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Tag Archives: legacy planning

Passing Along Values

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How to prevent

We all want what’s best for our children. But we may have different ideas of what that actually means.

For a number of wealthy Baby Boomers, passing along their values and life lessons has become more important than leaving a large inheritance. 

The most famous of these is Warren Buffett. The Omaha billionaire has been quoted as saying, “a very rich person should leave his kids enough to do anything but not enough to do nothing.”  That’s where values and life lessons come in.

A number of wealthy Baby Boomers are first-generation wealthy.  According to a U.S. Trust Wealth and Worth survey, many feel that their children should earn their own money as they did.  

In addition, this generation was an activist generation and is interested in leaving a philanthropic legacy. That means they are diverting funds from what they might normally leave to their children into funding a charity or worthy cause. 

They are also spending their money. They are using retirement as a catalyst for redefining their lives. They are traveling more, starting new businesses or pursuing dreams and goals they put off until now. 

And they are saving money toward future needs, such as medical expenses and care. They don’t want to be a burden to their families but they are living longer, which means they’re probably going to have greater health needs later on.

However, that’s not to say that they aren’t concerned about leaving a financial legacy to their children. It just may not be as large as the children expect. 

What they really hope to leave are the values and life lessons that helped them succeed and which they believe will help this next generation face the difficult times that are almost sure to come during any lifetime. 

We can all learn from how the Baby Boomers are redefining “legacy.”

One of the main priorities for any legacy should be to build a strong work ethic. That means teaching a child about dependability, respect for others and their opinions, dedication, determination and accountability. These are all qualities that can have invaluable benefits throughout a person’s lifetime.

There are also other values that shouldn’t be overlooked when thinking about your legacy. Who you are as a family, and what you stand for are important life lessons to be passed down the generations. 

How did you build what you built, whether it was a career, a business, a home, or a foundation of love and family? What are your priorities in life?  What are some of the traditions and stories that were passed down to you that you can now pass down to your children? 

There is another gift you can give your children: help them learn how to manage money. The lessons can start at a young age using an allowance to demonstrate the benefits of saving, planning and even making mistakes such as wasting money. These financial lessons learned when young will follow a child into adulthood and help them be better managers of their own finances and any inheritance that might come to them.

The financial lessons can also be taught to older or adult children.  You may already be subsidizing them by helping out with college tuition or living expenses. But one of the best gifts you can give is to not only provide high levels of love but also set limits. That may mean not jumping in and bailing them out each time they need financial help. Be there to support and advise them but let them work out a solution, experience the consequences of their decisions and let them learn from their mistakes.

Money inherited without the values and financial responsibility needed to manage it is in grave danger of being lost or squandered. Talk to your children. Let them know what your values are. Help them learn financial responsibility. And make sure you have plans in place to leave a legacy that will be meaningful to you, your children and perhaps even the next few generations to come. 

If you’re not sure how to organize your thoughts or how to protect your legacy, LegacyShieldSM may be able to help. Check the information here at LegacyShield.com to get started.

This entry was posted in blended families, inheritance, legacy planning, life stories and tagged estate planning, inheritance, legacy planning, retirement on April 21, 2016 by Michael Babikian.

Leaving a Personal Legacy for Those You Love

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Playing and Paying it Forward 

Last year around this time, LinkedIn created “If I Were 22” and asked around 80 of its Influencers to share advice to their younger selves. As I wrote in my blog post at the time, the responses were engaging and thought provoking.

It certainly started me thinking. But instead of advice I would give myself if I were 22, I began to think about the advice I’d like to pass on to my children and my as-yet-unborn grandchildren.

My father died young and I didn’t have the advantage of knowing his thoughts or his values. It made me more aware of my role in my children’s lives. I make it a point to share some of my values and family traditions with them as often as I can. I also pay attention to the opportunities for engagement to share my life lessons and insights as they grow and face new challenges and new situations.

But what if I were no longer around? Would they wonder, as I did, if I were proud of them or if I would have had some advice that could have helped them when they needed it?

These are usually questions that come up when someone has been diagnosed with a terminal illness or dementia. There have been movies on this subject; one that I remember is the 1993 film “My Life” starring Michael Keaton. There are also a number of books that have been written about what kind of legacy someone would want to leave; “The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow is one of them.

I don’t believe you should wait for a traumatic event. And you don’t have to be a professional cinematographer or author either. All you need is a desire to leave a personal legacy for those you love.

The type of message or the extent of the messages is up to you. It can be as simple as writing a note to say how much you love them. Or you can create a journal of your life, your work and travels, important dates or shared events. You could also leave special wishes for future birthdays, graduations, weddings and anniversaries. Thanks to technology, you can create your own video or podcast. Or you can simply leave your written messages in an online safe deposit box.

All of us at LegacyShieldSM felt so strongly about this idea, we worked with a team of PhDs who are experts in storytelling to create a special section called MyLifeStories. It helps you record and archive special memories and moments in your life, your life lessons, the things you’ve learned, and even your values and family traditions. There are other services available that can help you but I believe that our service is the most comprehensive and the easiest to use.

We’re all going to leave a digital legacy whether we like it or not. Any online accounts or information about you that’s been collected online will continue to exist long after you’re gone. I would like to leave something more personal and in my own words for the people in my life to remember me by.  Perhaps you do, too.

This entry was posted in legacy planning, MyLifeStories and tagged legacy planning, life stories on February 21, 2016 by lsblog.

About the Authors

Michael Babikian

President & Chief Executive Officer

An established innovator in the field of legacy planning, he combined tech solutions, social media, and an understanding of the complexities of legacy planning to help co-found and pioneer the easy to use, cloud based system that LegacyShieldSM is today.


About the Authors

Daniel Pierson

Founder & Chairman

Is a driven and socially conscious entrepreneur. His track record of successful businesses ventures demonstrates his dedication and a customer-focused philosophy.


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