People shake their heads when they see me barefoot.

I sort life, health, trauma, income protection, travel and pet insurance, and KiwiSaver, for people who would rather not think about any of it.

Buying a home? I don’t do mortgages myself, but I’ll put you in touch with a mortgage adviser I trust.

An uncle comes to see me. Not a real uncle, just someone ten years older. It’s an island thing, a way of showing respect.

That’s a big part of this job. People come to talk, and the work happens as a by-product. Often they’re asking about things they’ve been avoiding, in a language nobody ever taught them.

So I don’t use that language.

I grew up in Fiji.

I loved my dad. He was a social creature, the kind who partied like tomorrow wasn’t promised. It took him from us at forty.

I was young then. My family was younger.

When I became a father myself, twenty-five years ago, I made a quiet promise about the kind of dad I was going to be. I’ve kept it.

That’s the part people don’t see when they’re busy looking at my feet.

Nobody plans for the worst day. Somebody has to.

A man came to me wanting to cancel his life cover. The premiums were hurting and he’d had enough.

I looked at the policy. His son owned it, so he was the one who’d get the payout.

So I rang the son and explained what cancelling meant. By the end of the call, the son was paying for it.

Nobody sold anybody anything. We just looked at it properly.

That’s most of the job, most of the time.

Nothing.

As a client you don’t pay me a cent. The love comes from the insurers and KiwiSaver providers I represent, not from your pocket.