At Heritage Financial, we know that wealth is so much more than a nest egg.
It’s why we take such a comprehensive approach to understanding every detail of our clients’ long-term goals.
It’s why we provide access to more than just investments, financial planning and wealth management strategies through our Concierge Program.
It’s also why we like to share with our subscribers how we are personally enriching our own lives beyond the day-to-day advocacy of our clients’ financial well-being.
This month, we are sharing a unique approach to multi-generational wealth transfer from our Chief Operating Officer and Chief Compliance Officer, Ann Smith, IACCP.
If you enjoy reading, you will love this strategy.
If you have loved ones far away that have been hard to connect with during the pandemic, you will love this strategy.
If you are a fan of baseball or red wine, you will love this strategy.
“My only child and daughter, Stephanie, has lived overseas for almost twenty years. We have both always been voracious readers. In 2014, when she married and we knew we would be mostly travelling back and forth for the holidays, Steph introduced the Mother/Daughter Book Club. This was partly to keep gifts small and easy to pack, but mostly to keep us always connected through reading.
The original plan was that Steph would choose one book per month for us to read. She provided each of us with a small notebook and we would write about each book – how it made us feel, what we liked or didn’t like – anything about the writer or story was wide open. At the end of each year, we would get together over a bottle of red wine, exchange notebooks and read each other’s writing and discuss the books.
Over the years, we have added themes to our book club choices:
The year of non-fiction (mostly memoirs)
The year of award winners
The year of first-time authors
The year of favorite authors
The year of diversity in authors
Somehow, with each new theme, we have been able to include one of our favorite authors, Haruki Murakami.
Murakami is a Japanese writer. His books and stories have been bestsellers in Japan as well as internationally, with his work being translated into 50 languages.
Murakami shares that in 1978 he was in the bleachers of Jingu Stadium watching a baseball game between the Yakult Swallows and the Hiroshima Carp when Dave Hilton, an American, came to bat. In the instant that he hit a double, Murakami suddenly realized that he could write a novel. He went home and began writing that night.
My favorites are 1Q84, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, and Underground, which is based on the 1995 Tokyo subway gas attack. However, I haven’t read a single one of his works that I have not enjoyed.
This is our seventh year of the Mother/Daughter Book Club and we continue to enjoy a wonderful mother/daughter bond, reading great and sometimes not so great books, but mostly spending this special time together. Steph is currently carrying on the reading tradition with my 3-year-old granddaughter, Nola, and has two new books delivered to me every month that I read to Nola over video.
If you have a love of reading, I encourage you to read and share with your children and grandchildren, no matter the age or distance.”
The transition of wealth from one generation to the next requires detailed planning. But that doesn’t mean it has to be difficult, tedious, or boring. If you have questions about your current plan, or if you are ready to create a plan, let’s talk.
