I read two books while on vacation the last couple of weeks: Preparing Heirs: Five Steps to a Successful Transition of Family Wealth and Values by Roy Williams and Vic Preisser, and Family Wealth: How Family Members and Their Advisers Preserve Human, Intellectual, and Financial Assets for Generations, by James E. Hughes, Jr.

Preparing Heirs goes into depth about the research behind a number one of our advisors mentioned to us: in a study of 3,250 families with significant financial assets, 70% of them failed to transfer their assets successfully to the next generation. What does that mean? They either lost all their money, or they found that the money destroyed family relationships. It blew the family apart in the inheriting generation.

When I read Preparing Heirs, I thought it provided some good insights, especially into the causes of failure. Read the rest of this entry »

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

I’ve already read Jay Link’s Family Wealth Counseling.

He’s issued a clarion call to pay attention not only to the financial aspects of an estate plan or legacy plan, but, I would say, he calls our attention even more to the social and spiritual/emotional issues related to one’s . . . lifetime legacy.

I chose those last two words carefully.

I think we aren’t normally challenged to think in terms of our lives when it comes to estate planning. We are led to think in terms of death, dying, and what happens after our lives are over.

Link, by contrast, calls us to Read the rest of this entry »

I listed my values (as brought up through this legacy planning process). Looking back and thinking about our discussion at the Family Meeting, I realize that simply talking about these things is a significant, positive, useful step as we attempt to draw together as a family toward some kind of shared vision for the future.

It’s tough, too, however, to engage in these kinds of discussions! Read the rest of this entry »

For me, the highlight of our first family legacy planning meeting came relatively late in the day but just before we hammered out a consensus vision statement.

We had all talked a bit about our top values (both “Most” and “Least”). I don’t know that anyone felt that was particularly revelatory. Interesting. But only mildly so.

What blew me away was the next question we talked about (this was not in the Legacy Planning book): “Define what it means to be a ‘Holzmann.’ What defines you as compared to those around you?”

Whew! Talk about putting you (i.e., the family, all of us) on the spot! What would the kids say? Is there anything that we could agree on that more or less “defines” us as a family? 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 »

So Sarita and I are working through this legacy planning process.

G____, our advisor, gave us a 20-page booklet full of questions for us to answer. Some are relatively easy. But many are thought-provoking, and some cause me consternation.

I’d like to share some of the questions with you. I hope they inspire you as they have me. . . .

The questionnaire begins with “Childhood Reflections”: Read the rest of this entry »