One of the best acts you can take in providing for your children is to provide your details—in an organized, collected format, which we call the “Personal Wealth Organizer.” Read on to learn what to include and why you should prioritize creating one.
Most families want to pass on wealth, values, and financial know-how. In order to successfully do so, they must possess one foundational value: family stewardship. Family stewards are motivated by a healthy obligation to care for future generations. They view their money not as a personal possession, but as a trust; they understand that their role is to maintain it, grow it, and pass it on to others.
A achieving a goal like passing on your wealth, values, and financial knowledge to your kids requires a game plan. Building and retaining your family wealth takes preparation, thoughtfulness, and communication. You need to create shared ownership of your family’s financial goals, and you all need to buy into the same strategies. In short, you need to have a Family Vision.
One day, our children Anna and Will marched up with a jar of coins and announced, “We’re saving for a dirt bike.” But then Anna said something that made our jaws drop even further. “We’re doing this together, but next year, I need to start saving up my own money for college.” That’s what every parent wants, isn’t it—moments that indicate our children are internalizing solid financial values? If you want to feel optimism about passing on your wealth, values, and financial smarts to your children, here are eight steps you can take to undertake that process.
Listen to Author Hours podcast with Drew Applebaum. In their new book, Pass It On, Roger and Lori Gervais show you how to transfer not just your wealth but also the family values that will enable future generations to preserve and grow what you’ve built. Mixing financial knowledge with client stories and nuggets of wisdom, Roger and Lori will set you up for success as the steward of your family’s wealth and give you the peace of mind that your children are prepared to inherit that responsibility.
