WHY Legacy Planning
WHY Legacy Planning - a retirees perspective
We have all worked hard for this money, may have spent our whole careers doing it. We’re proud of all that we have accomplished, the nest eggs we have built that now enable us to retire and enjoy the years ahead doing whatever it is we like to do. And we hope to be able to pass on some of that nest egg – some “leftovers” – to our children and grandchildren if we are able to do so. That’s what parents and grandparents do. It’s part of our legacy. And we hope that our beneficiaries will be able to protect and preserve this money and maybe even pass some of it on to their heirs as part of their legacy. At least it would be fun to think so.
But it may become increasingly more difficult to do. For too long our elected representatives in government have kicked the financial management can down the road, and they have now saddled us and our heirs with such enormous national debt and other unfunded program liabilities, that it threatens the financial well-being of our children and grandchildren, and maybe even us, too. How will our children and grandchildren prosper if 50%, 60% or an even higher percentage of all that they earn is forfeited because of taxes? And that includes earnings on the inheritances we plan to bequeath to them. How will they save for their children’s college costs? For their own retirement? It’s scary to imagine.
Every generation hopes that the generations that follow will be better off than they were, but that is not now likely to be the case. Tax erosion is destructive. If we do not plan accordingly, our desired legacies can be eroded, too. The impending “Great Wealth Transfer” risks becoming the “Great Inheritance Heist”.
