Life's biggest decisions
The plan that only matters on the worst day
A birth, a diagnosis, or a parent who suddenly needs help. Each one turns an abstract question into a specific one.
Why now
Why this moment is different
Most people put this in place once, early, and then their life changes around it. A child arrives, income doubles, a house gets bigger, a parent starts needing help. The coverage and the documents stay where they were.
Group coverage is where the gap usually hides. Employer disability policies often replace a percentage of base salary only, which can miss bonus and equity entirely, and the definition of disability matters as much as the percentage. A policy that pays only when you cannot perform any occupation is a different product from one that pays when you cannot perform yours.
Group life is frequently a multiple of salary, which sounds substantial and often would not carry a family through to the last child finishing school. The way to know is to size the obligation and compare, not to compare against what colleagues have.
Then there are the documents. Most estate problems we find are not missing documents, they are documents that no longer match the accounts, the titling, or the family. Beneficiary designations in particular fall out of date quietly, because nobody looks at them.
What goes wrong
The mistakes we see most often
Sizing coverage against a salary rather than an obligation
The number that matters is what would need funding: years of income, the mortgage, education, and any business commitment. A multiple of salary is a coincidence, not a plan.
Never reading the definition of disability
Whether a policy pays when you cannot do your own occupation, or only when you cannot do any occupation, is the difference that decides most claims.
Out-of-date beneficiary designations
Designations override the will on the accounts they govern. After a marriage, a divorce, a birth, or a job change, they are the first thing to check and the last thing anyone checks.
Assuming the group policy travels with you
Employer coverage generally ends with employment, which puts a gap exactly where a job change already creates one.
No plan for long-term care
Without one, the cost of a parent needing help usually lands on the children, alongside everything else they are already carrying.
Documents that no longer match the accounts
A trust drafted years ago and accounts titled since then are a common pairing, and the mismatch only surfaces when it is expensive.
How we help
What we do with you
We start by quantifying the obligation, not by looking at products. Income replacement for a specific number of years, the mortgage balance, education costs at the schools you have in mind, and anything the business would owe. That produces a number and a duration.
Then we look at what you already hold against that number, including the wording of the group policies rather than only the headline percentages, and what would actually reach your household after tax. The gap is what is worth insuring. Some of it is usually worth absorbing.
Finally we reconcile the paperwork: beneficiary designations against the accounts, titling against the documents, and the documents against the family as it is now. This is unglamorous work and it is where most of the real risk sits.
The work behind it
What this usually touches
- What this involves →
Disability planning
For a surgeon or interventional specialist, the ability to do one specific job funds everything else. Group coverage rarely protects it as well as people assume.
- What this involves →
Life insurance & cash value
The useful order is obligation first, product second. Most people meet it the other way around, which is why the subject carries so much suspicion.
- What this involves →
Estate & legacy
Most estate problems we find are not missing documents. They are documents that no longer match the accounts, the titling, or the family.
- What this involves →
Investment management
Allocation is a consequence of what your money has to do and when. Reversing that order is how people end up with a portfolio that has nothing to do with their life.
Who this usually is
How this starts
Three steps, and the first one costs you an hour
Step 01
Tell us your story
About an hour, no cost, no obligation to do anything afterward.
- How you got to this point, in your own words. Career, family, the decisions that shaped the last ten years.
- What keeps your attention at odd hours. Usually it is more specific than money in general.
- What success looks like to you. Not a number we hand you, the version you would describe to a friend.
- Who is already in your corner: your CPA, your attorney, anyone else we should be working alongside.
Straight about money
The first meeting is free
If we go ahead together, planning carries a fee, and you will know the number before you commit to anything. For households above $1 million in assets we manage, it is typically waived.
Straight answers
Protecting your family: common questions
Check the beneficiary designations on every account and the definition of disability on your income coverage. Those two take an afternoon and carry more weight than anything else on the list. After that, sizing life coverage against the actual obligation, including years of income and education, is the substantive piece.
Sometimes, and the way to know is to read it rather than assume either way. The questions are what counts as covered income, whether bonus and equity are included, what definition of disability applies, whether benefits would arrive taxable or tax-free given who pays the premium, and whether the coverage continues if you change jobs.
Every few years as a baseline, and immediately after any of these: marriage, divorce, a birth, a death in the family, a move to a different state, a business sale or major liquidity event, or a significant change in net worth. Each is a trigger to review rather than a reason to redo everything.
This material is for general educational purposes only and is not intended as tax, legal, or investment advice. Neither GGM Wealth Advisors nor Cambridge provides tax or legal advice. Please consult a qualified professional about your specific situation.
Let's start with a conversation
Bring whatever is on your mind: a vest date you are unsure about, an offer you are weighing, a business you might sell in three years. Nothing to prepare, no cost, and you will leave with something useful whether or not we end up working together.