Are You Confident Your Family’s Prepared?
Are you confident that your children and grandchildren are prepared to manage, protect and grow the inheritances they will receive?
If your answer is no, would you like to prepare them and have that confidence?
These are two questions we ask when working with the family champions to help them create an action plan for their desired outcomes for their family.
And if the answers are no and yes, respectively the appropriate next question might be “What would give you that confidence?” The thoughtful answers to this question allow us to begin with the end in mind. Sometimes this isn’t an easy question to answer. This isn’t a typical question that has been asked of them before. So, another way to discover answers to the question is to have them “imagine and describe what the individuals would be demonstrating when you have that confidence.”
Keep in mind when we say “inheritance” we are talking about the wealth of the family, not only financial. This includes the holistic view of wealth including human, intellectual, social, and legacy. (everything from family reputation in community to collective wisdom from education, life lessons to secret family recipes and family stories.)
In my book Unprepared: Heirs at Risk, we called the list of items “preparedness indicators.” In chapter 6, an example is provided where we talk about preparing heirs to be “healthy, contributing adults” and the attributes, skills, traits that are being sought. Once the family champions have defined these preparedness indicators our next step is to determine how this list can be learned, taught, caught or obtained and how to measure them.
Examples of some preparedness indicators family champions have identified:
Alignment with core family values
Conscious (learned) contentment accompanied by a drive to grow and improve
Awareness of family resources and an increasing passion to make a positive impact
Strong work ethic without sacrificing higher priorities
Good decision-making process
Resilience
Teamwork and collaboration
Leadership skills
Effective Communicator
Compassion
Knowledge of the family story and a desire to add to it
Knowing these criteria – desired attributes and skills - and how we are going to measure progress towards them allows us to build an action plan to help the children and family along this journey. All learning, growing, and developing skills together.
Will any of us ever be ready for every situation life throws at us? No, but identifying preparedness indicators that will successfully help them navigate the road of life and then providing opportunities for them to enhance those skills will create a strong foundation for enduring the unexpected. It will also provide the confidence the family champions are seeking.
