“We have reengineered estate and inheritance planning to foster family well-being - i.e., thriving in multiple domains of life.”
Family Wealth and Inheritance services
Envision moving beyond such questions as “Should I stop giving money to my adult child?” Instead imagine asking: “How can I best support my child leaving their best life?”
We help clients design their wealth and inheritance planning to be impactful for them and their loved ones, starting immediately and over the arc of their life. Every person leaves behind an inheritance and legacy. Whether that is family history, traditions, values, money, assets and businesses, it has the potential to be positive and inspiring to the beneficiaries. But it is not always automatically so.
We have an in-house Inheritance Coach, Claudia Tordini, who supports our office on matters of family wealth, inheritance and well-being.
Well-Being Trust
We believe it is past time to recast the principal purpose of trusts to be for improving beneficiary well-being. While we continue to design trusts to save taxes and protect wealth from creditors and other risks, we are now implementing trusts as instruments of well-being.
The Well-Being Trust is an instrument that threads the intentional goals and actions of one’s inheritance plan to improve the life of the beneficiary well-being as part of one’s legacy. It could, for example, ensure funding for a well-being foundational level of support – i.e., good housing in a community that is inclusive, empowered, resilient, and safe; having access to quality healthcare; and being well-educated and skilled. The trust might also facilitate actions and behaviors that lead to better health, relationships, and more meaning and flourishing. Being a positive and constructive document (for both trust beneficiaries and the creator) is a core feature of the Well-Being Trust.
Our book Family Wealth, Inheritance and Well-Being offers insightful background on the Well-Being Trust and its components. Additionally, the book elaborates on the various aspects of well-being (career, finance, life expectancy, social and community), their importance for building a good life and ties them back to the aspects of The Well-Being Trust that focus on them specifically.
Beneficiary Well-Being Programs
As a component of our practice of law, we assist clients with transferring wealth during lifetime and upon death. These transfers are significant, perhaps even transformative, to the beneficiary because there is evidence to believe that inherited wealth has the potential to support and improve the beneficiary’s well-being and flourishing or getting the most out of what makes life worth living.
We strive to assist both wealth holders and beneficiaries through the wealth transfer process. We support beneficiaries through an evidence-based coaching process that connects the economic resources of inherited wealth to the beneficiary’s well-being, promoting an intentionally positive outcome for the beneficiary and entire family. Through this program the beneficiary is better positioned to inherit and live life with more intentionality and purpose.
Our program incorporates experiential learning opportunities as it is the most effective way for beneficiaries to incorporate content into behavior. Beneficiaries learn skills to build their own self-efficacy and self-determination throughout the process – two main components of successful life achievement.
Family Well-Being Framework
A step beyond beneficiary well-being focus, we assist families craft a family well-being framework. A well-being framework provides families with a positive platform to incrementally and over time improve family members’ lives. It integrates family wealth and inheritance into an organic strategy for the family to support individuals in building their strengths, finding meaning and purpose and engaging in productive and full life.
Family Meetings, Retreats and Workshops
For existing clients we are facilitating family meetings, retreats and workshops. We bring the traditional notions of estate planning (e.g., tax savings and protecting asset from unanticipated creditors and other risks) together with well-being science. Through a well-being lens, the timing and purpose of inheritance comes into focus. Wealth and inheritance planning becomes intentional and purposeful, and perhaps even more importantly it becomes positive and inspiring. In this setting, we help families craft practical and thoughtful approaches which can be documented in their legal instruments such as Well-Being Trusts.
To learn more about FKL family wealth and inheritance services, contact Richard Franklin (202.495.2677), Claudia Tordini (202.495.3060) or your FKL attorney.