Different stages of life mean different stages of financial advice. And while many advisors do a great job of educating clients on financial products and assets, there’s something to be said about the “non-financial” assets that clients can accumulate.
As an advisor, speaking with your clients about their desires can go a long way in building a financial mindset beyond dollar signs. We want to take it a step further. You can help your clients live a richer life and pass down a legacy in a way that transcends money.
So if you want to enrich a client’s life, and help them accumulate and pass down more than money, don’t stop reading!
3 Non-Financial Assets Clients Can Pass Down
1. Values and Vision
Your clients will come to you with their own set of values, and their own vision for their life. As the advisor, it’s important that you honor those, and help to weave them into your client’s financial picture.
And if you’re guiding clients toward a generational strategy, like family financing, you can encourage them to build a family mission statement. This kind of document allows families to document the values they want to uphold for generations to come. This addition to a financial legacy allows families to create more cohesion and a shared sense of purpose.
A family mission statement could include:
- A family motto
- Values such as being complaint-free or honesty at all times
- A list of words to omit, like “hate” or “I can’t”
Each family and client will be unique, and that’s the beauty of it. They can even include these values in a trust or will when doing estate planning.
2. Family Narratives
Most everyone has a family narrative that they’ve heard growing up, or perhaps one that they’ve told to their children. These stories have a powerful way of instilling the lessons that make it into the family motto. As such, they deserve to hold a place in the non-financial legacies we leave behind.
These narratives can be anything, really. They could describe the way your client persevered through their first job, or how their parents rallied their sports team. It could even be a story about how their grandparents met. The key to a good family narrative is that it has a lesson or a message embedded within.
These stories that we tell about our families, that our clients undoubtedly have in their own families, shape the people we become…and the people we raise. So go ahead and document the “family lore.” And encourage your clients to do so if they ever share theirs with you.
3. An “Instruction Manual”
Leaving a sizable inheritance can seem desirable for your clients in theory. Yet in practice, heirs are often ill-prepared for large inheritances. It’s important to help your clients think about the skills and tools they use to manage their assets now. This will help them pass on those skills and tools to their heirs.
Help your client get the family involved in financial discussions, or think about what they’ll need to teach. This can help everyone thrive.
Clients can start this process early by having their kids in on college financing discussions with you as the trusted advisor. Other education could include how to manage investment properties, or the importance of an asset like life insurance. You’ll have decades to work with clients and educate them. So it stands to reason that there’s benefit to clients passing down that education.
Other ways for clients to get started include weekly family meetings, annual family retreats, or involving children in financial discussions that affect them personally.
Help Clients Thrive
As a financial advisor, our clients will bring much more to the table than money. And as we help them build their legacy, it’s important to remind them of their human capital that they can pass along to their loved ones. Non-financial assets are just as important to legacy planning as the financial ones.
If you or your client is interested in the idea of generational legacy planning, be sure to check out the latest book published by the Prosperity Economics Movement: Perpetual Wealth by Kim Butler and Kate Phillips.
This book expands upon and adds to the ideas in this article, so that your clients can create a legacy beyond wealth for generations to come. And as you help them grow their financial assets, Truth Concepts will help you guide them to what works for them.