I’m incredibly proud of my children. Watching them grow has truly been exciting, tiring, humbling, and a true blessing. I’m confident that if something were to happen to me, they would continue on a path to success, happiness, and fulfillment in life—and part of that confidence comes from knowing that we’ve taken, and continue to take, time as a family to discuss what it means to leave a financial legacy.
As for how to approach the topic of wealth with your children, Beth Mayfield and Caroline McKay of CIBC Private Wealth Management co-wrote an article released on February 8, 2022, that identifies three guiding principles:
1. Provide age-appropriate transparency.
2. Create a learning environment.
3. Encourage opportunities for involvement.
I like these guiding principles because they encourage us to avoid lecturing our family and instead involve them more directly in a personalized discussion of generational wealth. But we can also keep other issues in mind when specifically discussing generational wealth.
You have many ways to make your wishes known, but a direct approach is still important.
I delegate when I must, but when it comes to addressing our team here at U.S. Money Reserve, I never shy away from speaking to them directly. I think the same should go for parents speaking to their children or grandchildren about generational wealth.
Through wills, trusts, and other arrangements or documents, it’s possible to establish how you would like your financial legacy handled by future generations. Taking this step is important because it allows you to specifically spell out the finer details of your wishes. An estate attorney may be a great option to help guide you through this process.
Building a financial legacy is a unique process that may be different for everyone. If you would like input from your family before making your plans, it may be a good idea to have a discussion before seeking an estate attorney or drafting a will. That way, you can ensure everyone is on the same page when it comes to your wishes, and their input may be valuable in deciding what to do. On the other hand, you may wish to make decisions on your own and discuss them with family afterward. In either case, I believe it’s important to have a conversation directly with your heirs spelling out exactly what you would like done with your financial legacy and what your hopes are for that generational wealth moving forward.
In my opinion, sooner is always better than later when it comes to discussing generational wealth.
The truth is that the world is full of unknowns. That’s why I always encourage doing research and taking action whenever an opportunity presents itself. This also applies to speaking to your family about the legacy you hope to leave behind. When the future is unknown, why wait to have what may be an incredibly important conversation with your family?
Keeping Mayfield and McKay’s suggestion in mind regarding age-appropriate transparency, you can sit down and discuss what might happen in the future and the steps you’ve taken to ensure that your family has some level of financial protection.
But having this conversation sooner rather than later doesn’t mean that it must happen all at once. You can also take things slowly and start by discussing some of the assets in your portfolio. If, for example, you like to keep gold as a form of generational wealth, you can discuss what drew you to the precious metal in the first place, how much of it you hold in your portfolio, and what you hope your family will do with that gold once you pass. With a positive approach, these conversations can be kept light and informational, rather than serious and depressing.
Search online for helpful resources to guide your conversations.
The internet is full of helpful guides that may help you experience a helpful and engaging conversation about generational wealth with your family. You may wish to find a few of these guides, then mix and match to find something that you think would work well for your loved ones.
If precious metals make up any part of your financial legacy, you may also wish to explore our Resource Library or YouTube page for interesting information regarding gold, silver, platinum, and palladium.
Discussing what may happen to us later in life can be difficult, but I believe that any chance to educate future generations is an opportunity worth seizing—and you might be surprised at the peace of mind you enjoy once your wishes are down on paper and you’ve discussed them with your family.
To learn more about the benefits of diversifying with precious metals, CLICK HERE to request a FREE copy of our Gold Information Kit.
