Rich Hall’s Story – Soteria Planning This article serves as an example as to why you ought to consid...

Rich Hall’s Story – Soteria Planning

This article serves as an example as to why you ought to consider writing your Will.

I started as a Will Advisor and estate Planner only two years ago, after an event that completely changed my outlook.

For many years I have enjoyed success within the Jewellery and Watch industry and did not have any plans to change my career.  I am also a ‘silent partner’ in my wife’s successful retail boutique.

After suffering from type 1 diabetes for over 40 years, I was unlucky enough to have Sepsis and had parts of my feet amputated.  I felt lucky that this was the only damage that the Sepsis had caused, but little did I know at the time, that the Sepsis had also attacked my kidneys and within a few months I had chronic kidney failure.

After 18 months on dialysis, I was extremely lucky to receive a kidney and pancreas transplant.  After an eight-and-a-half-hour operation, there were a number of ‘issues’ which meant that I spent three weeks in ITU during which time, on two separate occasions, my wife, Carla, was taken to one side by my surgeon, to be told that there was a good chance that I would not survive the next 24 hours.

As well as the stress of having a husband so close to death there was an issue with my Wife’s shop, one that needed signatures from both partners to resolve.  The deadline for the signing of the documents was two days after I regained my consciousness, and therefore I was able to sign, but had it been later, then my wife could have lost her business through absolutely no fault of her own, as at the time, we did not have a Business Lasting Power of Attorney in place.

There followed a further eight weeks in hospital trying to regain my strength and recuperate.

This gave me a lot of time to think about my priorities and after the situation that my wife and I were close to, and I decided that I wanted to have a career where I could help people and hopefully help them avoid being in a similar situation to myself.

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