Break the Glass™ Planning: A Human Approach to Preparedness 

June 18, 2026

Across Colorado and throughout the Rocky Mountain West, employees and their families have become increasingly familiar with disruption. Wildfires. Flooding. Power outages. Severe winter storms. Unexpected emergencies that interrupt normal life with very little warning.5 

When something unexpected happens, the impact is immediate. Suddenly, an employee or their family member is searching for documents, contacts, passwords, directives, and financial information, all while managing stress, uncertainty, and emotional strain.34 Often, what someone thought was organized turns out not to be ready for the moment it’s actually needed.34 

When Disruption Becomes Real 

That realization is part of the inspiration behind Break the Glass™ Planning. 

As First Western Trust (MYFW) Founder and CEO Scott Wylie has described, “the true value of continuity planning is not simply about organizing information. It is about creating peace of mind through a thoughtful, integrated approach that helps families, businesses, and leadership teams navigate moments of disruption with greater clarity, continuity, and support.” 

Break the Glass™ Planning was designed around a simple but important reality: emergencies rarely arrive when people feel fully prepared for them.4 While most planning conversations focus on the emergency itself, very little attention is given to what happens next.34 Employees still need direction. Families need support. Life continues moving forward, even when the person who normally holds everything together is suddenly absent, unavailable, or navigating crisis themselves.3 ned, they serve as a lever for retention, morale, and overall productivity. 

A Program Built for Employees, Not Just Documents 

Break the Glass™ Planning sits within the broader WorkWealth Benefits™ framework as the preparedness offering: a practical, personal layer of support designed to help employees, and the people closest to them, respond more effectively during emergencies, absence, incapacity, loss, or major life disruption. 

For employees, that distinction matters because continuity is never only operational. It’s personal.34 In stressful moments, people aren’t simply looking for a file. They’re trying to make decisions, locate next steps, support family members, and carry forward someone else’s wishes without having to guess.4 

The program centers on a secure, HIPAA-compliant digital vault where employees can organize important legal, financial, medical, personal, and professional records in one place, then delegate access to designated people at designated moments, down to specific documents. A Break the Glass™ Plan may include trust and estate documents, insurance policies, medical directives, account information, key contacts, passwords, family guidance, and other continuity details that might otherwise stay scattered across devices, drawers, or undocumented conversations. It’s also a place to preserve family stories, recipes, photos, and legacy letters, so they remain accessible to loved ones rather than lost. 

What Changes When Employees Are Prepared 

Preparedness doesn’t remove the emotional weight of crisis. What it can do is lessen the scramble that so often follows. It reduces delays, confusion, and preventable stress by giving employees a framework for what’s already been organized and entrusted to the right hands.4 

For an employee and their family, the difference is often deceptively simple. A spouse doesn’t have to guess where key documents are stored. An adult child doesn’t have to call multiple institutions to determine what accounts exist. A family member isn’t left searching for login credentials or essential directives while also trying to hold everything else together. 

As Scott Wylie elaborates, “the goal is not simply to provide access to information during an emergency. It is to ensure that individuals and families already know the trusted advisors who may ultimately help guide them through what comes next. In many cases, the continuity of relationship itself becomes just as valuable as the continuity of information.” 

This matters not only in moments of death or incapacity, but during temporary absences, health events, travel disruptions, caregiving emergencies, and the many other moments when someone suddenly can’t be the only person holding the map. Preparedness is rarely about one dramatic event. More often, it’s about reducing fragility across the everyday moments when life becomes complicated faster than expected.  benefits, these programs become a source of engagement rather than a transactional burden. 

Why This Matters to Every Employee, Not Just Leadership 

Employees are made up of people carrying families, responsibilities, medical decisions, legal commitments, and financial complexity well beyond the workplace. Offering Break the Glass™ isn’t simply about process; it’s about giving employees and their loved ones peace of mind, so that if something happens, their loved ones aren’t left piecing everything together under pressure. 

Historically, many benefits programs have focused on protection in the abstract: coverage, policies, contributions, long-term planning structures. Those are important. But employees increasingly ask a more personal question: will this actually help me navigate real life? Break the Glass™ answers that question directly. It helps translate planning into access, preparedness into usability, and good intentions into something families can act on when time and clarity matter most. 

Preparedness shouldn’t be reserved for leadership alone. The same peace of mind that matters to a senior executive matters to any employee trying to make life easier for a spouse, child, parent, sibling, or trusted friend who may one day need to step in quickly.

Preparedness for What Comes Next 

That’s why Break the Glass™ exists: not to replace the deeper planning that often surrounds wealth, legacy, insurance, or family continuity, but to make those plans usable in real life. It gives employees a secure, organized, delegated framework for access and response when they or their families need it most. 

At its best, Break the Glass™ helps turn uncertainty into structure. It gives employees a practical way to prepare not only their documents, but their support system, their wishes, and their continuity in advance. When offered as part of WorkWealth Benefits™, it reflects something important about the employer behind it: an understanding that protecting a workforce means more than offering coverage. It means helping people prepare for life as it’s actually lived, including the moments no one wants to face unprepared. 

The value of Break the Glass™ isn’t measured only by what it stores. It’s also reflected in what it spares employees and their families from: avoidable confusion, unnecessary delay, and the added burden of interpreting someone’s wishes while already under pressure. In that sense, preparedness becomes an act of care, allowing people to support one another with greater clarity in the moments that matter most.

Trust, estate planning, insurance, and investment products are not a deposit, not FDIC insured, not insured by any federal government agency, not guaranteed, subject to investment risks, including possible loss of the principal amount invested and may go down in value. Any information and research contained herein do not represent a recommendation of investment advice to buy or sell stocks or any financial instrument nor is it intended as an endorsement of any security or investment, and it does not constitute an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or investment services. This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or tax advice. Please consult your legal or tax advisor for specific guidance tailored to your situation. First Western Trust Bank cannot provide tax advice. 

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MetLife. 2024 Employee Benefit Trends Study. 

2. Aon. 2025 Global Wellbeing Survey. 

3. Federal Emergency Management Agency. Continuity Resource Toolkit. Last updated January 16, 2026. 

4. Ready.gov. Make a Plan. U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Last updated May 27, 2026. 

5. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. U.S. Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters. Accessed June 2026. 

Forbes. The Wage Crisis of 2025.