On this episode of Saving the American Dream, we’re talking about the importance of legacy planning and what you need to be focused on to make your plan a success.

It’s best to have an estate planning attorney help you with your estate plan, but it’s just as important for your financial advisor to be part of that conversation. At our office, we’d prefer to play as large of a role in that as possible.

Let’s say you own a family business and have picked out your successor for when you retire. It’s one thing to pick someone to succeed you. It’s an entirely different thing to make sure that person can run the business successfully over the long run.

If you’re going to turn over your business to your child, for example, what are you doing to make sure they’re prepared to run it?

Equalization is another conversation that needs to be had with that. If one child is going to run the business and your other children aren’t, what are they going to be receiving in the future? You need to know that answer so Thanksgiving and Christmas are not awkward.

More often than not, the level of communication in these situations isn’t necessarily where it should be.

In today’s episode, we also share:

• How clients view their legacy
• What mistakes people make with legacy planning
• Interesting legacy plans we have seen

Listen to the full podcast or use the timestamps below to jump to a specific section.

Navigating the Show

[1:21] – Inflation

[4:29] – Financial advisors

[6:49] – Generational wealth

[8:56] – Legacy

[11:31] – Mistakes

[13:52] – Interesting plans

[15:22] – Mailbag: Generational wealth

[18:07] – Mailbag: Investing

[19:40] – Mailbag: Saving income

“I think a lot of people don’t think of legacy planning as financial planning.”

– Michael Schulte