For most of us, when we hear the term Legacy Planning, we think of lawyers and accountants. We think of minimizing tax burdens, and writing a will. Honestly the only thing we really picture are things associated with planning to leave an inheritance or other issues involving money. Yes, leaving monetary and physical assets is a big part of legacy planning, but it isn’t, and shouldn’t be the only part.
Is the physical wealth you leave behind the only thing that defines your legacy? Of course it’s not. Everyone has created a legacy far deeper than their bank account. We spend many decades on this earth, working, loving, creating, doing, experimenting, building relationships, learning, the list goes on and on. How is it that when it comes to our legacy, the one thing that remains after we are gone, it is only viewed through the lens of money? The answer is, planning for where our money goes is the easiest part of legacy planning. We can just hire an attorney and an accountant and let them plug us into one of their formulas. It is fairly painless, doing the work to build the wealth is the difficult part, planning what happens to it is pretty simple by that point.
Legacy Planning, as it is commonly thought of, is often an afterthought. It is not at the forefront of our thoughts as we are building the wealth we will then leave. It is something we will eventually do. Procrastination is the norm, giving us a comfort in our lack of interest and concern. It is easy to put things off, and the things we put off, by the nature of the situation, are of less value to us as the things we actively engage in.
Legacy Planning is also often thought of as something only the wealthy engage in. If you live paycheck to paycheck, there is no money to leave so there is no reason to plan a legacy. There seems to be a certain measure of gatekeeping; only the elite can plan a legacy, because legacies are only about money. The vast majority of people who have lived, and loved, and taught, and contributed to this world went their whole lives thinking that they could not leave a legacy simply because their physical wealth was small.
To change our default understanding of Legacy Planning, we first need to ask ourselves, what is a legacy? When we step back and ask this question, it is instantly clear that a legacy reaches far beyond a number in a bank account. It seems obvious when you take that step back, a legacy is the whole of what you leave behind. It consists of every action you make, every person you touch, every influence you make in the world. Legacies, by their nature, are rich and deep. They are created and shaped by everything that drives and motivates us in our lives. They are a reflection of our entire being.
…a legacy is the whole of what you leave behind. It consists of every action you make, every person you touch, every influence you make in the world.
Since our legacy is so much more than the inheritance or donations we leave, shouldn’t we focus on what we want our legacy to be? Shouldn’t we work to build the legacy we want to be remembered by? Yes, the answer is yes. Our legacy, the one we build, is the only thing that will remain after we are gone. Every choice we make in life will contribute to or diminish the legacy we want to leave. We define it, we have the opportunity to choose what our legacy will be. We can choose how to build and shape it. We can choose to influence the world and the people in it however we decide. The stamp we leave on the earth and in the hearts of those we influence is our legacy. It will take a significant amount of focus and work to make that stamp what we truly want it to be. We must be strategic and thoughtful, we must know what we want as our legacy and then we must make it happen.
There needs to be a revolution to change society’s mind. We all need to wake up about what Legacy Planning really should be If we fall for the trap of thinking our legacy is only defined by the money we leave we will be less likely to focus on what our legacy truly is and will fail to leave the impression on the world that we could have otherwise. Every individual should start true legacy planning as early as possible. It starts with deciding what you want your legacy to be and it ends in with the world being a better place, because of you, long after you are gone. Start truly planning your legacy today.
