Personal and social impacts of significant financial loss

This paper examines the impact on individuals who suffer significant financial loss. The collapse of Storm Financial is used as a qualitative case study to investigate such impacts, based on elements of grounded theory and narrative analysis. Significant financial loss is devastating, with an individual’s emotional wellbeing a primary casualty, and mental health also vulnerable. One’s social world is impacted, including relationships with family and friends, engagement in community activities and familial/cultural roles. Financial victims perceive a sense of judgement from society about their losses, further exacerbating emotive and social impacts. These impacts demonstrate that significant vulnerability exists when encouraging self-sufficiency in retirement.