After a lifetime of hard work and earning, it all comes down to the legacy you are leaving behind. The real question is, how many generations will your wealth survive?
Build something that outlives you!
Passing family wealth from generation to generation is a harder task than many of us expect, but it can be done. At Snow Financial Group, we pay particular attention to the smallest details necessary to help preserve a family’s legacy. If your wealth is managed correctly, it should continue to increase overtime and not deteriorate over time!
The Problem
As many as 90% of wealthy families lose their wealth within three generations, largely due to poor interpersonal dynamics. The most common ways we fail to pass wealth from one generation to another begin with: a lack of meaningful communication, trust, or lack of shared vision.
At Snow Financial Group we believe that it’s not all about money or transferring the wealth once it’s accumulated. It’s about hard work, good habits, and core values over a long period. You must be disciplined!
5 Ways we lose Wealth From Generation To Generation
1. Lack of Meaningful Communication it’s easy to get swept up in money talk. Engaging in structured, productive dialogue about the components of a lasting family legacy, however, requires more planning and preparation than most people expect. At Snow Financial Group, we encourage conversations about the intangible values of the family legacy.
2. Lack of Shared Vision
Unless you establish a shared vision for your wealth, it’s likely each family member will spend the money according to his or her plan; yet, that kind of aimless spending could lead to the deterioration of family legacy and wealth over time. At Snow Financial Group, we help each family member understand the purpose of his or her wealth, so you can arrive at these decisions as a family — and protect them together.
3. Disregard for Intangible Wealth Assets
Most families fail to focus on the intangible assets — such as philanthropy, higher education, community involvement, a perspective of gratitude, and impactful life experiences — because you can’t easily measure the contribution of these assets with numbers. At Snow Financial Group, these intangible assets are at the center of our family legacy planning. When the conversation becomes too focused on wealth, we bring everyone back to the meaning behind the money.
4. Erosion of Trust
When there’s wealth to be shared, there’s often trust to be lost. Communication and transparency are crucial in creating the kind of trust that binds a family together — rather than the secrecy that tears a family apart. While that doesn’t mean you need to disclose everything immediately, these conversations help family members feel like they can trust your plan for the future, so they are much more likely to honor it.
5. Attitude of Entitlement Over Gratitude
When you’ve spent a lifetime generously providing for your family, that level of comfort can also come hand-in-hand with a decrease in productivity and motivation in the next generation. If you pass on your work ethic alongside your wealth, however, you are much more likely to ensure the survival of that wealth.
Start Protecting Your Family Legacy: If you’re struggling with communication, trust, and the transfer of values, the Snow Financial Group team can help you start a new dialogue and establish a framework that protects these powerful conversations for generations to come. Contact us Today! Snowgroupllc.com (985) 792-5232