Welcome (back) to our Six Stones series. Our financial adviser, Jordan, is sharing as many tips, ideas and advice for people going through a divorce as a humble blog will allow. He’s staying away from specific financial advice – it’s all general advice over here, be sure to get personal financial advice before doing anything – but we hope you find some useful information in here as you navigate through/out of your divorce.

I would have spoken about these personal risks with hundreds and hundreds of people over the course of my career.

And not one, not a single one, ever wanted to imagine their worst-case scenario.

Not without some assistance, anyway, or guidance.

After all, it’s just not normal to spend a lot of your time thinking about the consequences of your death, disability or serious illness.

But I would argue that taking a little bit of time to think about it now means you don’t have to worry about them anymore.

The consequences, that is.

You can still worry about the actual scenarios.

The Big Four

There are four primary personal risks that we’ll talk about in this section – and none of them are pleasant to think about:

1.      Your Death;

2.      A Permanent Disability;

3.      A Temporary Disability;

4.      A Critical Illness.

All four are terrible – but as you would have seen or experienced in your own life, they’re also all frighteningly common.

And, sadly, they can each have a devastating impact on your financial security.

Or that of your family.

Which brings us to our big questions:

–           What impact can these events have on people’s finances?

–           What’s the likelihood of these events occurring?

–           What can be done to transfer the financial impact?

–           What do you need to be aware of?

–           How do you calculate the actual financial impact?

Our Lens

Now, as we’re answering these questions, it will be unapologetically through the lens of Transferring this financial impact.

For some people, Accepting the risk is an appropriate option. Perhaps the financial impact won’t be significant, or their financial resources are more than adequate to cover it.

Or perhaps they’ll be forced to because, for reasons we’ll uncover later, they simply can’t Transfer it.

But for everyone else – those with a mortgage, or kids, or obligations, aspirations, worries and fears that outstrip their resources, then Transferring is generally the most prudent option.

Now, let’s talk about death…