Inter-generation Wealth Transfer
Legacy planning is usually associated with large transfers of wealth. I humbly suggest that we re-look legacy planning as the transfer of values and aspirations. Wealth at the end of the day is a vehicle to transfer such values and aspirations. What are some things that are important to us? What kind of values will we want to pass to the next generation? What are some important themes that should endure? How do we promote family harmony? What are the necessary resources to enable that?
A person does not need immense wealth to make donations to charitable causes. Likewise, we do not need immense wealth to start thinking in our family’s interest. It is usually more empowering to look into estate and legacy planning in our productive years than to do so when one has fallen ill or is no longer in a position to exercise judgement.
We usually have more resources than we think, and we can do more than we think. This aspect of financial planning will become increasingly important over the next few decades. Consider the increasingly wealthy Singapore middle class: Your house, your investments, your assets will be transferred to a less populous younger generation. More wealth will change hands than in previous decades, with the wealth transferred into fewer hands. How we empower the next generation into good stewards of resources depends on how we can be good stewards of our resources today.
If empowering the next generation to become good stewards of resources with the right values is important to you, we should have a conversation.