3 Ways to Super Charge Your Trust

Chris Tanke (00:00)
you wanna supercharge all that? Make it personal. A grantor letter, which will make your trust so much more effective. An ethical will, and a blessing letter for your family members.

Welcome back to Navigated Abundance, I’m Chris Tanke. Today we’re going to be talking about the three legacy wealth tools that you can use to supercharge your trust work. They’re very, very powerful even though they’re not legally binding. Want to know they are? Here you go. First, a grantor letter. Second, an ethical will. And third, a blessing letter. Grantor letter, ethical will, blessing letter.

And here’s the irony or the disappointing part of this. Oftentimes, these are non-existence in an estate plan. And in reality, they’re really pivotal to it. So I think you’re going to get a lot out of this. As I delve into this afternoon, I just want you to know that, again, this is just scratching the surface of this. I’m trying to cast some vision for you. How you do this personally, of course, is going to be different from your neighbor.

But boy, is this worth pouring your time into these powerful tools that you can give to future generations and can supplement that which you’ve already created in the legal department. So let’s talk first of all about a grantor letter. So you have created trusts, and you are the grantor of the trust. And you have worked diligently with ⁓ your legal counsel to

draft these truncheons susser way that what you want to have accomplished and how you want to have it accomplished both even if in your absence is going to happen. What you want to have happen and how it’s going to happen and you lay it out in the most airtight, erudite way that you know how to do and that is good and well and good stewardship. That’s exactly what you should be doing. But what about the why?

should it be happening? You have the what should it be happening and how it should be happening, but what about why is it happening? What about the purpose of the trust? What is behind the reason for the trust? I know you have that in your head, but do your beneficiaries know what that is? Do your trustees know the why behind the drafting of this trust? Does your legal counsel even really know?

You’ve been motivated to do it to those that are going to inherit this trust or live within it. Did they know why you did it? That is a grantor letter. A grantor letter is where the grantor writes a letter explaining the whys behind why I did this and it’s personal. You’re talking about your feelings and your hopes and how you wish this to be meted out.

Why you did it this way? mean you got to be vulnerable to do it, but how powerful how practical is that? if it Coincides or comes alongside the legal trust the grantor letter. We’re gonna play with you right now Or for you right now comedian Michael jr. Who in an impromptu portion of his? His routine

had a interaction with a man who has quite a nice singing voice. And I think it illustrates really well the importance of going beyond what and how and starting with the why first. So let’s roll this for you right now.

Isn’t that great? I love the way Michael put it. The first time you sang it, you knew what you were singing. But the second time you sang it, you knew why you were singing it. And he goes on to say this, when you know your why, your what becomes more impactful because you’re walking towards or in your purpose. I think that is fabulous. Think of that and apply that to the trust that you already had drafted.

the legal documents you have drafted, even maybe within your business, and say to the people that are going to be impacted by this, do they know the why behind it? Maybe I should be writing an accompanying letter, a grantor letter, to describe it. You don’t want to keep it in your head. Get it out there so they know, I would say, some of the intent or explanation of what you’re trying to do.

The second thing that I would really encourage you to do is to create an ethical will or begin to create one and continue to develop it. An ethical will is much broader than a grantor letter. Here you’re expressing your desires, some of your history, some of your experiences, some of your hopes and dreams for the next generation. This is the kind of thing that ⁓

You want to be speaking to your children and grandchildren through long after you’re gone. An ethical will is not directly tied to a trust, but it is directly tied, certainly, to your legacy. Now, this is a pretty broad topic in and of itself, an ethical will, if you’ve not heard of it before.

But essentially ⁓ I would say first of all you can do this by by writing it out You can do this by I’m gonna date myself videotaping yourself recording yourself right And and talking that way if you’re more comfortable you can even write a book publish it or work with Different groups that can help you do that so that you can put it on the I don’t know even a

coffee table book so it’s accessible and your grandchildren can pick it up and understand more about you and what made you tick and what you’re hoping for them. Folks, there is such power in the spoken word. We’re going to talk about that in a minute further with the third tool that you can use. But wow, take advantage of opportunities now to codify what is in your heart.

and what you want to have passed on and known by future generations. So one way you can do this to get you jump started, and I just did this today, just Googled it and talked about ethical will and it took me right to Everplans, which is a pretty well known group that creates tools to accomplish these sorts of things, ⁓ legacy wealth concept transfers and whatnot. And they came out with ⁓ a little sheet.

eight or 10 pages to get you going, right, called my ethical will. And I just wanted to give you an idea of some of the things that they’re recommending that you might want to place in this document or this recording that you might want to make. And it is broad, of course. I mean, there’s a lot of things that you can do, but they kind of separate it in different categories. ⁓ Personal history, obviously where you’re born. How about what traits you inherited from your parents?

What was it like growing up in your family? What’s the first car you owned, the first job you had if you were in the military? Talk about that. How did you get involved? What did you see? What did you do? Et cetera. If married, how did you meet? How did you propose? What were some memorable moments in your wedding? Those sorts of things. Maybe who attended it? And again, some of you are thinking right now, who’s going to want to hear that?

50 years from now, a lot of your family is going to want to hear that. We have to make sure that they will, right? That’s where we’re going. If you’re divorced, explain what happened. That’s vulnerable. And what you learned from it, and perhaps what future generations might learn from it, right? Because we’re fond of saying here, it’s really, really wise to learn from your own mistake, but it’s genius to learn from other people’s mistakes.

Use your real true life to impact next generations. You might want to let them know some of your favorite things. Your greatest vacations you took. What musicians you like. What books impacted you the most. What quotes you’re fond of saying. What hobbies you really enjoyed. things you were passionate about. What things you accomplished in these areas. Again, you might think, they don’t want to know that. Yes, yes, they will want to know that.

if they can just get to it. Academic and professional things that you’ve done, the best job you ever had. What do you think about higher learning for future generations? What kind of advice would you give? What’s the worst job you ever had? What’s the biggest mistake that you ever made in the workplace? What advice would you give for thriving in the workplace? And if you had to do it all over again, what would you change about your professional career? These sorts of homey, wise,

Tidbits of counsel that again if you’re not here to deliver them will be even more impactful when they’re reading them Other experiences in your life talk about yourself. What what are your greatest memories? What impacted your life what event impacted your life the most pro and con? What are your favorite family holiday traditions now, this is a place we’ve talked about this before where you might want to ⁓

codify them and organize them and and and encourage people I hope you guys keep doing this on Christmas Eve or whatever that I mean, this is what you want to do The best gift you ever received as a child and what it meant to you and the person who influenced you the most etc Etc when tough times came, how did you get through it? What lessons did you learn? How would you encourage those you love? To thrive also with that bit of information. I don’t know

but you’re sharing your life as part of an ethical will. The other thing is your beliefs, your religious beliefs, your political beliefs, what charities mean the most to you and why. You know, you’re a spiritual being, talk about some of that stuff. And then your hopes and dreams for the future, which is gonna spill over a little bit into the final category here, but what values would you like to pass on and what wishes do you have?

Well, write them out in the first person. You know, I really wish all my grandchildren or all you guys do this or whatever, make it personal. Encourage them to avoid the mistakes that you made and kind of cast vision for their lives, what you would hope to see, the potential that they have, what you would hope to have happen in their lives, the hopes.

for the future. So these are just some things you can do. It’s a nice little starting point. There’s so much more and you could come up with some better ideas if you just spent some time thinking about it. But the idea is give to your children and grandchildren what I would have almost give anything to have. And that is an essential or ethical will for my great grandfather and great grandmother. I don’t have it.

I don’t know who they are. They’re not impacting me as much as they certainly as much as they could. If they were just able to speak to me, even when they’re not here. That’s what an ethical will does. Legally binding? No. More powerful than your your your legal will? I would suggest probably is. That’s heretical, but

Again, 50 years from now, 100 years from now, that will matter all the more. OK, so here we go. Your grantor letter. That’s how you’re to supercharge your estate plan. Your ethical will. That’s how you’re going to supercharge your estate plan. And then finally, the blessing letter will supercharge your estate plan to speaking into your children’s and grandchildren’s lives through. The written word. Spoken word is great. Written word is great.

That it’s just that the the written word will outlast your spoken word because you won’t be here to speak it anymore. So the power of saying What needs to be said saying the right things the encouraging things into the heart of a child whether that child six years old or 66 year old is Powerful and you have that power that can be wielded for good or not. So good depending on the words that you use This is an opportunity

to write blessing letters to each of your children and grandchildren that it can be their own drafted just for them with you issuing words of life to them even when you’re no longer here. How valuable would that letter be to them, right?

A really great example of this is found in the book of Genesis, chapter 27 and 26, where Abraham is issuing a blessing to Esau and Jacob. And this blessing is oral, but it’s quite formal and it is prophetic in ⁓ its content because he is saying, here’s what I’m going to be charting out for the rest of your life as I’m about to check out and transfer

My estate and my life and my work to you and he meted it out in different ways It’s a very interesting story Jacob kind of ripped off his brother. But the point is there is power in the spoken blessing That’s still true in Semitic cultures because they’re patriarchal and matriarchal more than we are we kind of lost some of that in the West but

It’s true for us, nonetheless, the power of the spoken word over an individual specifically for them and envisioning and crafting and believing in their future is just fabulous. So here’s your opportunity to write out your hopes and dreams for your third grandchild and let them know how much you love them.

How excited you are for their lives, the great things, the capabilities that they have that you see and you celebrate, what you’re hoping that they might accomplish, and what you dream for their lives. How much you care about them. How much you believe in them. These are blessing letters.

I’ll tell you again, just like the ethical will, I wish I had a blessing letter from my grandfather, don’t you? Here’s your opportunity as parents, grandparents, to craft letters, blessing letters to those you care about, that when they hang onto those and open those and read those, even if you’re no longer here, you’re still speaking into their lives and into their

FABULOUS, FABULOUS stuff. So yes, it’s important that we have really robust and well thought through trust work. And it’s really important that the business transitions are made from one generation to the next. And our buy sells are put into place. And we have our family ⁓ bank in place and all sorts of things. There’s so many things that we can do.

to pass on true wealth, total family wealth, ledger wealth, logistical wealth, legacy wealth to our children and grandchildren. But I gotta tell ya, you wanna supercharge all that? Make it personal. A grantor letter, which will make your trust so much more effective. An ethical will, and a blessing letter for your family members.

This is Chris Tankey with Navigating Abundance.

Again, reminding you, just like my family, your family is worth

Strategic Financial Group (18:37)
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