ADDENDUM as of 2/5/09: While I am still excited about the materials I discuss in this post, it is with great sadness that I feel compelled to note I have discovered there are reasons for caution with respect to the sources referenced herein. With respect to Vision Forum Ministries and Doug Phillips, I call your attention to the series of articles at Ministry Watchman and Jen’s Gems. And with respect to Geoff Botkin, see Who is Geoffrey Botkin? at the Under Much Grace blog.

I’ve been listening to a presentation called The 200 Year Plan: A Practicum on Multi-Generational Faithfulness–a CD set put out by Vision Forum Ministries.

It was about three weeks ago that someone suggested I look at the program. Considering my own emphasis on multi-generational, indeed, 200-year plans and more, how could I not take a look?

So I purchased the series . . . and am glad I did!

Wow! Read the rest of this entry »

I quoted our “final” (actually, preliminary, first-draft-final) “Family Vision” statement as hammered out with the kids. I thought it might be interesting to look back on the “Family Vision” statement Sarita and I came up with on our own (with a lot of help, primarily from T_____) back on March 12th. Read the rest of this entry »

Sarita and I had a meeting today–all day, 8 am till about 4:30 pm, with a working lunch in between!–with G____, our legacy planner, and T____, a man who, it turns out, is a fourth-generation heir of a very large family fortune. T____ turned my mind a bit–or, actually, a lot–concerning the idea of “giving everything away” as much as possible (rather than possibly passing a [financial] legacy along to our kids).

In essence, he argued for the idea that money in a future generation’s hands can be used for good. And we should encourage them to use it for good.

Perhaps the most inspiring comment had to do with enabling our kids to do significant work whether or not they were paid decent wages to do it. Thus, as he said, Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t intend to copy many more of the questions from the Legacy Planning book. But I understand this question will become key to our planning:

From the following list of values and virtues, mark Read the rest of this entry »