I will confess: I’ve been dragging my feet. Not sure why. But I had to overcome the hurdle.

I have finally “turned on” the Strategic Inheritance Legacy Lounge forum and invite you to join what I hope will soon be a freewheeling and inspirational discussion of all things related to passing on a heritage from one generation to another.

Join us, won’t you?

Thanks!

World magazine’s March 28 issue includes an interview with Roberta Green Ahmanson, a journalist and wife of Howard Ahmanson, Jr., a multimillionaire philanthropist.

At one point, the interviewer asks, “What have you learned about grantmaking?”

Her reply: Read the rest of this entry »

In “The Surprising Truth About American Generosity,” the editors of Trends magazine provide a more positive perspective than I have been inclined to adopt, warn about government policies that may damage Americans’ charitable urge, and suggest some unusual reasons to give if you’re not giving now: Read the rest of this entry »

I am beginning to think this may be a theme I ought to address on a regular basis: As widowhood and remarriage, divorce and remarriage, blended families, cohabitation, common-law marriage, and other family and near-family relational structures become more common, I grieve for the poor judges who must make increasingly complex decisions for families whose inheritance-grantors have failed to create estate plan documents . . . or, having made such documents, have failed to keep them current.

You need to review your estate and legacy plan documents. Regularly.

I told the story of Ernest Samuelson, two months ago.

Now Stan Rule tells the story of the Sikora family: Read the rest of this entry »

Following my invitation, I sent three more emails to our family members in anticipation of the family meetings I hoped to hold during our Family Fun Week.

The first was simplest: I simply forwarded an email I had requested from our CPA in anticipation of year-end financial planning to maximize our giving. Read the rest of this entry »

Image from FlickrSarita and I are at a Generous Giving conference in Colorado Springs for the weekend due to the generosity of someone else, who sponsored our attendance through Waterstone. I’m here primarily (I hope) to develop contacts who may be able to help me serve others through this StrategicInheritance.com website.

I’ll try to provide updates throughout the weekend.