Asian Journal- The Filipino-American Community Newspaper

I’VE long wanted to write about this but have been put on hold too many times in the last two years… until recently.

August 24, 2010, my house was gutted by fire. Only the master’s bathroom and the kitchen were burned but smoke damage in the entire house has made it uninhabitable for probably 2 to 3 months. At this point, we’re still housed at a local Marriott Residence Inn and would have probably moved to a house in the Westside at press time.

Dealing with the post-fire trauma brings insurmountable stress but it could have been much more traumatic and stressful without home insurance.

Home insurance provides us with the comfort and security we so need in what I would consider one of the most traumatic events in our lives- the other being the death of a loved one. Thanks to insurance, 2 days after the fire, I’m back to operating my business round-the-clock- with sanity and composure- as I deal with my successive appointments and we just normally glided back on to our normal family life pre-fire.

We’ve heard about the huge destruction that typhoon Ondoy brought to the Philippines last year. Without any mandate for insurance coverage, too many lives, too much hard-earned money and assets have been put into muddy oblivion by a single calamity. I hope it did serve as a wake-up call for Filipinos in our country of the importance of being insured.

Filipinos often think of insurance as an expense, not an investment and sometimes that notion bridges over country of domicile. For example, too many of us here in the US still consider insurance as a superfluous expense while our desire for expensive cars, jewelries, and high-end purses and shoes takes precedence in our monthly budget.

Also, life insurance is the most overlooked financial planning vehicle in our culture. Having talked and listened to thousands of Filipino-Americans in the almost 3 years that I have a business presence in Eagle Rock Plaza (touted the little Manila in Los Angeles), I’ve witnessed too many sad stories.

A middle-aged father with 3 young children passed away, leaving nothing for his children and unemployed wife, not even money or plan to spend on his final remains. Elderly parents who never have life insurance pass away with their equally cash-strapped children burdened with the disposal of their remains or on the exorbitant cost of sending their remains back to the Philippines.