In 2003, I arrived home from work to a message on my answering machine. It was my dad, and it was a different message from normal. He was brief, sounded serious and asked me to call him as soon as possible. I dreaded making the call back.

My first thought was that something had happened to Mum or Dad, but it wasn’t anything to do with them — it was about my sister, Sarah. He told me the worst news I have ever heard in a phone conversation. He explained to me that Sarah had been diagnosed with breast cancer. None of us knew what to say, apart from why.

She led a healthy lifestyle, didn’t smoke, was fit and was looking forward to her wedding, and there was no history of cancer in my family.

Despite talking a lot about it, there was no conversation that could change anything for her or how we all felt, which was pretty helpless.

As soon as I could, I met up with my sister, and that conversation was very difficult, but nowhere near as hard as it could have been.

Rewind to Chicago 1998 — my first ever Annual Meeting. I had qualified for the first time and gone to see what exactly MDRT was all about. It was at that meeting that I realized what it is we actually do.

It isn’t about the money we earn or the qualification level we have reached. It’s what we learn when we attend MDRT meetings that counts, but more than that, it’s about what differences we can make with that new knowledge when we are back home and are working in our businesses.

I heard something at that 1998 meeting I will never ever forget, which has stuck with me ever since: “Life insurance — it isn’t for the people who die; it’s for the people who live.”

You see, in 1998, I realized that what we do is to provide for people when they most need it. We can give security to families, individuals and businesses when they are at their lowest ebb and need all the support they can get. It is our purpose to make sure that the people we touch in our lives are properly protected.

When I came back from MDRT that year, I made it my mission to speak to everyone I could about the importance of having insurance for critical illnesses, income protection and death, but, in particular, I made it my mission to have difficult conversations with my friends and family.

It’s easier to talk about insurance with people who are simply clients than it is to have that difficult conversation with your own family, friends and loved ones about what we do and how we can help because rejection is easier to take from people you don’t know. But we need to have those difficult conversations.

I made it my mission to have a difficult conversation with all my loved ones about being properly protected. I didn’t want it on my conscience to see any one of them struggle just because I didn’t have that difficult conversation. Some people listened and took advice and arranged cover, and some people politely declined. Either way was fine.

One of those loved ones I had a difficult conversation with was my sister and her fiancé.

They put in place critical illness cover, income protection and life cover for them both. Shortly after she was diagnosed, I put in one of the hardest claims I have ever had to do — for her critical illness cover for the cancer and also income protection to be used when she was off work undergoing treatment. It paid off most of their mortgage and allowed them to pay for a decent holiday after her treatment.

I was so relieved I had been at MDRT in 1998 and had that difficult conversation with all my loved ones. I couldn’t take away what had happened to Sarah, but I could at least be of some help.

Two years later on December 18, 2005, my sister Sarah sadly died at age 35. But she had in place life insurance to pay off any remaining liabilities and leave her now husband not having to worry about how he could afford to keep the house.

So please do this one thing when you get home from this conference. Please, please make sure you have a difficult conversation with everyone you can, as soon as you can, while you can.

David Braithwaite, Dip PFS, is an 11-year MDRT member with three Court of the Table and six Top of the Table honors. He has spoken at various conferences in London, Dublin, Toronto and Cairns and on Main Platform at the MDRT Annual Meeting. He is often called upon for panel discussions by product providers in the U.K. and enthusiastically loves sharing ideas and making a positive impact for others he meets.