If someone were to ask you if your wealth strategy was based on assumptions, you’d probably answer, “No way!” After all, the definition of assumption is this:
“To take for granted or without proof; suppose as a fact.”
It’d be crazy to approach your wealth and your legacy with such a haphazard approach—and yet I see it every day. I meet people who assume their heirs will understand their deepest feelings or know what they mean simply because they grew up in the same house.
For instance, you give to a nonprofit organization and perhaps have done it for years. You assume your family and heirs know what you’re doing and also grasp your reasons so they’ll carry on your giving after you’re gone.
But will they? It takes intentional and thoughtful planning as well as decisive actions that inspires your heirs to fulfill your wealth wishes and instructions. Your responsibility is to make certain they understand exactly what you want them to do and catch your vision of why you want to do it.
Let’s say you own several businesses and you assume your heirs know how to carry on what you started. “I established this before they were born,” you might say about your children. “They’ve grown up around my business.”
It’s true they’ve grown up around the business. It may be true that they understand the business thoroughly. Maybe not. Don’t assume. Be certain. Wealth is more than money. Don’t just plan for your future, live it right now.
Pass it on and share the insights like this that you find valuable.
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“Be careful to leave your sons well instructed rather than rich, for the hopes of the instructed are better than the wealth of the ignorant.”
Epictetus