Here are 5 tips to create a lasting, multigenerational legacy.
#1 EDUCATE YOUR FAMILY
Provide opportunities for your adult children and grandchildren to learn about money, wealth and stewardship. We’ve developed our own unique educational programs for families here at MultiGen Institute, but you can also get started today by grabbing these free resources:
Books
Kids Wealth and Consequences by Richard A Morris and Jayne A Pearl
Preparing Heirs by William & Preisser
Raising Financially Fit Kids by Joline Godfrey
#2 SHARE IN ESSENTIAL CONVERSATIONS
Multigenerational wealth is created one conversation at a time. A wonderful way to kickstart money talk is to create a family wealth mission statement together. This doesn’t have to be long or overly complex. It can be as short as one or two sentences. Simply try to answer these two questions:
What is the purpose of our family’s wealth? How can we support each other and others in the community?
Here are a few examples:
- We are committed to family bonding, community outreach, and fun. We grow the family assets and provide for the family’s education, growth, and security.
- To create an environment for making choices that benefit ourselves and the world for generations to come.
- To strengthen our family and use its assets wisely; to enable our family and others to realize their fullest potential; to value and encourage love, work, self-sufficiency, and cooperation within the family and in the community
#3 SHARE YOUR LEGACY STORY WITH FAMILY MEMBERS
It’s likely that you already have a vision for how you want your legacy story to be told. But have you shared this vision with your family members? We recommend sitting down with them and having that conversation. We’ve actually use special conversation cards to help our own clients collaborate with family members. Here are just a few of the questions we have our clients address:
What is a legacy? Why is a legacy important? What’s our family’s legacy? How will that legacy get passed to the next generation? 50 years from now, what will our great grandchildren say about us? What can we do today to bless their lives?
#4 ENCOURAGE VALUES-BASED FINANCIAL STEWARDSHIP As they say, practice makes perfect. But too many families fail to create opportunities for multigenerational family members to actually hone their financial skills. We recommend our clients select a charity to donate to or volunteer with as a family. Have grandchildren who are wild about animals? Pick a pet charity and help them create a plan to contribute to it. This is a simple, but practical way to encourage the kind of values-based stewardship that creates lasting legacies.
#5 CREATE COLLABORATIVE INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES Set aside some money in an investment account that your family can manage together. We recommend choosing a brokerage firm where you can create a family investment committee to review the account and its holdings, research investment opportunities and present to the committee for a vote on what to buy, hold, or sell. Remember, lasting legacies are built one conversations at a time. How you choose to involve your family is up to you. Ultimately, it’s just important that you involve them. If you’d like some help managing those uncomfortable “money conversations” we can help.
Give us a call.
