We’ve all heard the old adage “it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.” And we’ve all figured out that’s not necessarily the best advice….

900,000 deaths each year – nearly 40% of the total yearly mortality in the United States! – occur from avoidable causes of death such as poor diet and exercise, smoking and misuse of alcohol.^1. And that number relates to primary prevention only. Secondary prevention activities, such as screening for heart disease and other physical exams or disease detection processes, and educational prevention, which lessens the life of early detected diseases; aren’t included in this astonishing number.

I frequently state; it’s what you don’t know that you don’t know that will hurt you. And yes,  this may sound like a double negative, but think about it in this context: If you are 30 years old and are beginning to build plaque in your arteries, would you want to know? And if you didn’t know, would this hurt you by the time you were 45 or 50?

The reason I bring this to the table today is to present you with an analogy for what “Life Planning” is. Simply put, it is preventative care for your family’s financial health. If there was a source for statistics of families who suffer each year from avoidable circumstances, I would imagine this number would be astonishing as well.

To put it in perspective, let’s take every one’s favorite aspect of Life Planning: insurance. I like to relate insurance to Swiss cheese. It isn’t a matter of whether or not you have holes (or gaps) in your insurance plan. It is a matter of how many holes there are. The bad part is that you don’t usually know where these holes are until it’s too late. And sad, but true…99.99% of families we meet with for the first time have these holes in their plan. Which brings me to my next point…

These holes, or gaps, tend to occur because your insurance agent and you typically work on a “don’t ask; don’t tell” basis. In order to determine the proper amounts of coverage for your unique situation, it’s important to know your unique situation. Which is where we come in: As Life Planners, our role is to know your present situation, your future goals and your family dynamics in order to act as an unbiased facilitator with the issues that are vital for your family to address.

So what, exactly, are Life Planning Issues? They are:

• Family Support Issues
• Charitable Gifting Issues
• Business Succession Planning Issues
• Legacy Planning Issues
• Insurance Issues
• Liability Issues
• Tax Issues
• Investment Issues

I don’t believe that people plan to fail – they just fail to plan. And perhaps this is because most people feel they don’t have the time to continually be proactive in the life planning process or feel overwhelmed at the prospect. In order to be successful they would have to constantly research and study the latest insurance, investment, legal, and tax proposals and laws. Moreover, they would need to manage each of the professionals related to these issues while trying to keep a firm grip on what their overall picture is.

When and if these issues become priorities is not the same for every family, so I have found that it is incumbent on me as a member of a Life Planning team to take a disciplined approach to help each family manage these issues proactively, not reactively. When it comes to approaching any of these issues, it’s much easier to ask for permission, not forgiveness.

^1. Cohen, JT. Newmann, PJ. ScD. And Weinstein, M.C. (2009). Does Preventative Care Save Money? Health Economics and the Presidential Candidates. The New England Journal of Medicine. Massachusetts Medical Society.