In fact, such a legacy conversation can powerfully influence both your clients' lives and your practice. Enabling your clients to identify and share their values and vision for the future is a priceless service. In addition, by expanding your role in your clients' lives and your relationship with their families, you can potentially sustain your practice by maintaining the next generation as your clients.
It Starts with Their Story
Family leaders start the legacy conversation by sharing their story. For you as an advisor, asking clients about their history, values and life lessons is a critical part of the discussion. Not only can this type of intimate dialogue add critical narrative to their financial decisions, it can confirm that your current financial plan actually reflects their deepest concerns and desires for the next generation.
If you have never attempted to have this type of discussion, however, it can be daunting. The following exercise can help your client to get started in the process of clarifying his or her values and identifying critical issues he or she wants to discuss with the next generation.
Ask the client to take a moment to reflect on the following:
- Which three people are most important to you? Why?
- What are your top five values?
- What accomplishment are you most proud of? Why?
- What are three words that you would like to have said about you?
- What worries you the most about the future for yourself and your children?
- What do you want your children and future generations to know about you, your values, lessons learned and life experiences?
Directing the Process
Once your clients have answered these questions and you have a clearer picture of what they want to impart to the next generation, the next step is to guide them formally through the process of writing an ethical will.
An ethical will is a document that will formally express their thoughts and feelings to their loved ones. Legal and financial papers address "what I want my loved ones to have." An ethical will addresses "what I want my loved ones to know." The ultimate goal is to communicate through a letter or another medium the clients' innermost thoughts.
Here are some specific topics an ethical will may cover:
- What I want my loved ones to know about me.
- How I became who I am.
- The main influences in my life.
- The important lessons learned during my life.
- People and causes for which I feel a sense of responsibility.
- Mistakes I hope my children will avoid.
- My definition of true success.
- My hopes for my loved ones' future in terms of family unity, ethical conduct, charity or business relationships.Favorite sayings or stories.
- Expressions of gratitude or hope.
(A great reference on writing an ethical will can be found at www.yourethicalwill.com.)
After this process is completed, the next step is for the advisor to facilitate a family meeting where the client can share his or her ethical will. This gathering could also provide an opportunity for the advisor to establish a relationship with the next generation.
Putting a Plan in Practice
|While guiding your clients to write an ethical will is a powerful tool for strengthening your relationship with both them and their families, it can also be labor intensive. Therefore, you need to determine how this instrument would fit into your business in a cost-effective manner.
Here are some questions you might ask before incorporating ethical wills into your practice:
- What is your goal for using this tool?
- How do you envision that it will fit effectively into the current policies and procedures in your practice?
- Who is the ideal client who would benefit from using this tool?
- What is his or her profile (in terms of factors such as age, marital status, children and/or grandchildren, assets)?
- How will you introduce the concept to the client?
- Who on your team will work with clients in completing the ethical will process and hold them accountable?
