Insurance advocate wants others to learn from his inspirational father

The below article recently came to my attention when I was browsing the news online. It struck me how the small things we do in life, like preparing for the worst, can have such an impact on the generations we leave behind. 

Peter Cordtz’s father died when he was five years old.

It taught Cordtz a lesson about the value of insurance he is now working to spread among Maori and Pacific Island families through a new $100,000 education scheme.

Recalling his father, Cordtz, who now works for the government-funded Commission for Financial Capability, said: “To me he was a hero, to my mum he was a protector.”

Even in his death Cordtz’s father did not leave the family unprotected because he had had the foresight to take out life insurance.

“My father came to New Zealand for the same reason my Maori mother left the safety of her ancestral lands in the far north: the opportunity to build a better life, not just for themselves but to provide more for their children than they ever had,” Cordtz said.

“They both taught me the importance of the past as an anchor for our identity, but also the value of vision in providing for the future.

“That vision led them to forgo welfare benefits for young families in favour of a government home ownership scheme in the mid-1960s.

“It also led my father to make an unusual decision for a Samoan immigrant, one he made less than 12 months before he passed away in a car accident and which continues to have an impact on me and my family today. He insured his life,” he said.

The commission has entered a partnership with the Insurance Council to run an education programme targeted at Maori and Pasifika communities, where underinsurance levels are high.

The aim, Cordtz said, was to give those communities information, tools and support to make better decisions around protecting whanau and their belongings.

One of the partnership’s aims was counter “misinformation” as sometimes financial wisdom sourced from respected family and community members was incorrect.

“We see a lot of misinformation in families and communities and it’s based on what seems to be a small circle of trust,” Cordtz said.

“The problem is that it creates even greater risk for the most vulnerable.”

Insurance Council chief executive Tim Grafton said the partnership sprang out of the commission’s Maori and Pacific Island money education programmes.

“Evaluation of these programmes, and community consultation, has identified both a lack of understanding and high levels of misinformation that influence decision-making among many Maori and Pasifika,” Grafton said.

It was not only house and life insurance that could prevent financial hardship. Car and contents cover were also key.

Cordtz said: “We hear from people whose car has been in an accident or gets stolen and there’s no money to fix or replace it. It’s the means for getting to work, getting the kids to school and keeping the family going”.

Without insurance, events like these can result in families having to incur debt, he said.

Cordtz paid tribute to his father’s decision to insure his life.

“I don’t know how my mum, who was only 26, would have coped if he hadn’t. I can’t see how she would have been able to keep the roof over our heads.”

“She paid off the mortgage on our house and gave me and my sister the stability and security of a permanent home, with no question of having to move around at the whim of a landlord.

“That house provided a safety net for us and our extended family for over 30 years.”

“My father’s foresight and my mum’s wisdom enabled me to be the first from either my Samoan or Maori families to gain a university degree and have opportunities neither of my parents enjoyed.”

Original article published on Stuff and written by Rob Stock.

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