The Final Client Meeting...

I debated about writing this... but, sometimes it's easier to write about it, rather than talk about it.
On Wednesday of this week I received an email from a long time client telling me that he was in the final stages of terminal cancer, and that he needed some financial planning advice for his wife, "who would (will) be widowed soon". That statement left me with a lump in my throat, but I had work to do and a client's interests to serve.

I meet with my clients at least once a year, and I had met with this client last July. He was diagnosed with cancer in December, and given 6-months life expectancy. That was 4-months ago.

I met with him on Friday afternoon. It's shocking what cancer and chemotherapy can do to the human body. My client, a robust man of 68-years... was now using a cane to aid his walking... he was bald and jaundiced... he was dressed in winter clothing.. it was 90-degrees outside, he was unable to regulate his body temperature due to the treatments he'd been receiving...

The familiar glint in his eyes was gone... his eyes were sunken and he had that "fear" in his eyes that I have seen in the eyes of other persons that I've known in the last weeks of life... my dad-cancer, my friend Edna-cancer, my grandmother... my heart ached...

The private meeting room where we normally visit with our clients was too cool for him.. he asked if we could meet in the small private lobby where the sunshine was coming in through the large windows. There we sat, together on a sofa, planning for his death.

His wife, who is in the early stages of Alzheimer's, will have the need for much assistance when he passes. I advised him to give one of his adult children a durable power of attorney... he hadn't thought of that. We made some changes to his financial holdings that would create income for his wife, and preserve the value of his estate. That's what I do... help my clients when they need help planning for their financial future, or the financial future of their family.

As he stood to leave, I first shook his hand... and then we hugged. I told him how much I have always appreciated him as a client, and that he would be in my prayers... and then I went back to my desk and cried.

I won't see this client again. My next conversation will be with his wife and his son. I probably won't know when he passes... I usually find out once the death certificates have been issued and the beneficiaries show up in my office for my assistance with the financial side of the estate. He won't be the first client I have lost, nor the last... and I always feel great sadness at their loss...

It had been a long week that seemed to have a myriad of problems to be solved. This meeting wasn't a problem. It was simply my final responsibility to a client's interests.

It's what I do, down here in French Lique...