Heritage Planning, Part 2

Cameron Thronton (Navigator Legacy Partners) recently published his column entitled, Heritage Planning, Pt. 2: The Future of Your Client’s Families, AdvisorOne, Dec. 5, 2011. This column is a follow-up to Thornton’s November 17th column entitled, Heritage Planning, Pt. 1: The 3rd Element of Successful Multi-Generational Planning, AdvisorOne. An excerpt from Thronton’s follow-up column is below:

In my first column in this series, I discussed the three elements of successful multi-generational planning: Financial Planning, which prepares and protects your assets during your lifetime; Estate Planning, which prepares your assets for your family; and Heritage Planning, which prepares your family to receive their inheritances.

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In 2005, The Heritage Institute (THI), based in Portland, Ore,, approached me. THI had developed a comprehensive solution that went beyond what I had been working on and specifically targeted outcomes of family disharmony and affluenza, or a dysfunctional relationship with money or the pursuit of money. THI had the experience of working through these issues with thousands of families from across the country.

The basic principle at work in defining the common solution harkens back to something else I mentioned in my first column, which can be found in the differences between financial and emotional inheritances: your legacy is defined by what you value, not by the valuables you have amassed. It is the values, work ethic, traditions, faith, hopes and dreams that contributed to the creation of your financial well being that matter above and beyond the assets you have accumulated. Further, if you do not intentionally preserve the latter, those who follow you will most likely lose the former. Thus, heritage planning forms a platform that provides reliability, strength, and stability that benefits a family in the present, and in the generations to come. 

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (WealthCounsel) for bringing this article to my attention.