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At a glance:

• Quote:

• Picture

• What I’ve Learned

• Business Idea

What I Learned:

There’s an orthodontist who owns a beach-front vacation condo. 

His two boys are young adults. 

One’s a teacher at an elementary school and the other’s working a six-figure finance job in New York.  Both boys are smart, love their father, and have great memories of vacationing at the beach condo. The father ensures the titles and taxes will be taken care of upon his passing—and his estate transfers the beach condo equally to his boys many years later.

Storybook ending.

….Except the boys are married.

And the spouses don’t speak to each other. 

One spouse wants to renovate the bedroom. 

The other doesn’t. 

One son can’t afford the upkeep.  The other wants to use it in July. The teacher wants to rent it in peak season to make a little extra income. They find themselves arguing over the phone. One wants to sell it and split the sale earnings. The other is screaming that Dad would, “Kill you if we sold it!!” 

Now they don’t speak to each other.

The holidays are shot. 

The grandkids don’t see each other.

The family is torn apart.

Now ask—

Did the father do the right thing?

This week, I was inspired by a story from Paul Sullivan, who writes Wealth Matters Column for the New York Times.

Many of us intend to leave money behind for our kids and family.

And while passing on the wealth to your children is a sense of duty, Paul writes about avoiding this above scenario (which according to him, happens all the time) with three conversations you should have today:

1. Model gratitude and appreciation out loud for what you have.

 2. Walk through your children on why you made the financial decisions you did and why they are important to you.

3. Dive deep on the values you want to pass on—not just the assets themselves.

 When parents think they have everything planned for their children for estate planning, most often they think they have it covered with the material items.

What they often miss is the value behind each.

All of us will pass something along – big or small.

All with intentions we assume our family will understand. 

Don’t assume. 

Share with them today what you really want them to know:

It’s not about the money, it’s about your values.

“When money is gone, you’ve lost nothing. When health is gone, you’ve lost something. When values are gone, you’ve lost everything.”