As some of you may know, outside of Forward Inheritance, I am very grateful to be a part of the wonderful Saint Mark’s School and Church community in Altadena, CA. We’ve had a hard 13 months, but we’ve continued to keep our children and family experience as the primary purpose of our actions. It’s inspiring work, rooted in the service of making the best long-term decisions, not optimizing for the quickest or easiest path.
Due to my involvement, I came across this quote by Peter Baron within his MoonshotOS program that really resonated:
“Different generations often want the same core things: respect, development, agency, and purpose. What differs is how they learned that those things are earned.” ~ Peter Baron
With that quote bouncing around my brain, I spent the weekend supporting my daughter who was playing in a national volleyball tournament, and I like to study the coaches and captains and players, how they lead, how they communicate, how they work through each point, game, and match. And it dawned on me that Peter’s insight is human, not specifically educational or sport or business.
Like many, I am a fan of applying a lesson from one industry to an “unrelated” one, and in that spirit, we can frame the fundamental needs of a multi-generational conversation about the estate, the inheritance process, and our loved one’s final wishes to Mr Baron’s quote. Humans fundamentally want to be respected, to agree on a goal (purpose), to strive toward that goal (development), and to determine how to best get there (agency).
As we have the potentially hard conversations with Mom and Dad, we would be well served to anchor the conversation with this frame and values. The estate is, after all, their money (respect). The legacy is the goal (purpose). Mapping out how (agency) we ensure the family is well prepared (development) is everyone’s responsibility. We can help our families move forward, together…