Why you need to be prepared for the Unexpected

by: Opa Jean Price

My Personal Experience Of Why You Need To Have Your House in Order.

I am grateful to be a member of the Los Angeles South Chamber of Commerce. My business is Insurance Solutions Services, which I started back in 1986 after losing my mother at the young age of 53. When she passed away our family was in disarray, un-prepared, in disbelief, grieving, angry, feeling guilt, lack of trust, confused and trying to make sense of where do we go from here? After finding out that my mother only had mortgage insurance and nothing more, we soon realized that type of insurance would not take care of her final expenses. 

No one in our family was experienced in burial insurance or how to determine final expenses, and we did not know where to begin. The hospital proposed many questions to us like, where to take her body from the hospital, finding a funeral home, and who the family wanted to handle her body.  All of this took “MONEY and INSURANCE”.  With funeral cost being in the range from $4,000 to $6,000 or more, that meant all the family had to come together and pitch in to take care of everything, unfortunately that is where the struggle began, it was like pulling teeth, to get some of my siblings to tap into their retirement accounts, pull money out of their savings account, borrow money, or even take out a short-term loan. What I learned from losing my mother at the young age of 53, was the most difficult time in my life, and I would not wish that experience on anyone. 

I realized that we must do better! Be better prepared in having our personnel documents in order, communicating as a family and with love ones. Having a plan in place when it comes to unexpected things is important. Having proper insurance in place would make a big difference in how you handle losing a love one, not being under pressure, not overspending, and being able to take your time in making the right decisions.  

Breaking News! Mortuaries, Cemeteries, and Funeral Homes are all businesses.  They will treat you with kindness because you just lost a love one, but let us not get it twisted, the question of “HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO PAY TODAY?” will be asked soon. Trust me nothing will take place until you make a commitment to pay and sign a contract with that mortuary or cemetery. Your love one will not be moved from the hospital without doing that first step. So, I made a commitment to myself that I would not want to see any of my family members, friends, or community go through being un-prepared, enduring pain, helpless, grieving and go through what we experienced without having the facts, proper information and being well informed. 

Because most people are not prepared, they are not thinking of how to protect their love ones or feel that it is a priority within their family circle. Something people do is create Go-Fund Me accounts and wait for people to donate, or maybe they do car washes to raise money to pay for a funeral, or the option of standing on a street corner with a jar collecting donations. 

I was raised in South Central Los Angeles, CA., from the age of 9 with a family of 10, 8 siblings 5 girls and 3 boys.  I am a graduate of Crenshaw High School, and after graduating I majored in Sales and Marketing, because I wanted to reach out to people and be hands on. People want to see, feel, and touch whatever it is you are offering, I had no idea I would be where I am today.  God had a plan for me and that is to “Help other people every day to the best of my ability”, this is my slogan! What I did not know is that it would be in the area of Insurance services. We lost our mom at age 53, not understanding anything about death, although having a very tight family bond, my parents never discussed their personal business with us no matter what it was, we were often told  “STAY OUT OF GROWN FOLKS BUSINESS” so as a kid, you either honored that or you got scold,  I would just praise them because they cared and loved all 8 of us so much and knowing it was not an easy task to raise 8 children by any means necessary.

The advice I give to my clients is, “make sure you handle your business, make your family a priority, think about how your family would survive if they were to lose the bread winner, or just to lose a child or a parent”.