This will be the last and final part on Heritage Planning. Last week we covered the first 6 of the 12 Elements of Preserving Family Wealth. I would invite you to go back and read the first 6 elements if you missed last week. Today I will cover elements 7-12.
LAST 6 OF THE 12 ELEMENTS OF PRESERVING FAMILY WEALTH
Element #7 Inspire individual family members to participate for their own reasons
Each family member must be prepared to receive the emotional as well as the financial inheritance. Encourage your family to become involved in the Heritage Planning process in their own way. Does your family truly value each individual’s voice? Be sure to include everybody in decisions and new developments.
THESE MAY BE WORTH IT IF ENOUGH MONEY IS AT STAKE TO PARTICIPATE:
Element #8 Train and mentor each generation
Incorporate things like philanthropy, business skills, and financial wisdom into preparing your family for Heritage Planning. Make clear what causes are important to the family. Train and mentor each generation so they can be prepared for Heritage Planning through proper business skills and Biblical wealth management. Try a pre-inheritance experience, giving small sums of real money in reference to the parable of the talents.
Element #9 Facilitate the genuine transfer of leadership from generation to generation
To instill a real sense of leadership, make it intentional, not an accident that just happens. Raise up the leaders in your family, don’t make someone simply rise up out of necessity. Remember their are different kinds of leaders. Some are family leaders, some are business leaders. Each generation needs a leader of the family and another of the business.
Element #10 Require true collaboration between your professional advisers
Choose advisers that work together and communicate daily. Separating your finances between several advisers is not collaboration. When they are not meeting regularly and working together, they cannot successfully reach your goals. Successful Heritage Planning needs a team of people who know how to work together.
Element #11 Create mechanisms for ongoing family governance
Disputes don’t kill families but the inability to manage conflict does. Create structures and processes by forming a family constitution, rules or guidelines. By doing this, everyone will be on the same page and have the ultimate goal in mind. Pre-inheritance experiences can help prepare for emotional and financial inheritance.
Element #12 Do it now
Successful families take action, the earlier you begin Heritage Planning, the better. Proactively address all the elements of Heritage Planning as soon as possible. You can go forth with the willing members now, the entire family does not have to be on board at launch, many will join later.
Next week, I will cover the 8th principle in my series on Biblical Wealth Management, Having a Risk Management Plan.
