[Obituary] Camelot founder farewelled

Alan passed away on September 8 and a celebration of his life was held in Waikanae.

He started as a Government Life agent in 1972, after four years with State Insurance.

In 1982, he signed an agency agreement with National Mutual and established his own corporate agency in 1988, Power Insurance Ltd.

His life and general insurance business continued to grow and was one of the early members of Camelot Partners, now Lifetime.

Alan is fondly remembered as a very successful “General Practitioner” with a large client base. He was an astute methodical thinker and a quiet achiever. He took his work and education very seriously and was a Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU).

Alan’s long-serving personal assistant, Frances Cummings, said he was a pleasure to work for. “His business practices and ethics are exactly as is mandatory today but back then this was the norm for successful trustworthy advisers. His emphasis was on what’s best for the client and their required outcome. I worked for Alan for nigh on 20 years and can attest to him always doing the right thing.”

Before his retirement, Alan held membership in both the IIBA and the predecessors of Financial Advice New Zealand, serving on the LUA Ethics and Practice Committee. He also achieved membership of the MDRT for many years, serving as region chair, attending many annual meetings in North America.

As a child he suffered rheumatic fever, which caused irreversible heart damage. In February 2003, he was New Zealand’s 147th heart transplant recipient, living in “Hearty Towers” for three months. I visited him there at Greenlane Hospital two months later and will never forget meeting other patients there, especially one teenage girl recovering from a heart and lung transplant.

He gradually returned to his work until 2008 when he retired. His retirement years were full of fun times with his grandchildren and his Waikanae golfing mates.

What was also so very important was participating in the biennial World Transplant Games between 2005 and 2015. He won numerous medals, but his highlights were winning the gold medal in tennis doubles in Bangkok, Thailand in 2007 with another Kiwi heart transplant recipient (two Kiwi hearts beating two "Pommie" kidneys). He also won the gold medal in Golf in Argentina in 2015.

Alan also participated in the Australian Transplant Games in the intervening biennial years winning many medals in his chosen sports of golf and tennis. Throughout his business life and health issues, his wife Sheryl was his anchor and wise counsel.