When Crisis Hits: Helping Others
By, Will Stone, CFP® | Financial Advisor
What would you do if your home was suddenly destroyed by an unexpected catastrophe like a storm, tornado, or fire? Many people found that to be a reality last year following Hurricanes Helene and Milton, which impacted entire communities from Florida to North Carolina. Now we see the devastating images from the fires in California. There are also many people who face this situation on a much smaller scale where it is only a single home in an area that is damaged or destroyed. Initially, you would probably be focused on basic life needs such as food, water, and shelter. At some point, however, with those needs met, your thoughts would probably turn to, “What’s next? Where will we live? Are we going to rebuild our house or move somewhere else?”
Several years ago, my family and I were faced with similar questions after lightning struck our house and the ensuing fire destroyed it. Thankfully, we were out of town together, and after returning home and figuring out a temporary housing solution, we began picking up the pieces; ultimately facing a big decision about whether to re-build on the same property or move somewhere else.
We looked at homes for sale in our area but didn’t see anything that interested us. We also talked to some builders about building a new home somewhere else or rebuilding on our existing property. Rebecca and I had always had an interest in building a house, but this seemed like a lot to take on amid replacing clothes, furniture, toys for our daughters, and every single thing you have in a house.
Still, we were intrigued with the idea of building and in those conversations, one builder separated himself from the others. His name was David, and we connected with him through a friend from our daughter’s pre-school. David showed us some homes he built, and we liked the look and craftmanship of them. There was something else, though, that caught our attention. On touring one of the homes, David mentioned that the family who owned it hired him to build it for them after theirs was destroyed by fire. We had goosebumps as we realized this family had been through what we were currently experiencing.
He then walked us through the things we could do with our current home. Like, if he demolished it carefully, he could save the basement walls and concrete slab, which were untouched by the fire. The driveway was already in place as were utility hookups. He had an architect who could help us design a new house to fit the existing footprint of our current one. As we continued these conversations with him, we began to understand, with someone like David helping us, we could rebuild a new house and at the same time get a lot of value by salvaging what we could from the old one. He could help us navigate all the decisions and take care of or point out things we would never know to consider.
Ultimately, we hired David to rebuild our house, because we came to understand that even though he had never lost his home in a fire, he had helped other people rebuild theirs. He had special expertise because of what he learned from helping people facing similar circumstances as us. We were going through rebuilding a fire-destroyed house for the first time, but the fact that it was not his first time with such a project gave us confidence we were in good hands.
I have thought about this experience many times over the past year, as it occurred to me that we help our clients in the same way. Most of the time, a new client comes to us because they are facing a key issue or life event. Or an existing client has something new come up in their life. Often it is something they have not faced before, such as retiring, moving forward after losing a loved one, helping an aging parent, or navigating the complexities of Social Security and Medicare. Facing these events can be concerning and feel a bit daunting.
We are used to it, though. Chances are we helped someone else through the same challenges or experiences you are facing. We know what decisions you might have to make, we know people you may need to help you, and we know how to walk with, advise, and guide you along the way.
In fact throughout 2025, we will highlight certain life events and challenges we often see people face for the first time and provide insight regarding how we have helped them.
Here are some topics we have planned:
Marriage or Divorce
Death
Retirement
Inheritance
Changing jobs, income level, or unemployment
Selling a business
But, you don’t have to wait until we share more later in the year. If there is something you want to discuss or need help with now, don’t hesitate to reach out. We would love to talk about what’s going on.
Happy New Year!