Paths to Charitable Gifting

Families can sustain their legacy through charitable gifting of cash, personal time, and expertise, and appreciated securities.  These gifts can be made directly to a charity, or through a more formal account structure such as a donor-advised fund (“DAF”) or a private foundation.

Education is a broadly defined term and is one of the many paths families can explore in order to develop a strong family legacy.  A solid education provides the foundation for a good life.  To discuss education and all its merits with your children may seem simple, but it can be intimating if undergone without a plan.  Developing a strategy before embarking is a good way to ensure the message is delivered in a confident and clear manner.  Education, much as life, is a journey and describing it as such may prove helpful.  Thinking of the approach as a path may allow you break down the discussion into 3 separate parts.

Financial tools and investment strategies are constantly evolving to incorporate new analytical approaches and faster computing technology to deliver benefits of lower expenses and enhanced value added. It is important for managers of multigenerational wealth to understand these changes. Most institutional investment firms now integrate analysis of a companies’ treatment of their stakeholders into their research, as it will often have a material impact on profitability and long-term sustainability of companies’ business operations. Areas reviewed include their management of human capital, their role as an actor within their community, their emissions and carbon footprint, and their governance structure and reputation for ethical conduct. Again, institutional investment firms research these areas because they are material to long-term performance. Next-gen and women are often keenly concerned with companies’ actions along environmental, social, and governance (ESG) dimensions and are often left out of the management structures of multigenerational wealth. Just as astute institutional investment firms embrace a multi-stakeholder perspective for better performance, managers of multigenerational wealth can benefit by integrating the impact investing and ESG perspective and initiating a discussion of impact with family members that may help guide the wealth management process going forward.