Pension Decisions – in Sickness & Health

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Eric’s Story

Brian Weatherdon MA, CFP, CLU, CPCAAuthor, Speaker, Financial Planner.

Aligning your Wealth & Life to overcome fears andsecure your income, lifestyle, & comfort to age 105

Before hearing this story . . . .

• Continuing into these slides signifies you realize one person’s story cannot be representative of what everyone else should do. This story is personal and not in any way prescriptive for what you should do, nor for how your advisors may guide you.

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• Stories in this wider series capture different approaches to value and decisions in business, pension, savings, and the results for personal security, life income, and family estate.

• More information/insights at educational websitewww.GuaranteedIncome4Life.ca

• And 5-star rated book (Amazon, Kindle, bookstores)

“A Lifetime Of Wealth -- And How Not To Lose It”

Overwhelming health expenses

• Eric and his wife together reviewed the choice of staying in the pension plan, or removing (commuting) the pension for more control.

• Negative: they’d lose a modest health plan that was continuing for pension members.

• Positive: they’d gain significant control of how to draw income and match cash flow needs.

• Note: their decision was a personal one for their own circumstances and not indicative or prescriptive for what another couple or family would do in a similar or different setting.

Critical debts due to chronic illness

• Many health costs had never been covered by their benefits plan. Ongoing treatments were accumulating on credit cards and being paid by the line of credit.

• Eric’s fixed-income pension would compound these problems, increasing their anxiety and hastening the day they could lose their home.

Accelerating their Pension Income

• “Commuting” the pension gave Eric and his wife opportunity to draw an income matching their current needs. They could clear urgent debts, manage monthly payments, and maintain her health treatments.

• Eric and his wife were both relieved, and he was better able to be totally “present” with her during the remaining seasons she lived.

Eric’s future: a reduced income

• They knew they were reducing Eric’s future income for the opportunity of peaceful and loving time together while his wife lived.

• After his wife died Eric continued the accelerated income awhile longer for his own recovery & traveling to be with family members to help him grieve and adjust.

Sustainable income for life

• Life insurance soon repaid most debts from the health treatments. What remained on the line of credit would be settled by monthly payments or eventually downsizing the home.

• Eric is grateful he and his wife were able to make this financial decision with his pension, and while future income now will be lower he knows it will be sustainable (....next page)

Eric’s ... “Life Income Mandates”

• Eric can continue to enjoy a healthy lifestyle sustained by Life Income Mandates.

• This is a process to align wealth management with the life one chooses, offering perpetual and often increasing income for life.

See http://www.guaranteedincome4life.ca/blog/life-income-mandates/

• Video: available soon.

Compassion for a family

• Compassion for a family’s need was foremost in this decision to personalize Eric’s pension.

• Other families too find Health or other family circumstance causing urgent need for higher income than a typical or fixed pension plan.

• Valuable help can be available through decisions related to your pension plan.

Key questions and resources

• What will this time of life mean, & how will decisions now affect life 5-to-15 years hence and in later years?

• Who is your key support team? Health advisors, legal & accounting advisors, insurance & financial advisors, closest family and friends. If you could see it all from 30,000 feet or look back from your death-bed knowing you had made the right choices, what will they be?

• See more at, “Exit Strategies from a Pension” http://www.guaranteedincome4life.ca/blog/exit-strategies-from-a-pension/

Resources to help get what you want

• Experience this website to help focus on your future: www.GuaranteedIncome4Life.ca

• Get 5-star book, Amazon/Kindle/bookstores: “A Lifetime Of Wealth – And How Not To Lose It” http://www.amazon.com/Lifetime-Wealth-how-not-lose/dp/1489579540/ref=sr_1_1?

ie=UTF8&qid=1380311791&sr=8-1&keywords=a+lifetime+of+wealth+--+and+how+not+to+lose+it

• Visit www.ALifetimeOfWealth.info