Family Legacy Planning
Achieving multi-generational unity and prosperity comes about because of preparation and intentional action. While traditional financial and estate planning focus upon the building and transfer of wealth, “Heritage Planning” provides the family with training, tools and mentoring that have been proven to help families preserve and grow family wealth for generations to come.
Heritage Statement
Through the family’s charitable foundation, philanthropic resources are used to create an environment in which the family can prosper and thrive together. Significance is initially given to the development of the family vision, which is expressed and memorialized as the family’s Heritage Statement. This Statement sets forth the values, stories, history, life lessons, experiences, hopes and dreams of the generation who creates it, and serves as a ‘pre-inheritance’ resource and guide for the next generation. It becomes the source document for the inspiration, direction, planning and inter-family education that will help strengthen the family and equip the next generation to be responsible stewards of the family wealth.
Training & Mentoring
With a focus on process rather than on performance, Heritage Planning trains & mentors each generation. Within the context of the family’s philanthropy, family members learn about the power and impact of wealth and the unique personal values which influence the family member’s decision making. When done well, this process often proves successful in counteracting materialism and can address complacency by awakening personalized ambitions to make a meaningful difference in the local community, or world.
In the area of business and finance, the charitable resources can also be used to address sound investment principles, governance, decision-making and sustainable spending. The family may choose to invest the Foundation’s wealth into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate social and environmental impact alongside a financial return (commonly referred to as “Impact Investing”). Microfinance loans, which provide small-business owners in emerging nations with startup or expansion capital, is one such example.
Driven by the unique and personal interests of each family member, the Foundation may be used to teach about economic development, health issues, the arts, or other fields of interest and inspiration. Commonly, through their participation in this process, family members often grow closer in their relationship with each other as they share and learn about their often privately held personal interests.
Heritage Planning compliments the formal structures put in place for the governance of the family’s charitable Foundation. When intentionally addressed, the process by which a family communicates, makes decisions as a group, and resolve conflicts, are put into practice. The way the meetings are structured and operated will eventually create healthy family norms while also encouraging family unity.
Pricing
Because each family is different, there is not a rigid, one-size-fits-all path. Thus, the Heritage Planning process is customized to reflect each family’s needs and unique circumstances.
Call Us: (719) 749-1343
For additional information, see www.StewardshipCounsel.org (currently finishing construction) or contact Steve Marken (Founding President) at (719) 749-1343 or SteveM@StewardshipCounsel.org.