G____, our legacy planner, asked, “Suppose we were to say a family has successfully passed on its legacy to the next generation if two things, at minimum, are true: 1) the family’s wealth is still there when the first generation has passed away, and, 2) none of the members of the second generation have seen their lives destroyed due to improper use of funds; no family relationships have been ruined as a result of strife over money.

“Of families who use traditional financial and estate planning techniques and go no further, what percentage would you guess are successful, according to this definition, in the second generation? How many wealthy families still have the wealth and are still relationally intact in the second generation?”

“Maybe one or two percent?” I suggested. Read the rest of this entry »

As I noted, our investment advisor has been urging us seriously to consider hiring a Legacy Planner. (Note the difference between legacy planning and “mere” estate planning I described in my Estate Planning v Legacy Planning post.)

G_____, the gentleman whom our advisor recommended, presented a couple of graphics that I think give further insight into some of the differences.

Here I will present only the “Legacy Planning Pyramid”:

According to G____, “traditional” financial and estate planning comprise the first two layers of the Legacy Planning Pyramid. Read the rest of this entry »