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Estate planning generally involves documents such as a trust, a will, and powers of attorney; these legal documents explain who is trusted to step into different roles, as well as set out who gets what, when the time comes. To some, these documents can come off as a bit impersonal or be difficult to read with all the legal jargon, even though our office tries to make them understandable. But, as the creator of the trust, you can include Purposeful Planning. Purposeful Planning is estate planning with a stronger and more emotional purpose and outcome. The idea is to provide you the opportunity to share even more with your family. It creates a stronger impact and emotional connection for both you and your beneficiaries or loved ones.

Purposeful Planning allows you the opportunity to leave your family with memories and loving thoughts on top of anything else you already thought of including in your plan. This could be a memory from a trip your family took together, a milestone you experienced together, or your favorite quotes or life lessons from your own life that you wish to pass on. All these memories, thoughts, and pieces of wisdom become part of your estate plan.

Now you may be asking yourself how you go about this process for you and your family. The route to establishing a Purposeful Plan requires a lot of introspect to make sure you are leaving behind something meaningful. It includes looking at who your beneficiaries are and what memories you want to share with them. It could also mean sharing personal stories as to why you did certain things. For instance, if you ran your family business in a certain way, your life experiences could provide invaluable insight for your loved ones who took it over. Or, if you continuously donated to a certain charity that was important to you, future generations can learn more about that and you could potentially instill different values in them. A Purposeful Plan also includes looking at what physical objects you are leaving your beneficiaries. If you have a particular collection, why? Asking yourself what that collection means to you and sharing that with the people who are going to inherit it one day can help them grow a deeper appreciation for the collection and preserve it for generations to come. Committing to creating a Purposeful Plan can be an involved process and when it works, you are leaving behind more than just money for your loved ones, and you are going about it in a way that can be fruitful for many future generations.  To accomplish this, you should include working with an estate planning professional with experience in this area.

We offer Purposeful Planning and have various exercises geared to make you think about some of these deep questions. And then we help you implement them into your overall estate plan. So that you pass on wisdom in addition to wealth. To start your Purposeful Planning journey, contact our office to schedule an initial appointment, 248-409-0256, we offer complimentary initial consultations.