knowledge of how to go about it.\u201d<\/p>\n The experience led Mark to seek out a career in financial advice, specialising in estate and succession planning.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew I didn\u2019t want anyone else to have to be put in the same situation as my dad. Not only did he not know he could have set himself up to manage financially if the worst should happen, but when it did, he had to go into \u2018battle\u2019 alone. It\u2019s not that he was in a battle against the insurer or the super fund, but it was a battle against the great unknown.\u201d<\/p>\n While Mark may not share his own story with every client he works with, it definitely impacts upon the way his business is run.<\/p>\n His advice model is built on two principles: education and support. His team helps to educate clients about how to effectively structure their financial situation to protect against risk, and then provides a support platform if the worst should happen. This process involves not only setting up insurances to fund the family\u2019s needs, but also looking at the entire estate, and partnering with other professionals like accountants and lawyers to ensure the money gets to where it is needed.<\/p>\n When they know we\u2019re there for the long term, that opens up two-way communication<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cWe talk about building an \u2018insurance program\u2019 with our clients. There\u2019s so much more to be considered than just the insurance policy. We look at the whole estate planning picture, and provide ongoing management of that program to ensure it remains appropriate for the clients\u2019 needs.<\/p>\n \u201cEven at the end of that meeting, if they decide not to do anything further with us, at least they\u2019re walking out the door informed.\u201d<\/p>\n He urged all advisers to really think about why they were in the business of advice, and to use that to drive better client outcomes.<\/p>\n \u201cWe position our service as a partnership. We\u2019re not just implementing a product solution and leaving the client to then deal directly with an insurer; they\u2019re forming a relationship with us. If something does occur, we\u2019ll be there to help clean up the mess. When they know we\u2019re there for the long term, that opens up two-way communication.\u201d<\/p>\n Bill added: \u201cI didn\u2019t realise for a long time that I\u2019d had so much influence on Mark\u2019s chosen career path, but when I did I was blown away. To hear the way people talk about him and what he does, or to see a letter from someone he\u2019s helped, it just shows how much of an impact he has on other people\u2019s lives. My wife and I are both very\u00a0proud of Mark.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Risk Management, Estate Planning & Business Succession Specialist, Mark Everingham, watched his family struggle financially after his father suffered a heart attack. The experience would have a significant impact on Mark\u2019s future career path, as he shares here\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[239,4496,4261,4257,4608],"tags":[5757,4589,4587,4530,4584,4665,4582,4588,5762,4500,4632,4715],"class_list":{"0":"post-24170","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-claims","7":"category-group","8":"category-marketing-sales","9":"category-tpd","10":"category-value-proposition","11":"tag-claims","12":"tag-educate-clients","13":"tag-estate-planning","14":"tag-heart-attack","15":"tag-industry-superannuation-fund","16":"tag-male","17":"tag-personal-risk-professionals","18":"tag-succession-planning","19":"tag-tpd","20":"tag-tpd-inside-superannuation","21":"tag-underinsurance","22":"tag-value-proposition-2"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/case-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/case-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/case-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/case-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/case-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/case-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24170\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/case-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/case-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/case-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nBusiness Name:<\/strong> Personal Risk Professionals
\nYears in advice:<\/strong> In finance since 1995, advising since 2001
\nClaimant:\u00a0<\/strong>Bill, Mark’s father
\nClaim type:\u00a0<\/strong>TPD inside superannuation<\/p>\nIn detail<\/h3>\n