Your part in the tragedy

I've worked for two organisations that most New Zealanders are encouraged to call without delay when tragedy strikes. For my part I've turned up, sometimes first, sometimes with other colleagues to take over and cope with an event that was well beyond the training or experience of the people who befallen it or even witnessed that event.

As we arrived and walked from our Ambulances or Patrol Cars towards the people with the "thank God you're here" looks on their faces and were met by the inevitable "What took you so long?" we had few scant seconds to look and absorb as much of what was going on around us as we could. In some cases those brief seconds were the time we had to plan and on those plans rested lives, livelihoods and successful prosecutions.

Our basic training, whichever vehicle we got of covered the same ground: look for signs of what happened; look for signs of on-going danger; look to stop things getting worse; look for what might not still be here in just a few minutes and decide quickly on what needs to be done first. It was pretty much the same whether I was carrying a stethoscope or a Smith and Wesson. Someone had to take charge, make decisions, settle things down and be mindful of longer term outcomes. That's what we expect Paramedics and Detectives to do and it's generally what they do. They eventually hand over to other specialists for the "longer term outcomes".

So once the flashing lights and crackling radios have gone the scene and witnesses, the victims and their families, friends and estates are left to the experts - their experts. To narrow my focus a little, to the tragic events brought about by the deterioration of your health and well-being whether inevitable, unexpected or should have prudently been expected, we should perhaps specify who the (their) experts are.

To quote the line from the movie Ghost Busters, "who they gonna call?" Well hopefully after J Smith collapses at his office at ABC (2004) Ltd, the staff will call the Paramedics and maybe then J Smith's nearest and dearest and then who would be next ?

If, as one of J Smith's allied professional advisers, you get the call, the time it takes you to walk to the filing cabinet and retrieve the relevant file is absolutely the wrong to time to plan. It is the time to begin to implement a carefully thought through and cooperatively structured plan designed to limit on-going risk, to salvage or realise the value or potential for wealth and to support the next phase in the life of J Smith, the business and the estate.

My current billet or assignment has been for 20 years, Insurance Broking. Unlike planning "in the day" as Jack Reacher puts it, planning for which insurance is best used as the funding, is something best done before and hopefully won't be needed. In too many of my current cases the event has occurred whether the planning was in place or not. To avoid complicating the issue, planning is:

• What are we going to do?
• Who will do it for me when I am too sick?
• What authority do these people need?
• Where does the money and other resources come from?

Whether you have the conversation with J Smith about planning or not, or whether you want it to happen or not, there is a strong likelihood of you getting one of those calls.  Think about your walk to the filing cabinet............I know just how quickly those seconds can pass.

Sometimes I miss the sirens and the 'Smith' but I am convinced that "we" can do as much to save peoples lives as my former colleagues on wet roadsides and in hospitals.

I will discuss some of the steps involved and the participants and their roles in future articles.

Comments from our readers

No comments yet

Add your comment:

Your name:
Your email:	Not displayed to the public
Comment:
Comments to NetProphet go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved.

Anti-spam verification:

Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process.

Email Updates Sign up now

RSS Feeds View the list

Twitter Read our tweets