Hi! Call me Lai Kuan. I am a Life Managing Director. I do understand that the role of a Life Managing Director may not be familiar to many. Allow me to shed light on what it entails, share my personal journey, and offer insights on how everyone can prepare themselves for their future.

It all started as I decided to leave my previous 9 to 5 job from an international organization. My primary motivation was to prioritze precious time with my family, especially caring for my aging parents who reside with me. Hence, I seek for a more flexible career path and I stumbled into a bereavement care services in 2019. Here, i advocate for pre-planning bereavement care services, offering peace of mind to both individuals and their families when the inevitble occurs.

After two years in bereavement care services, I recognized the pressing need for more comprehensive preparation in our increasingly uncertain world. The Covid-19 pandemic has taught me and reminded us of life’s fragility. I realized it’s our responsibility to diligently plan our lives, easing the burden on our loved ones if we’re no longer here. This is where I discovered Trust planning, a tool that can safeguard our savings and provide financial support to our family members when we’re no longer here.

To simplify it, we need to future-proof our lives. Many overlook the importance of planning for a peaceful departure and ensuring our family members can live independently and comfortably in retirement, aging gracefully and healthily. It’s about managing our lives till the end, planning effectively, and living well. This is where the role of a Life Managing Director comes into play.

We all know, pre-planning a funeral arrangement is important to many people however, we continue to face challenge discussing it as it is still a taboo in today’s society. Many will avoid and shy away from this topic. To make it more approachable, I sometimes refer to it as “life graduation ceremony”. This shift in language helps people feel more comfortable sharing their thougths. In fact, I’ve witnessed many situations where individuals couldn’t affort sudden funeral expenses, leading to family disagreements over the arrangements. Hence, I emphasize the love and responsibility to our friends and family that we ought to decide our own graduation ceremony, so that we can provide peace of mind to our loved ones during such at that disconcerted moment.

Futhermore, talking about money matters is never easy, and introducing the concept of Trust planning in Malaysia presents its challenges. It’s still relatively unfamiliar to many, often confused with unit trusts. Trusts are crucial tools for legacy and financial planning, yet require thorough explanation. Many aren’t aware that funds in a bank account without beneficiary nominations get frozen upon death. In contrast, Trust accounts allow us to nominate beneficiaries and protect funds from creditors. Clarifying these points is essential during Trust concept discussions.

Let me share a case that really stirred and deeply affected me as it involved a young woman in her mid-30s, a full-time housewife, who found herself evicted from her home immediately after her husband’s funeral. With all their bank accounts frozen, she was helplessness and panic while life carried on. This situation highlights the importance of setting up a trust and nominating beneficiaries. If her husband had established a trust and named her as the beneficiary, it could have prevented her from facing such dire circumstances.

I find great motivation in sharing these relatively new and uncommon concepts with others in our society. It’s inspiring to see how they can positively impact people’s lives. Rather than leaving our loved ones in a state of loss and panic, we should always strive to learn and embrace new ideas that can improve our lives. My hope is that more people will come to accept and understand the concept of pre-planning, recognizing it as an efficient and modern approach to financial planning.

In addition to pre-planning bereavement services, I also offer Trust planning servcies according to individual stages, such as retirement planning, legacy planning, education fund, and so on. Let’s connect to explore approaches that can protect your money and provide a lasting protection for you and your loved ones beyond traditional banking and insurance options.