Align your goods to your values
3 min read
As we’ve emphasized throughout this course, your values are the compass that guide you through your decisions.
Think back to what you value. However you distribute your goods in death should reflect those values you had in your life:
- If family’s important, what goods are going to your family?
- If education, is there money going to your alma mater or an educational fund you believe in?
- If the environment, have you listed a non-profit that cares for the environment as a beneficiary?
Your estate decisions also reveal what you value to your heirs. Giving money to a charity speaks loudly. So does excluding a potential heir. If a historian stumbled across your will and had no other context, would you be communicating the message you intended?
From Tom
I once had a client, Amir, who had come to this country from India as a young immigrant. His American story began working in the back of a kitchen washing dishes. He worked his way up, saved his money, and eventually created a successful business. By the time he had come to meet with me, retired and in his 70s, he had children, grandchildren, and multiple businesses that he had built up, sold, and passed on for his children to run.
Hard work, entrepreneurship, and building one’s own future coursed through his blood. He had modeled the behavior he wanted to pass on to his children and hoped that his grandchildren would carry on this family trait of working hard and diligently. When he came to share this with me, we began to have discussions around how he could make his goods work towards passing on these values, ensuring that not just his wealth of resources, but his wealth of knowledge could be passed on. Based on his circumstances, we created a trust that would protect the assets and specifically provide money in the form of gifts and loans to support business ventures that his grandchildren may have in the future. He hated the idea of anyone in his family depending on a paycheck from someone else. He wanted his money to incentivize his grandkids to be their own bosses and create their own companies.
Now, Amir’s vision and values may be different from your own. But you should want to make your assets work towards instilling your own values. Perhaps you want to show your children the importance of giving to the church. Have you provided for your church in your will? Or perhaps you believe in the transformative power of a university education due to your own experiences in college. Have you provided for your alma mater or given to an educational fund? What we give to in our death not only provides the asset, but it also communicates to your loved ones your priorities and values.