If you work hard to build a successful business, create a strong investment portfolio and accumulate valuable assets, you want to make sure your hard work is appreciated and protected. Protecting your legacy through multi-generational estate planning can provide a home, education or medical care for your children and grandchildren. Generational wealth — also called family wealth or multi-generational wealth or legacy wealth — is wealth that is passed down from one generation to another. Over the next 30 years, experts expect an “inheritance boom” where $36 trillion will pass from one generation to another – much of it accumulated by seniors and baby boomers who carefully saved and invested money over their lifetime, and now are planning to pass that money on to future generations.
If you own a home, a business, stocks and bonds or other assets you may have generational wealth to protect.
• Do you want to pay for your grandchildren’s college education?
• Is there a family vacation home you want your children to enjoy after you are gone?
• Do you have family members you want to protect from inheriting too much money, too quickly?
• Are there future, unborn family members you want to include in your estate?
It takes time to plan, create and execute an estate plan to protect and transfer wealth to the next generation. A properly executed multigenerational estate plan can plan for the next 10, 20 or 50 years – or even longer! An estate planning attorney can help protect your legacy and your family using inheritance and tax strategies such as a generation-skipping transfer trust, a gift trust and other types of trusts.
Lombard estate planning attorney Mario Godoy says communication is key to protecting multigenerational wealth:
“If you watch the TV show Succession, you can see what happens when the head of the family doesn’t consult tell his heirs about his financial plans. Although he retains control, he also sets up sibling conflicts and rivalries that lead to bad financial decisions. Make sure your family understands the need to protect your wealth for future generations, and how you plan to establish trusts and investments to protect your wealth.”
Contact the experienced estate planning attorneys at Estate and Probate Legal Group in Dupage County, Illinois, to discuss how to preserve your legacy for the next generation. Call us today at 630-864-5835.