document in conjunction with their financial plan
By Kristan Wojnar and Susan Turnbull
June 21, 2011
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Kristan Wojnar
Want to broaden the conversation with your wealthy female clients? Introduce them to an idea that will strike them as beautiful, sensible and meaningful – creating a personal legacy document.
Ask a woman to define her “wealth,” and chances are she will mention not only her tangible assets, but also the intangible assets that give her life meaning, purpose and joy: her core values, her history, her relationships, her commitments.
Susan Turnbull
If you ask her how she would like to be remembered and what she wants her legacy to be, the answer will nearly always focus on those intangibles and on the hope that her money will have a positive impact on future generations. This question matters especially to high net worth women, who will know too many examples of ruinous consequences when great wealth has been bestowed on heirs without a set of healthy values.
By creating a personal legacy document, you are demonstrating to your high net worth female clients that you recognize the various dimensions of their wealth and respect their vision for a legacy that will live beyond their financial assets.
Without such a document, you miss out on an opportunity to develop a richer relationship with those clients, and they may seek another advisor who understands all their priorities. Of course, this document may appeal to male investors as well, but in our experience women react especially well to this idea.
What is a personal legacy document?
A personal legacy document is an intimate message to heirs and successors, created to pass on thoughts, feelings, information, blessings, stories, and reflection – or put another way, what a person wants to make sure their loved ones know, in contrast to what they will receive financially from an estate. Though not legally binding, a personal legacy document fills in the “missing piece” of most estate plans, serving as the vehicle for personal voice to give context to the barren language of legal documents. It aims for intergenerational communication that leaves no emotional or informational loose ends.
While traditionally a letter, a personal legacy message can also take the form of an audio or videotape. Whatever its medium, a personal legacy document can be revised as often as necessary and shared at any time with loved ones, though it ultimately seeks to be helpful to its audience after the death of its author.
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