Many financially successful, high net worth individuals engage an advisor to help answer important questions around protecting and transferring their wealth to their children and future generations. But it's also important to prepare the family for the money, not just the money for the family.
In thinking about preparing their children for the money they will inherit, wealthy parents often ask the same questions:
While assigning a dollar value to this question may be impossible, families who define their wealth and make decisions about it can improve the chances that their financial legacy will be preserved.
Parents worry that if they tell their children too early, they risk creating a sense of entitlement. But waiting too long may mean missing a chance to prepare the children for the responsibility that comes with their inheritance.
Many wealthy parents fear that their children won't inherit their values along with their money, and worry that the great wealth they've built will be squandered quickly once it's passed on.
1 Linda A. Jacobsen and Mark Mather, “U.S. Economic and Social Trends Since 2000," Population Bulletin 65, no. 1 (2010).
2 According to studies by Paul Schervish, director of the Center on Wealth and Philanthropy at Boston College.
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