When A Client Says Take Care Of It

A client looks at you and says, “Chris, just take care of it.” Sounds simple until the “it” is a medical crisis, an estate plan that can’t wait, a $130,000 hospital bill that should have been covered by insurance, and a sudden decline that forces real decisions in real time.

We share the full story of Hugh Breeze, a client I meet in 2004 who wants a straightforward path into retirement and the freedom to live life without a lot of noise. Over nearly two decades, our relationship grows into something deeper than investment management. It becomes the kind of long-term financial planning that includes retirement income planning, smart coordination with an estate planning attorney, and the hard boundaries every ethical financial advisor must keep around power of attorney and healthcare decision-making.

Once an accident and illness enter the picture, the work shifts fast: verifying insurance coverage, correcting hospital billing mistakes, dealing with opportunistic claims, and tackling the unglamorous logistics that can derail everything like replacing a Social Security card, ordering a birth certificate, and getting valid ID. We also talk about rehab oversight, companion care, what hospice training teaches you about the final stage of life, and what it means to support someone with dignity when the end is closer than anyone wants to admit.

If you care about grief and money, caregiving and planning, or how a Certified Financial Transitionist® can guide families through life’s hardest transitions, this story will stay with you.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome to Real Talk with Life After Grief Chris, where we talk about relevant issues as it relates to individuals in grief as they navigate finances and the advisors who help them. We help clients in grief navigate financial matters. We also teach advisors how to emotionally and financially work with clients in grief through an unparalleled process. This week's podcast is sponsored by Life After Grief Financial Planning and Life After Grief Consulting.

Meeting Hugh Breeze And Retirement Plan

Estate Planning Before A Crisis

Hospital Bills And A Surprise Claim

Replacing IDs And The 911 Call

Rehab Oversight Companion Care And Decline

Death Notice The Work That Matters

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SPEAKER_01 0:33

Hello and welcome back to another episode of Real Talk with Life After Grief Chris. The title of this episode is called Hugh Breeze. As life would have it, I've gone through the complete progression of having a client with regard to their life's cycle, financially and otherwise. I'm going to share a story with you. Again, the title is Hugh Breeze. It's the nickname for a client that I was introduced to in 2004. And his first name was Hugh, not his last name. He was just like a cool breeze, and I nicknamed his last name. Met him in 2004, and he had about a year or two before he was even really entertaining retirement. So I met him, and it was pretty simple. He was already financially responsible, but he didn't know how to enter into or prepare formally for retirement and insert me. We met at a good time, and I introduced him to a plan to get him into retirement. I believe it was 2006. And so we got into retirement, and Hugh Brees, all he cared about was a magic number and basically doing what he wanted to do in retirement. And that was really our relationship. So I got him into retirement and he purchased his first home around the same time he went into retirement. That's kind of ironic, and it's not something that you necessarily do and or recommend. However, in his situation, he was paying more in rent than he would have been paying for a mortgage. And it made sense. He also had the ability to pay off his condo in cash. So shortly thereafter, he got tired of making payments and paid it off in cash. And so enter Hugh into retirement 2006 or so, and he and I had a very good relationship. He was single, no children, and was married 20 years prior. So insert myself. Imagine if I were in my 60s, had no kids, and hadn't been refined by a lady, and that was Hugh. And I appreciate everything about Mr. Hugh. And so during the iteration of me leaving Bank of America and then going to a bank called MI Bank and transitioned to Beam O'Harris, and then I eventually went to Sun Trust, and then I eventually started my own company in 2017. Hugh followed me through all of those iterations, and our relationship really took off, I would say. I mean, we had a very good relationship, but it took off when I started my own company because I could spend more time with him and I could do more for him. Meaning I could do more in terms of the financial aspect, and I wasn't bound by a company. So our relationship in 2017, when I started my own company, it basically became me going to his house once or twice a month, us just sitting down, really just rapping, having coffee, and having snacks. And I was also able to bring my boys and introduce them to Mr. Hugh as well. And I was also able to introduce Anne-Marie to Mr. Hugh during that kind of time frame. So he enjoyed a very good retirement. And anytime that he needed anything, or I'd make a recommendation, he would just say, Chris, just take care of it. That was his magic line. Chris, just take care of it. And the story that I'm going to really share with you is the epitome of what I do. And I didn't realize this until he passed away. Hugh and I were talking, and I made the recommendation of an estate plan. And the again put Chris Dale not having anyone else really to be accountable for and not really caring where the assets go to. And initially on the first run, it was a decline. I don't really care about any of that. And then I have this sense that kind of goes off because of my experience, especially with my parents, that I am going to be the person ultimately responsible if something gets out of bounds here. Meaning, if Hugh were in a situation where he needed his own money and I couldn't give him his own money. Because I am not his power of attorney, nor can I be, or do I want to. It's a conflict of interest. I can't be his healthcare surrogate for the same reasons. And I had a conversation with him and I said, these are my concerns. If something happens to you, I can't give you your own money if you're not able to tell me. So I was going back and forth. I was really racking my brain to find something that was amenable to what he really wanted, but easy. And then I just came to the conclusion, I already have a really good estate planning attorney that I have used for some of these instances before at a really high level. And so I introduced him to an estate planning attorney. And of course, like I just said, Hugh just said, take care of it. So since I knew just about everything about Hugh, he said, supply her with all the information, and I'll just show up so she can verify who I am, and then I'll sign paperwork. And I'm doing a lot of stuff behind the scenes with the estate planning attorney, and he literally does that. He shows up so she can verify who he is on the front end, and he's yep, those are my wishes. And then he shows up a second time to sign the paperwork. And this was in November of 2024 that this transpired. And uh during that process, his estate planning attorney had to come in and I wouldn't necessarily say make decisions, but he was deemed incapacitated in some forms or another just because of the accident. And she had to come in and converse with the hospital. Timing couldn't have been better. And again, that was based on my personal experience. And then in the hospital, Hugh Brees said, Hey, Chris, I'm concerned that we're gonna have, and he would always say, We, like this is our money. And I was like, No, this is your money. I am just making sure that you are set up here financially, as I take a sidebar there. And so he had asked me, Do I have enough money? And I said, Let me get with the hospital. I know this is gonna be expensive. I think he was in the hospital for probably about 10 days or so. And uh so I checked with the hospital. He had some of the best insurance that I've ever seen. And as I was conversing with the hospital back and forth, they said his out of pocket should be less than$2,000 for this entire stay. And I verified with the insurance. So he got out of the hospital. I actually got him and I took him home. So then, probably within 30 days, he got a bill from the hospital for about$130,000. And he hands it over to me again, and true form, Hugh Breeze said, Chris, just take care of it. And he's like, it's a lot of money. And he didn't seem like he was too concerned. I got on the horn with the hospital and I connected the dots. The hospital billed him first, is what transpired, versus billing his insurance. So about 30 days after I intervened, he got a bill a reconciled bill from the hospital for about$1,100. So he was like, I guess you took care of that. And I was like, Yeah, we took care of it. And then the other thing, too, that I know is that whenever there's an accident, there's usually another entity that is probably out looking for money. And I had that in the back of my head. And this accident involved no one and no personal property, and it was verifiable through a police report. And sure enough, there was someone that came out of the woodwork trying to claim some money from Mr. Hugh Brees. And so I intervened again, and Hugh just said, Chris, just take care of it. And in true form, located another attorney through his estate planning attorney. We got on phone calls and collected the police report and got Hugh on the initial run of a call, and he just went along basically and said, Yep, I believe Chris is going to take care of this. And got on a couple more calls, and he got on another call, and it was determined that this other entity really had no grounds uh for trying to make a claim. And so it was pretty much resolved for Mr. Hugh Brees. And it cost the attorney fees, but nothing more than that. And so after the accident, I realized that Mr. Hugh was starting to decline. And uh I was concerned that he was going to be declining. He had shown signs of improvement, but he was declining. And I failed to mention that during the process of him getting in the accident, he lost his driver's license, basically his wallet, and he lost his social security card. And I was deemed with the task of helping him get a driver's license because he could no longer drive, and also his social security card. And I had no idea how much of a chore that would have been to get, and not that he was going to drive, actually, we were going to get a Florida driver's license. So we show up to the DMV and they say you can't get a Florida ID without a Social Security card. And I said, We have a copy of his driver's license. They said, Nope, can't do that. And you also need your, I believe it was a copy of his birth certificate, which he didn't either. Actually, that was for his Social Security. And so had to get the Social Security card first before getting a Florida ID. And again, this is a process. So we had to order his birth certificate. However, before ordering the birth certificate, we had to get a sealed file of medical records so we could get all this other stuff. Get his birth certificate so we could take it to the Social Security office, along with the medical records, we get a Social Security card for him. And then I could go through the process of getting him a Florida ID card. So that was a lot. And in the process, and this is really where things took a turn for the worse, in the process of me making an appointment for the DMV to get him a Florida ID card, I was online and then I called him. And this was like deja vu. It's a very specific experience that I had. And I've had these experiences now twice in my lifetime. I call him and he is hard of breath. And I say to him, Hugh Breeze, it sounds like you're breathing hard and you're coughing and sounds like you need to go to the doctor. And he said, I'm okay. And I said, Yeah, you're probably not okay. And I said, Can you walk to a car? And I had arranged for him to have a service. It's called GoGo Grandparent. And it's very similar to Uber or Lyft, but really for grandparents, that they can just call a number, they automatically know who they are, they will build their account, and they can just tell them where they're going. And it's very simple. He's like, I don't know if I can walk to a car. And I knew that he was in a state that was getting to be dire. So this is where the experience comes in. I called 911. I walked them in to how to get into his condo and what his symptoms were. In 2008, in November, I did the exact same thing for my father when he was exhibiting very similar symptoms. So he went to the hospital, and it was determined that he had pneumonia, he had a lot of fluid buildup in his lungs, and he had lung cancer. And he didn't want to be on any extenuating things to prolong his life. And I totally respect that. And it was also determined that he was not going to be able to go back home because of his health. So they were only going to release him if he had someone at home full-time, like a skilled nurse andor to a skilled facility, a rehab facility. And the state planning attorney, she would verify information with me, although I didn't make any decisions, but she said that you know him best and know his wishes. And I should also state that there was a very close personal friend that was really like a daughter figure to Hugh Brees. And she was in the mix too, and she would go and check on him on a regular basis, like every day. So we were all kind of his team, so to speak. So he's in the rehab facility, and his friend, she was very tied emotionally to Hugh Brees, as I was, but I understand the boundaries and what I have to do. And she was running in and out of town and was just feeling the pressure of not being able to be there. And so I said, why don't we just get him a companion service? And it does a couple of things. It relieves the emotional burden off of her. And it also now puts me in a position to where I can evaluate the rehab facility. And any rehab nursing facility, if there are no eyes there, my opinion, and this is my opinion alone, that they're going to take shortcuts. And this facility was no different. It was highly rated, but it was no different. I go there on a Friday morning to meet the companion service. And I had vetted three companion services in less than 12 hours the night before when I figured out that this was a need. Got them to meet the next day, and uh Hugh just looks at me and he's like, Yep. And I talked to him about it the day before, obviously, to get his buy. And he said, I love the idea. I would like somebody to come and just sit with me. I said, okay, so the next day we had him sign paperwork, and they started on Saturday. And they were there for four-hour blocks every day. And that was in addition to me and his other really close friend that were coming in. And so on the Sunday, Amory and I went. Amory sat with him and he asked me to take care of a few things. And the facility was slacking a little bit. And so I had to be very straightforward with regard to expectations and the things that they were not doing. And the companion service was reporting to me on a daily basis. So I was getting a report of what was going on or wasn't going on. And there were some gaps from the time that I was there on Friday to the time that I was there on Sunday and the report that I got. So after going out and speaking with the notion manager and then speaking with one of the higher-ups of the facility, I came back and Hugh saw this expression on my face. And he's laughing. And I said, Hugh, what's so funny? And he's like, I know that you just took care of things and I like seeing you work. And I just laughed at him. I shook my head. I said, Yeah, you like seeing me work. That's funny. And you're making me work really hard. And he just starts to laugh. And he's like, Well, that's what I got you for you to just take care of things. And fast forward a little bit more, and his health is declining. He's back in the hospital, comes back, he has a slip and fall, and he goes back to the hospital, and then he comes back. And during the process, he is declining, meaning that he needs oxygen and he's starting to slow, his breathing is starting to slow, and he's not eating as much. And my hospice training, as you know, I volunteer with hospice on a regular basis, and I've been doing this since 2017. They give me a fair amount of training, and I understand when someone exhibits those symptoms, they are probably going to pass away sooner than later. And I happen to be at a conference, and I was getting the report again about his breathing slowing, and I was saying to myself, it's just going to be a matter of time. And it was a Wednesday, and he passed away, and I get a call from his attorney and said that he has passed away. And it was a surreal moment because I realized that I not only took a client from pre-retirement, getting into retirement, structuring that, he had a 19-year retirement. And arguably, probably the last year of that retirement is really where he started to slow down and he started having medical things go on. He had a great run in retirement. And I had a healthy hand in facilitating that, and I felt really good about that. And at the conference, when I got the call, ironically, I talked to people about it. I reached out to my network, and I wanted to make sure that I had the support. But we were doing an exercise at the conference, and it was about your expertise mission. And I used to call it a value proposition or what I would do. But I I understood something now that really sets me apart from other people. I'm just going to read my new expertise statement. And I say it's really the epitome of what I do. As someone who has personally walked through profound loss and trauma, I understand the emotional landscape that shapes life's most challenging transitions. I help financially responsible individuals build life plans that support them confidently, build toward retirement, live through retirement, and through the final stages of life. My work, rooted in my experience as a certified financial transitionist and shaped by my lived experience, guides clients toward clarity, trust, security, and peace. In rare moments, even in a client's final days, I am able to stand beside them with dignity, steadiness, trust, and compassion, providing a level of support few advisors ever have the privilege to offer. And it hit me at the conference when I was writing this that this is something that I do. And I completely did that with Mr. Hugh Brees. It is very rarely that I pat myself on the back, but I felt very good about what I was able to do for Mr. Hugh Brees. And a few of the advisors said, Is this a service that you know you're going to carve out and offer other people? And I said, It is absolutely a service that I do not want to carve out and offer folks, but it is a service that I'm prepared to offer my clients. Because I can think on the fly and I can use my experience and I can help people in ways that you can't read in a book. And it's just through my lived experience. That's a little bit about Hugh Brees and what we went through together and his life would have it. And please feel free to pass this podcast off to any friends or family members. And I'd love for you, as this is the ramp up to my book release, I'd love for you to be on my launch team, and you can see the information in the notes. Cheers, be well. See you in the next episode.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Thanks for listening to our podcast. If you are a client and are looking to work directly with Chris andor our firm, head on over to Life After Grief FP. That is Life After Grief FP. The FP is for financial planning. If you are an advisor looking to emotionally and financially work with your client in grief, or if you are a client looking to get your advisor's head in the game, head on over to LifeAfter Grief Consulting dot com. That is LifeAfter Grief Consulting.com. Any related information referenced in this week's podcast will be located here in the podcast section.