Examples of How Clients Use Secure My Treasures

When you need your wishes to be known

James is in a critical condition in hospital after a tractor rollover. An intensive care doctor approaches James’ elder son, Jock, and outlines her concerns for James’ prognosis. Together, the doctor and Jock discuss James’ wishes, especially about his resuscitation, if it came to that. Jock has no idea of his father’s wishes but decides to approach his distraught mother, Olivia, “because she will know”. Luckily, Olivia is a Trustee for James’ Secure My Treasures Chest, named End of Life.

The End of Life Chest houses an advanced care directive containing James’ wishes. Olivia downloads the document from the Chest, together with a brief message from James. This message is for Olivia, “You’ve been my rock. Stay strong, Luv, xx PS Don’t let me suffer”. Thanks to Secure My Treasures, Olivia emails the advanced care directive to the treating doctor. In doing so, Olivia has saved the doctor valuable time in assessing and treating James. And this distraught family are spared the added distress of searching for information that can be hard to locate, if it exists at all. Worse, in the absence of the advanced care directive, the family could have been placed in the invidious position of having to guess James’ wishes and then make difficult decisions on his behalf.

When you can’t access important documents

Stella fled the fires as they bore down on an Australian outback town with just the clothes on her back. Her lovely home was now little more than a red brick chimney that marked the whereabouts of the charred remnants of her life. There wasn’t much left. All her identity documents, insurance policies, mortgage contract, other loan documents, her jewellery and her father’s precious war medals were in cinders.

Fortunately, Stella subscribed to Secure My Treasures where she had uploaded copies of all her now charred documents and photographs that also included her jewellery and her father’s war medals. Using a friend’s lap top, Stella accessed her Chests in Secure My Treasures to download document copies that helped to provide evidence to replace the originals and to submit her insurance claims.

Secure My Treasures helped Stella to pick up the pieces and start on the road towards rebuilding her life..

When you want to help your parents to remain independent

Alison and Gary had lived all their married lives in the home they bought together. Now, heading into their late 70s, Alison and Gary were adamant that they were healthy and fit enough to stay in their home. Their three adult children didn’t quite agree. They saw that their parents were becoming less agile, increasingly frail and their frequent slips of memory were unmissable.

With their children’s assistance, Alison and Gary subscribed to Secure My Treasures. There, they uploaded their financial details, a list of the locations of their properties, share portfolio and their end of life plans into the relevant Chests, making each other Trustees. That meant that, at this time, only Alison and Gary and no one else could access this information. This gave Alison and Gary a sense of independence and freedom. They felt in control of their affairs. Though, Alison and Gary did agree that when the time came, they would add their children as Trustees of these Chests.

Alison and Gary wished for their children to be actively involved in helping them with the running of their home so that jobs that mattered didn’t fall through the cracks. In Secure My Treasures, Alison and Gary created a group of Chests with their children as Trustees that held information about doctors appointments, due dates for bills, schedules and contact details for all the contractors who visited the house such as their hairdresser, gardener, food deliveries and cleaner. That way, Alison or Gary or any of their children could check whether, say, the gas bill was due or had been paid.

Alison and Gary considered that by encouraging each of their children to act as a Trustee, each would feel that they were making a positive contribution to supporting their parents.

When Alison and Gary did need help to manage their home care package, they created a new Chest and assigned their eldest child as a Trustee. He could then access the home care agreement uploaded to Secure My Treasures.

When you are alone

Mary has always lived alone. She is fiercely independent and very practical. Mary is one of those people who believes that the best way to get something done is to do it yourself. As she has grown older, Mary has come to realize that one day she may need some help. What if she had a fall at home? Who would know?

Mary subscribed to Secure My Treasures and set up a Chest that she named Home. She authorised her neighbour, Phil, to become a Trustee of her Home Chest. That meant that, if necessary, Phil could access Mary’s Home Chest on Secure My Treasures and he could quickly find the location of her hidden spare house key. On the Home Chest, there is a space to include a special message for Trustees. There Mary has outlined specific circumstances when Phil may enter Mary’s home to check on her. These include when Phil hasn’t seen Mary in the yard for a couple of days and/or all the house lights have been left on continuously.

Mary also created one Chest each for her doctor and lawyer to access as a Trustee. These Chests are named “Doctor in an Emergency” and “Lawyer in an Emergency” respectively. This is Mary’s way of ensuring that her next of kin can be contacted if anything ever happened to her.