How can you leave a lasting legacy? First off, you need to ask yourself, what does a legacy mean to you?
The first thing that pops into a lot of people’s minds is money, assets, a house, and while those are a major part of someone’s legacy, it’s also how you are remembered. So really, ask yourself - How do you want those who you leave behind to remember you? And then you can kind of work backwards from there.
As far as the technical stuff, what we can help our clients do is go through all their assets, review all their liabilities, help organize things, and ensure everything is titled properly. How is your house titled? How are any bank accounts titled? Do you have a spouse? Do you have children? Do you have work or business partners that we need to make sure, upon someone’s death, that it goes to the right person? Are there beneficiaries listed on any type of retirement account? 401K plan? Always make sure those, along with any wills or trusts, are up-to-date and are executing your wishes. It is also important to have a letter of instruction upon your death. The will has to do with what happens to your stuff, but if you want somebody to play a VanHalen album at your funeral or have a certain hymn sung, or throw your ashes into a certain body of water, then you need to leave that in the letter of instruction along with your will, so you can make sure that that happens.
But really, your legacy is about how people remember you, years down the road. And I always want to make sure that I’m doing my best to make sure that my clients can have peace of mind when they are thinking about their future generations and how they are going to be thinking about them.