Welcome to the Creating Legacies Blog!
This blog is about living with the end in mind. It is about legal planning (trusts, estates, wills, living trusts, powers of attorney, etc.) and protecting your assets and passing on your assets to future generations. Yet, it is about so much more than material wealth!
It is about your spiritual wealth, your values, stories, experiences, life lessons all of the intangible wealth you possess!
It is about LEGACY… and Creating Legacies That Last!
So welcome! I look forward to connecting with you and please feel free to comment on our posts!
Here is my first legacy thought…
Here is a fact of life that we often don’t think about… someday we will all die. It is inevitable. Our time on this earth is limited.
“Yes,” you may say, “I know.”
We know but we don’t think about it regularly. We don’t think about it regularly not because we do not care about what will happen to our children, grandchildren, family, spouse, or loved ones after we die. We don’t think about it because we are too busy with the business of life! Life is busy (especially if you are like me and you are a parent of minor children and working).
So, we don’t think about the unexpected happening to us because we are busy and besides, isn’t that a bit morbid?
Or maybe you don’t think about it because you assume that nothing will ever happen to you.
Regardless of the reason, because we don’t think about the end of our life, we don’t do anything about it either. We go on living as if we will live forever on this earth and we don’t plan and we don’t prepare for the day when our life will end.
Or, maybe you have planned for the future and for life contingencies. If so, I congratulate you and you can now pat yourself on the back. And if you have planned, then, the next step is to periodically review your plan and make sure that it is up-to-date and still works. Because life changes. Your assets change. Your family changes, the law changes. Things change and so we must make sure your plan is regularly reviewed.
For the rest of us who may have put off planning, it’s important that we take the time to think about the fact that one day we may not be here anymore, because that day could be tomorrow! It could be tomorrow or it could be in 10, 20, 30, 40, or even 50 years. By the Grace of God… No one knows the day or time except the man upstairs. So we must prepare now and not take our tomorrows for granted.
Now for the story about my dad…
My dad passed away at the age of 66. By today’s standards, that is not that old. But, while he had paid thousands of dollars for an estate plan, when his life on this earth ended his plan didn’t work as I’m sure he hoped it would . It had problems because while his estate was not that large, his lawyer had not transferred all of his assets to his trust. In addition, his desires changed and instead of contacting his lawyer to update his trust and will, he amended it himself! The problem is that the amendments made the documents unclear. Needless to say, I was left with a mess.
My beloved father with me and my husband and our two youngest boys…
But there was so much more to my Dad and his Legacy than his estate. The true value of my dad’s life was his spiritual, emotional, psychological, familial legacy. My dad wanted to leave a legacy and he did! But I wish that instead of just being imprinted upon my heart and my memory, that my Dad had left more concrete things about his Legacy. Not for me but for my children! My youngest child was 2 1/2 when my dad died. So really, while he sees pictures of himself with Grandpa, he doesn’t really remember him. How I would love for my three boys to be able to learn from the incredible wisdom and life lessons that Grandpa could share.
My dad was a spiritual leader in our family. He was a man of great faith and great generosity. How I long to have my boys learn from a male role model like that.
So, leaving a legacy is a blog about California trusts and estates, but in addition, it is a blog about so much more. It is one thing to plan your estate (and you should, we will discuss this in the next post), but it is another thing to leave a legacy.
A legacy is all about the investments that you make during your life into people and projects. A legacy is about far more than money. It is about sharing your wisdom, your values, your life lessons, your love, and your vision with your loved ones.
We have a process at KR Hess Law that is uniquely designed to assist you to create video, audio recordings, and written letters to loved ones to record your legacy. We would love to assist you in this process. Someday your loved ones will treasure this much more than any material asset you leave. Trust me. Money comes and goes, but legacies last forever.
Leave Your Legacy and live a life that matters,
Kristina