March Video News
From the desk of San Diego Will and Trust Attorney, Kristina R. Hess
Greetings Everyone!
Happy Spring.
I hope you are enjoying the amazing San Diego weather. If you missed our child guardianship planning and trust workshop last Thursday, March 26th where I shared “7 Easy Steps You Must Take to Protect Your Children and Your Assets” in this crazy world, join our newsletter at www.krhess.com to see when our next workshop will be.
There was gridlock traffic that Thursday, so thanks to the families who made it out to the event!
Here is the video version of my newsletter.
My legacy thought this month is Empowering the Generations. Because the truth is, if your next generation does not succeed at inheritance, you may have to ask yourself what is it all for? We want future generations to grow beyond our ceiling, to stand on our shoulders and the foundation we have laid, to rise to new heights that would not be possible without this generation’s foundation….
Empowering the Generations
My legacy thought this month is about empowering the generations. Your children and maybe even your grandchildren and the generations to come.
I have been speaking to you a lot about the statistics around wealth transfers and how wealth is involuntarily lost in over 70% of cases in successive generations. One key to success at transitioning wealth is to empower the next generation. Empowering the next generation is about looking to the next generation and seeing if they are prepared to inherit wealth. Are they prepared not only to manage the wealth well, but also to grow the wealth and really steward what will be given to them?
There are many aspects to empowering the generations but in this short article I am only touching briefly on two: Mindset and Communication.
Research shows that by the early teenage years children have already developed their mindset (attitudes and belief) around money. Our children see what we do, how we behave, how we spend our money, our beliefs and attitudes about money and internalize this.
The truth is that our mindset around wealth and money and our values are CAUGHT by our children much more than they are TAUGHT.
Whether you know it or not, whether you are intentional about it or not, you are transferring a wealth mindset to your children. Are you communicating a mindset of abundance or lack? Are you communicating a mindset of stewardship? Are you communicating a mindset of diligence and hard work and creative inspiration?
The second aspect of empowering the generations I want to discuss is communication.
Have you communicated to your children about your Trust, your estate plan, your wealth, any vision or purpose for the family wealth, or any concepts about legacy?
Communication is critical to empower the generations to succeed at wealth transfers. Gone are the days where someone passes away and everyone gathers in the attorney’s office for the “reading of the will” where big surprises and plans were unfolded. Warren Buffet talks about how he openly communicates with his children about his wealth plan and also how all of his children are involved in his charitable giving and the charitable foundation.
It really is a best practice to communicate openly with your children regarding your plan, your wishes, and then, you may want to go even further and be intentional about building a legacy.
Today, I am encouraging you to think about how you are empowering the next generation to succeed. 1) What have they caught from you about wealth mindset? and 2) How have you communicated with them about your family wealth?
If you have not done any of these things, or would like to do more, we are launching a Legacy Building Success System where we will work with a small number of families, hand picked who want to be intentional about creating a powerful, enduring legacy.
If you think this might be you, please email me directly or call the office.
Create Legacies Today!