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Successful families communicate effectively, work together well, and focus on the present and the future. They mentor the children for success, so that they can handle their financial and emotional inheritances.

1. It’s all about your family.

Why The Heritage Process   Works 

Only by putting family first will your planning be able to achieve your most important objectives for generations.

1. There are no tax or financial strategies involved.

The Heritage Process deals first and foremost with the unity, strength and harmony you desire for your family now, and in the future.   We are often asked about the kinds of technical structures that may be used to accomplish The Heritage Process. The simple answer is that it depends upon the many financial, tax and legal entity factors unique to a particular family’s situation. A family limited partnership may be best, or an LLC, a family fund or family foundation, a donor-advised fund, a dynasty trust, and /or any combination of the above.

The truth is, many entities can accommodate the family’s unique circumstances and accomplish its objectives. For the family to achieve what truly matters to them for multiple generations, the over-riding goal is that the family work together in the context of whatever entities best suit their situation.

Through this process, the children come to learn that the money is only a tool to help accomplish what really matters.  All families are unique, and that means that the financial and other strategies they use to achieve their goals will be unique, too. 

1. When it’s time for implementation, your own advisors are involved.

The Heritage Process helps individuals and families discover what is truly important, and helps them to craft a vision to achieve those goals.  When it is time to match concrete financial and estate planning strategies to your vision, your existing advisors will be involved.

1. ‘Pre-inheritance’  experiences prepare the children.

Experts agree that the reason that 90 percent of inheritance plans fail is that the heirs are not prepared to receive their inheritances. At the core of The Heritage Process is a mechanism by which the children are mentored, guided and trained in leadership, money management, communication and other important skills.

1. Separating the family business from the business of the family.

The ultimate goal of The Heritage Process is to create a high performance,multi-generational team. It is a structured process within which the business of the family (as differentiated from any investments, or business entities the family may own) can be conducted for multiple generations. Effective family governance often includes structures like a Family Council, Family Bank (both of which are defined below), and Family Foundation. The structures utilized by the family to operate and implement their governance objectives may or may not be legal entities, but they will be unique to that family’s circumstances, and they will be built upon high-level communication, active mentoring, and encouragement of individual and collective family member achievement.

1. Creating multi-generational family governance.

Successful families have shared one thing in common across the centuries.  They all create and utilize some form of family governance.  Through the structures they create, they mentor the children for success, develop and maintain a multi-generational perspective, and see that the stories, values and experiences that make their family unique are preserved.

The Heritage Institute, LLC

7724 SE Aspen Summit Drive, Suite 202, Portland, OR 97266 - (503) 771-2257

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