My Tragic Family Story: Why I wrote my book

# My Story: Why I'm Passionate About Preparation and Personal Finance

The year was 1986. I was living in a beautiful home in Newton, Massachusetts, with my mom, my dad, and my sister. My parents had a thriving business and a second home on Cape Cod. They were making plenty of money and were on top of the world.

Then my dad was diagnosed with cancer. It was terminal. Six weeks later, he was gone. He did not have life insurance.

Over the next five to seven years, I watched my mother work tirelessly to put my sister and me through college, but her income was not enough to cover it all. She eventually had to sell our home in Newton for less than full value, her share of the second home in Cape Cod, and then her business. Altogether she cleared over $1,000,000, but it all went to pay off the debt she had accumulated. Because we had no insurance, this unexpected event took all of our money.

Guess what my mom and dad did for a living? They sold insurance. They sold homeowner’s insurance. Before my dad died, my mom was in the process of getting her life insurance license. She was studying for the exam. It was a classic case of the old saying, “the cobbler’s children have no shoes.”

Years later, I got into the mortgage business and started to see the opportunity to really make a difference in people’s lives. Many times, buying a home is the first major financial move a person or a family makes. I realized another thing—my parents sat with the same mortgage originator for the purchase of their first and second homes, a construction loan, and two refinances. They did five loans with the same mortgage originator and they used to say such nice things about him. The mortgage originator should have recognized the opportunity to recommend that my parents talk to a financial advisor about their insurance protection, but he didn’t.

It made me wonder how I would feel if I were their lender, and I had assumed that because they were in the insurance business, they were all set and had already taken care of their insurance protection? Did their mortgage originator think it wasn’t his responsibility to advise them on their insurance and their finances because he was facilitating the mortgage loan?

It is our responsibility.

People need to get their financial team in place as soon as possible. As a mortgage originator, I have the opportunity to introduce my team right when people make what is usually their first major financial move. I have the opportunity to change lives. My parents worked so hard, but they didn’t receive the proper advice at the time they needed it most and that made all the difference.

This is a story about how change can happen and what it might mean for you. You’ll learn about a very special team of people called the Core 7, and how powerful it is to have this team working for you and your family. If you do not have a Core 7 team in place, you and your family are financially exposed. Don’t worry—assembling your team does not have to be a complicated process. This book will show you a simple way to get your whole financial house in order during a process many people go through: the purchase of a first home.