Family Wealth Planning is the Web 2.0 version of estate planning.

Whereas “estate planning” is about preparing and passing on your financial assets at the end of your life, Family Wealth Planning is about making the right financial and legal decisions for your whole family wealth throughout your lifetime and leaving the world a better place after you are gone.

Family wealth is about far more than just your money.

Your family wealth is made up of your financial, intellectual, spiritual and human assets - who you are and what’s important to you.

And, I bet if I asked you to choose between the four of those which would be most important for you to leave behind at the end of your life (and you could only choose one group), I bet you’d choose something other than financial.

Why? Because your loved ones can always make more money. But, they cannot replace your values, your stories, your insights and your experiences. Yet, these are so often overlooked and not passed on.

Family Wealth Planning is about capturing the assets that are most valuable, and sadly most often lost when someone dies … the intellectual, spiritual and human assets that make us who we are.

When my dad died, he left behind a bit of money, but the rest of his wealth was lost, uncaptured.

I have no letters from him or recordings talking about his hopes and dreams for my future. My children will never hear his voice or know what was important to him.

I suspect it is the same for your family.

And while there are gobs of websites and businesses springing up to help people capture these assets and pass them on, in my experience we are just too busy and it rarely gets done.

I’ve found the best way to make sure this happens is to make it part of your legal planning. When you are working with a lawyer on your family’s “estate” planning, if your lawyer is only preparing a plan to pass on your financial assets, he or she is only doing 1/4 of the job.

What you want is a lawyer who will help you capture the whole Family Wealth that is most often lost and most difficult to plan for … your intellectual, spiritual and human assets or who you are and what’s important to you.

Through a simple Family Wealth Legacy Interview process at the end of your planning together, your Personal Family Lawyer will help you capture the most valuable family wealth you have and pass that on for successive generations by building a legacy library that will be far more valuable than any dollars you could ever leave behind.

I’m part of a Mastermind program with Ali Brown and 11 other high level entrepreneurs with businesses ranging from coaching to financial advising to fitness to tantra to wedding planning and I’m learning so much about wealth and success just by being part of this group that I now get to share with you.

For those of you who don’t know what a Mastermind group is, it was made popular by Napoleon Hill in his most well known work, Think and Grow Rich.

I first read the book about 5 years ago when I was looking for as much information as I could get my hands on about success and building a great business.

As soon as I read it, I began looking for a Mastermind group of my own to join as Hill attributes much of the success of the industrial baron’s of the 1900s to the concept of Mastermind groups. He says as Mastermind group is:

“The coordination of knowledge and effort of two or more people, who work toward a definite purpose, in the spirit of harmony.”

He continues …

“No two minds ever come together without thereby creating a third, invisible intangible force, which may be likened to a third mind.”

Over the years, I’ve participated in some free Masterminds (don’t waste your time), but this has been the first real, high level mastermind I’ve participated in and already I can tell you, it’s worth it.

But, that is not the wealth secret you know, but may not be using that I alluded to in the title of this article.

So, what is it?

It’s that successful people are more productive than other people. Being more productive means they take more action than most people. Taking more action means getting ahead and build wealth more effectively and quickly.

Sounds pretty simple, right? 

Ok, if you are with me so far then I’m sure you want to know how you can be more productive too. What is the secret to the hyper-productivity of successful people?

Now before I tell you, I want you to be in the right frame of mind because you are probably going to poo-poo what I’m saying, but if you can hear it and know that what I am saying can make a huge difference in your life, you will take immediate action after finishing this article and that action can change your life.

So, here it is:

The secret to being more productive in your life and attracting wealth more quickly is extreme self care.

What does extreme self care look like? Here are some signposts for you:

• Time alone every week spent in silence with nothing to do and nowhere to be
• Regular dental appointments, haircuts, and personal grooming
• Exercise at least 3 times per week
• Massage at least once every other month

What’s that you say? You don’t have time for these things? Calendar them in as you would your business appointments and make them inviolate.

What I can promise you is that when you do, you will notice a sea change in your business, your life and your wealth.

In fact, I’ve just inspired myself to schedule a dental appointment. What’s the first self care action you are going to take? Let me know by posting a comment and tell the world how you feel about yourself and watch how it comes back to you.

My recent announcement that I would be closing my law firm raised a lot of questions for people who hadn’t thought about what would happen if their lawyer died, retired or stop practicing law.

So, this week’s article clues you in on what you need to know.

In the typical scenario, if you’ve done estate planning with a lawyer and he or she dies, retires or goes out of business, it means you need to start your planning over with a new lawyer.

What does that mean to you?

Generally, it means you will find a new lawyer and he or she will have to create a whole new plan for you.

This can mean incurring thousands of dollars in planning fees all over again!

Yes, that’s true.  Almost no lawyers will take over the planning that has been completed by another lawyer and pick up where you left off with that lawyer.

Why?

Because it means your new lawyer would be taking the risk that your prior lawyer made mistakes that he or she didn’t catch.  That’s too big of a liability risk for your new lawyer to take on.

So, that means you have to begin again.

Beginning again means a whole new planning session, a whole new set of documents and a whole new planning fee.

That can be ugly.

So, what can you do to make sure this doesn’t happen?

If you haven’t begun your planning yet, you can ask your prospective lawyer the following questions:

1.  What happens to my plan if you die, retire or go out of business?

2.  Will I have to begin my planning again with a new lawyer from scratch?

3.  You are creating a plan for me, but do you have your own succession plan in place?

Unfortunately, most lawyers do not have their own succession plans in place.  You’ve heard about the cobblers kids having no shoes, right?  Well, it’s the same with lawyers.

You wouldn’t believe how many lawyers don’t have their own estate plans!

While you’re asking questions, you should also ask your lawyer how he or she will make sure your planning is kept up to date throughout your lifetime.

Ask him or her whether you’ll have to pay hourly fees to make changes or ask quick questions.

And, ask whether he or she will proactively communicate with you on an ongoing basis or if it’s up to you to initiate all conversation about changes in your life, the law or your assets.

If you’ve already begun working with a lawyer, call him or her up now and ask these questions. Look for a ready answer that includes a plan whereby you won’t have to begin your planning again from scratch, in which your plan is regularly reviewed and your lawyer has a membership program you can join so that you can make changes to your plan on an ongoing basis without paying hourly fees.

If you are working with a Personal Family Lawyer, you have the peace of mind of knowing that if anything happens to your lawyer (or if you move to another State), your planning will transition easily to any one of the other lawyers in the Personal Family Lawyer network without a need to pay new planning fees.

Plus, your Personal Family Lawyer has a membership program in place so your plan can be reviewed regularly, you can make ongoing changes without paying hourly fees and you can contact your own lawyer before making any sort of financial or legal decisions for your family.

The clients who had worked with me over the past five years of my law firm practice are able to now choose from one of ten Personal Family Lawyers in the Southern California area who are ready to step in and take over their planning.

And, if they move out of State, there are Personal Family Lawyers all over the country standing by ready to ease the transition.

This is what you want to look for as well.