How to organize your legacy for future generations

Chris Tanke (00:00)
This is the spirit of Navigated Abundance. We say this all the time, that your total family wealth is a lifetime pursuit. And when you start actually giving more credit to your logistic wealth and your legacy wealth, it’s going to take more effort. It’s much more difficult to pass along a great legacy than it is to build a great business.

Yeah.

Stephanie Greene (01:09)
Hi, welcome

to our navigating abundance podcast. My name is Stephanie Green and I am joining my dad today, Chris Tankey on this podcast episode. And today we’re going to be talking to you and walking you through the essential file. And this is a big project that we’ve put together here over the past few months and we are very excited to share it with you. So I’m gonna give you a little synopsis of what the essential file is. And then we’ll talk about how we think it can benefit just about anyone.

So the Essential File is a dynamic database of personal information, accomplishments, resources, and desires. More than just a list of assets and account numbers, the Essential File also serves as a testimony to what you have built, how you have lived, and the legacy you wish to leave behind. Organized around the navigating abundance total family wealth concept, the Essential File will be of particular use of those

who have empowered to manage your affairs should you undergo incapacitation or you need to settle your estate.

Chris Tanke (02:08)
And this is what it looks like. Look at that. It’s a beautiful thing. I’ll make a few comments here of why we did this. Essentially, it became really clear to us that as we’re talking about all sorts of different concepts, different ideas that you might want to try, different documents that you might want to gather or make sure that you have done.

Stephanie Greene (02:11)
Beautiful.

Chris Tanke (02:28)
and different projects you might want to begin, it began clear to us that really we should be encouraging you to gather it together and to compile it somewhere. And we deal with a lot of folks in managing their personal wealth and oftentimes even the most rudimentary things are difficult to find.

when ⁓ a child comes into town in case there’s an incapacitation issue or maybe even a death. And they’re asking for documents that are difficult to collect because they weren’t organized ahead of time. So ⁓ the…

Stephanie Greene (03:00)
Or maybe they

were organized, but it’s in dad’s nuanced, color-coded, what that doesn’t make sense to you. I’m not saying you as dad, I just mean like the person who passed that’s very nuanced way of organizing these important documents and it does not speak to everybody.

Chris Tanke (03:13)
Yeah.

for sure and so so the concept here is if you’re looking at total family wealth and we’ll talk about ledger wealth logistic wealth and legacy wealth there is a lot there and so we thought it would make sense to try to gather together and and at least ⁓ it serves one opportunity to say okay if there’s a list in front of me of things that i need to do under this specific category i can benchmark myself to say have i done that should i do that

Stephanie Greene (03:42)
I’m

Chris Tanke (03:43)
How far along am I or I did that 20 years ago like a certain trust and I’ve been winding refresh or where there it is right in front of you an essential file saying how you how you coming along with this it’s a way to not only Identify what I should be doing but also to to ask a couple questions Have I done it and secondly, where is it? Where is it? Right? So

Stephanie Greene (04:04)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Chris Tanke (04:06)
That’s what we put this together for and as Steph, as you said, it’s a dynamic database because you’re never really like done with this. Life changes too much. Big events happen and you might want to cut somebody out of your will. Hey, we’ve got to redo the essential file or at least update it, right? So this is something ⁓ that we want you to look at at least annually.

Stephanie Greene (04:14)
Mm-hmm.

Chris Tanke (04:32)
or when you have significant events which would include maybe the amendment of a trust that you’re updating your essential file, make sure it’s fresh so it’s good data. So it’s a combination, as you’ll see, a list of things that you might want to include for those that have to help you in the future or even to use with some of your professionals now. But it also is,

It’s more than that, it’s a vision. And when we talk, especially in the last part, the legacy vault of this, it’s not so much a list. It really is an opportunity for you to start thinking about under the five areas of legacy wealth, what should I be adding or how am I doing this area? Or that’s a good idea, maybe I should begin. So it’s much more than a list, but it does start out that way. So that’s how I would say it. And it is essential.

Stephanie, it’s an essential file.

Stephanie Greene (05:22)
Well, and I was

just going to add what I love so much about this is I think, just even our young 20 couples, you know, at church, I talked to them a little bit about building out, you know, an essential file, but it’s very small, the information they need to gather is very small. When you’re at a certain asset level, when you have a business that you’re in charge of, when you’ve got family, I love about the essential file is I think it’s going to

raise a lot of flags for people of, this is something that I should think about that you otherwise normally wouldn’t have. Because a lot of, again, those other file areas that you can work on or gather information about, they’re not as robust. And I think, again, when we’re working with these type of families, more needs to go into it. You just have to. There’s a lot you’re going to be thinking, not thinking about. This will bring that up for you.

Chris Tanke (06:10)
Yes.

And some families, of course, have significant assets, some not as much. Some families have very complicated dynamics going on, some not as much. I would say that 60 to 70 % of everything we’ll be talking about applies to you, whether you have $100,000 or $100 million. And oftentimes,

Stephanie Greene (06:34)
Mm-hmm.

Chris Tanke (06:37)
You know, when you look at this, you’re saying, wow, I’ve got to move beyond that. I’ve got to improve and start gathering. think in one of the areas we talk about from vapor to paper, and that is if you have it, the idea in your head, that’s really good. But if you’re no longer here, it goes with you. So we’ve got to get what’s down in your head, or even what you’ve talked about with other folks that isn’t in your head but in a file somewhere.

Stephanie Greene (06:48)
Mm-hmm.

Chris Tanke (07:02)
We have to get it gathered and collected and down and codified and written so that it can be usable and that you can use it as a benchmark to how you’re doing. So that’s kind of the idea of this. So we developed around the total family wealth framework. And if you’ve used our materials at all, if you’ve gone to our Navigating by the Web site, you understand we’re all about this. We’ll put this up right now for you to take a look at this. But your total family wealth

Stephanie Greene (07:10)
Mm-hmm.

Chris Tanke (07:28)
is really divided into three categories. Your ledger wealth, which is your financial capital, your logistic wealth, is your functional capital, and your legacy wealth, which is your family capital. Those are three areas of riches that we all possess. And it’s sad, actually, that most people, when you say, how rich are you? What are your worth? They go immediately to the ledger wealth, right? My financial statements.

Stephanie Greene (07:49)
Yep.

Chris Tanke (07:50)
And we think that’s important. And we talk about that. You got to do that. You need a ledger wealth vault. We’ll discuss that. But your logistic wealth, which is your professional teams you put together and the documents you put together that we spent a lot of money on to produce, those are very valuable to you. You should treat them with respect. And then your legacy wealth is the most valuable thing you could ever own because 100 years from now, your ledger wealth isn’t going to matter nearly as much as your legacy wealth.

We go to bat for saying, wow, you need a total balanced view of a total family wealth approach. And that’s what the essential file really is organized around or arranged around the total family wealth concept. So we think that would be also reaffirming and clarifying if you’ve been following the total family wealth concept anyway. You’re going to understand immediately, that’s what they’re doing. They’re putting it under this category, this slot, this vault. I understand that.

This serves a lot of important needs for you if you can just start to think about how we’re doing this and then to put your family and your situation into essentially these files. So that’s how I would say it. So if we, and we’re reading this by the way, but this is so fresh that the ink is still sponging. So this.

Stephanie Greene (09:02)
It’s very well-loved document,

but it is fresh.

Chris Tanke (09:06)
Man it is and you know, it’s interesting. We just talked about this about an hour ago We we say early on as and you can get a copy this in our website We’ll share how you can do that. But early on we just wanted to say first paragraph This is a dynamic database. That means it’s not a set it and forget it and then He just looked at each other and said, know, really for us It’s a dynamic file for us because we’re ever gonna be tweaking this and changing it and updating it. but for now

Stephanie Greene (09:21)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Chris Tanke (09:33)
It’s organized around six different parts, ⁓ your personal information, your plans for later life assistance, your ledger wealth vault, your logistic wealth vault, your legacy wealth vault, and then supporting resources. So we want to refer back to that as well so that we can let you know what other people are saying about this, not just us. So that’s what we’ll do. So let’s take a look at these five parts here.

And the first is your personal information. And this is your name, rank, and serial number, all that kind of stuff, a course that you need to have together to empower a lot of decisions that even ⁓ your kids might be making for you if you can’t make them on your own, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And of course, children’s names might change, and they might get remarried, and all that kind of stuff, huh? Dynamic database. So.

Under marriage and family, we understand that. But then how about your community? That’s another subcategory. So what church do you go to or whatever? What synagogue? What close friends do you have or social groups or country clubs or organizations? Are you a veteran, et cetera? Let’s say upon your passing, it will be important for those that are opening up this file to say, wow, we should contact these people and let these people know. Or maybe the military is going to do something for ⁓

a graveside salute or whatever the case might be. But again, you know this, but do they? Obviously, your medical records, really important, and there’s a lot there. We’ve got like 14 different bullets on that. But including medical power of attorneys, what kind of dietary restrictions are you on in case you go to a facility, medications you’re on, et cetera, et cetera, family doctor, family histories, et cetera.

Personal information includes passwords. Again, we have like 14 dots on that. Membership accounts, might have passwords, pins, your email, how do you get into it, cell phone pins, what credit cards do you have, how do you get into them, et cetera. Again, imagining that you don’t have this and somebody comes in and they’re trying to clean up the estate and try to take care of your arrangement, they’re gonna go on a significant Easter egg hunt.

Stephanie Greene (11:34)
Mm-hmm.

Chris Tanke (11:35)
if

you don’t keep this up to date and available to them, right?

Stephanie Greene (11:38)
We were at an event out in the Grand Rapids, Michigan area and the person facilitating the event said that when you put together an essential file like this and actually fill it out, you’re giving your family the gift of grief, right? So if something were to happen and you were to pass, your family doesn’t have to go on that Easter egg hunt. They know where everything is. They can just focus on grieving and taking care of each other and of themselves.

Chris Tanke (11:45)
.

Yeah, it’s true.

Stephanie Greene (12:04)
And then when it’s time to figure out how to pay those bills or get into XYZ account, they know exactly what to do. if you just, truly what a gift that would be, right? To be able to give to somebody,

Chris Tanke (12:12)
Right, that’s That’s right.

And when we get into your logistic fault and you’re talking about all the professionals and the contact information, what a lifeline they would be to you at that point. ⁓ And again, you all know this, but is it all together? That’s the point, right? ⁓ We even have a category about home maintenance, right? Who’s the utility provider? Are you in an HOA?

Stephanie Greene (12:23)
Yep, absolutely, absolutely.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yep.

Chris Tanke (12:40)
Right? Do you have any mortgage contracts to be involved with, et cetera, et cetera? So those are the categories, home maintenance, passwords, medical records, your communities you developed, and marriage and family information. This is the easiest part of it all. But still, you can’t get all this done in a weekend. So but this is the easiest list.

Stephanie Greene (12:58)
Yeah, there’s a lot to it.

Chris Tanke (13:02)
The second list is a little more complicated. ⁓ My later life assistance. So in other words, what are your desires? Should you need care? Should you need help? Or if you’re pushing up daisies, what are your desires there, right? So we think in terms of assisted care, what are your ⁓ care preference needs? Do you have a care coordinator that you’ve already been talking to? Somebody that can look over your complicated affairs?

What kind of wishes do you have? of life wishes, quality of life wishes, et cetera, et These are things that are unpleasant to think about, but it’s all the more unpleasant if we need them and haven’t thought about them. And then of course, your funerals, right? Down to, what do you want your obituary to say? We’ve had some people write their own. It’s kind of interesting. And do you have pre…

Stephanie Greene (13:49)
Mm-hmm.

Chris Tanke (13:53)
paid funeral expenses, do you have a plot, where are they, who should be notified upon your demise, et cetera, et cetera. Start gathering that stuff together so that they can have access to that. And so that you can make sure that what you really want to have happen is gonna happen, right?

Be proactive with this. Now, none of this is are shattering and you know it, right? And you have a lot of this. So what I would say is go through the list, see if there’s something you’re missing, see if that’s valuable thing to add. And then go beyond that to say, should I start putting this in the essential file? Should I start gathering it? Yeah, exactly right.

Stephanie Greene (14:17)
Mm-hmm.

And the answer would be yes. Yeah, yeah.

Chris Tanke (14:28)
Exactly right. Now we get into the vaults. This is your Ledger Wealth Vault, your Logistic Wealth Vault, and your Legacy Wealth Vault. So your Ledger Wealth Vault, as we’re describing it here and coaching you and encouraging you, is really your financial capital. And that’s a detailed list of your collective assets that make up your net worth.

So this is not a difficult thing to accept and understand. I understand my ledger wealth because that’s what I think about wealth anyway. So obviously your financial statements, tax returns, investment portfolios in there. If you have to safety deposit box, where is it? What’s the number? What’s the combination? What’s in it? If you decide to put that in, you may not right here. And the other important consideration, who has access to it and when?

Your real estate portfolios, including copies of your deeds, loans you might have. Are you working with a real estate team? Do you have a real estate attorneys? What is their contact information? Because again, here’s someone to lean on as well. They can help you with the documentation. Property managers that you might be utilizing. That’s part of your real estate portfolio. How do you get in contact with them, et cetera? And the business interests that you might have, whether it’s a fractional business or a whole.

whether you have value or equity positions, promissory notes, structured settlements that you’re receiving, any of sorts of things, gather them. Somebody’s gonna have to make sense out of all of this. And if they could do it at one place, they will rise up and call you a blessed, right? Life insurance policy is the same thing. And we consider life insurance since it’s income tax free and if done correctly,

Stephanie Greene (15:52)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Chris Tanke (16:00)
can be estate tax free a significant asset, well, we should know it exists. We should see the policies and we should know who wrote it. You might have significant collections. Where are the appraisals for your antique clock collection, right Stephanie? Where are those appraisals? And passwords, codes and those sorts of things. And the experts you rely upon to build your collection.

If they know you, that might be a really good contact for your loved ones to make your vehicles and then out of sight assets. We talked about safety deposit boxes, but how about your hidden assets? You know, who’s going to know where to start digging? And when do they get the shovel? What’s your plan there? Some of you have that stuff and enjoy that and that’s great. But you know, you don’t want it to stay in the ground if you’re passed on because people don’t know how to.

Stephanie Greene (16:33)
.

Chris Tanke (16:44)
access all that. Is this obvious? Perhaps. Do most of us, could we probably do a better job with this? Yes. That’s all we’re trying to do here. We’re trying to pride you to say, come on, let’s get this going and let’s keep it fresh.

Stephanie Greene (16:51)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Yeah, and I would encourage you if there is even if your spouse is not really involved in this area of things when it comes to meeting with those professionals that you’re going to be listing in your essential file like the real estate attorney or estate planning attorney. I do really want to encourage that they’ve had some kind of contact with that attorney.

I’m just thinking in like worst case scenario, right? If you’re no longer here and they’re digging out this essential file and they’re talking and asking questions of all these people they’ve never met before, a simple introduction takes five minutes and can make a big difference in the future.

Chris Tanke (17:28)
Yeah, and everybody has different acumen and interests. ⁓ You know, if there’s a certain family member or spouse that is like not into, you know, investments or business considerations, there’s a certain basic level that we’re almost insistent that they know. ⁓ And we make sure that it’s not a laborious thing to understand it. ⁓

Stephanie Greene (17:30)
Yep.

Yeah. Yep.

Mm-hmm.

Chris Tanke (17:53)
⁓ But ⁓ because we believe that the most impactful, successful decisions are the high-altitude decisions. And so if even the person that’s not their thing can come in and have some understanding, that’s going to go a long way. And that’s sort of kind of like the modus operandi of our firm just in general. So that’s a very good point, Stephanie.

Stephanie Greene (18:12)
Mm-hmm.

Chris Tanke (18:15)
Alright, let’s move over to my logistic wealth. Ledger wealth is my financial stuff. We get it. Your financial capital, your logistic wealth is your functional capital. And that’s the people and the plans and the legal documents you’ve assembled and paid a lot of money for to formalize your life and to keep it running well. We’ve already talked about reaching out to some of the professionals, right? Even in the ledger wealth, how valuable they now, now we’re just going to

expand this list under several areas. You have an advisory team, you have financial plans, you have business documents, you have philanthropic plans, you have personal legal documents, and an insurance portfolio. These are all heavily dependent upon the professionals that you have brought into your life to help you design these things or to obtain these things. So,

Your advisory team, your business attorneys, your business partnerships, wealth managers, financial planners, CPAs, cybersecurity firm. That’s a big deal of what we’re doing. And as you know, a lot of you are really starting to beef that up as well. ⁓ Yeah, that’s an advisory team for sure. so start, some of you might have a concierge, somebody that you really do lean upon.

Stephanie Greene (19:15)
Mm.

Yeah, I didn’t think about that.

Chris Tanke (19:29)
that your kids are not really even aware of, that that person should have been brought in with understanding that they’re part of your team. basically, identify them. How do you contact them? What are they doing for you? How do they even work together? Describe, explain, identify your advisory team. That’s your functional capital. Very, very important to have in your logistic wealth vault.

⁓ And you already have it gather it. We just gather it organize it your financial plans, right? Including retirement plans your tax plans risk mitigation plans. How does your income work right now? What is your estate tax plan? now again for some of you the estate tax planning you have you spent millions and millions of dollars to create it and You have teams of people working on it

Stephanie Greene (19:56)
Mm-hmm.

Chris Tanke (20:16)
You know, you might just rather just writing out a few lines here just saying, you know, get a hold of this firm and these CPAs and you know, they can explain how we’re proceeding with this. So there’s some frustration in this because really, wow. ⁓

You could spend months on just a couple of these bullets. And right now we’re just breezing over them as a concept. And everybody is different. Whatever you need to do is fine. But make no mistake, your financial plans are of great, great value to you. ⁓ Your business documents, right, need we say more? Do you have that? mean…

Stephanie Greene (20:49)
Yep.

Chris Tanke (20:54)
We have a family-owned business, great. Where do we get ahold of the partnership agreements? What are the succession plans? Is there a deferred comp that’s going on right now? Right? And you’ve retired. What is that? How long does it last? Are you involved with business banking? Do you have, what are the insurances for this business? Or even if again, you have, you know, you’re a silent partner or you just have business ownership and aren’t involved, what are those arrangements?

Stephanie Greene (21:20)
Mm-hmm.

Chris Tanke (21:20)
⁓

That could be some of the most valuable things that you own. We should know how it works or especially those that May not even be aware that they exist Right. So start gathering that up your philanthropic plans. We’ll talk about this later as a family, but Basically, what what’s important to you? What are your ongoing pledges? What have you been supporting? What would you like to ⁓ continue to support if you have a personal donor advice fund?

Stephanie Greene (21:29)
Mm-hmm.

Chris Tanke (21:45)
How can they get in contact with those folks? You know, those sorts of things. The obvious is personal legal documents, wills, trusts, distribution of personal properties and deeds and durable powers, financial powers, HIPAA releases, all that stuff. And you can have a lot of legal work done. Make sure that they can get their hands on it. Make sure that…

that you can get your hands on it. You might go through some of this and say, yikes, you know, that special needs trust, so important, but it is eight years old. We should probably relook at this. Things have changed in our lives. Good. If going through the essential file just gets you to do that, fabulous. We’ve done our job, right? Again, we’re just trying to encourage you and help you get organized here and to think through some of these things.

Stephanie Greene (22:05)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Chris Tanke (22:28)
as well. All right, so so far it’s been, we’re getting more and more difficult, right? As I look at, yeah, my personal information, okay, my plans for later life, I have to think about how I want that to work. That takes a little more work than hey, where’s our social security numbers? ⁓ Then our ledger wealth is almost like, you know, just a checklist, right?

Stephanie Greene (22:33)
We want to start you guys off easy.

Yeah.

Chris Tanke (22:50)
My logistic wealth, all of a sudden now it’s, how does this all work together? Who are the professionals? And what kind of things might I need that aren’t always at my fingertips so I can get them accessible? That’s fine. But now we’re into, I think, the one that’s the most workable. So if you haven’t left so far, that’s good. And this is also the…

Stephanie Greene (23:08)
gold star.

Chris Tanke (23:10)
This is the spirit of Navigated Abundance. We say this all the time, that your total family wealth is a lifetime pursuit. And when you start actually giving more credit to your logistic wealth and your legacy wealth, it’s going to take more effort. It’s much more difficult to pass along a great legacy than it is to build a great business.

And so I hope you understand that because what you’re talking about is generations of people. by the way, people can be messy sometimes. So there’s a lot of thought that might go into this. as we get into where we went from your ledger wealth, your financial capital, to your logistic wealth, your functional capital, now we’re into your…

legacy wealth vault and that is your family capital. This is the people. Your legacy well. ⁓ no.

Stephanie Greene (23:58)
And don’t skip this part. As dad just said, don’t skip

this part. Sometimes people will get to certain areas in an essential file type situation and think, that’s not important. But as dad said, this is everything. If you are messing and leaving all of this money to kids that can’t handle it, this is everything.

Chris Tanke (24:11)
Yeah, the f-

I think the first four parts are there to support part five to make this happen. ⁓ And I believe that now that you might not agree with that, but the more that you can find yourself in agreement with that, I think the more successful your life will be. I really do. And we get real philosophical and touchy feely here sometimes. But I’m telling you, 50 years from now, this is going to matter.

Stephanie Greene (24:20)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Well, yeah.

Because again, we always just say this, the money is just stuff. The business is just stuff, right? That’s not life. Now we’re getting into the life of it. This is what’s important.

Chris Tanke (24:41)
It’s really gonna matter.

Mm-hmm.

And because we’re getting into the life of a bit, we can’t expect that we can accomplish it with a checklist like some of these other things that we’ve done. In your legacy wealth vault, we don’t give a checklist to fill, as it were, to judge yourself against. What we’re doing is talking about the different categories that you might want to be pursuing, asking you, have you been doing that?

Encouraging you to go from vapor to paper if you’ve been doing it start collecting what you’ve been doing what you want to do write down your ideas on how to Make contributions to your family capital And then we’re gonna offer suggestions to pride you to consider doing some more or to add a few not to be overwhelming but to just Again, if you could pick one or two things out of what we’re saying here and do it for the next couple years It could be revolutionary to your family

And that’s the fun part of navigating abundance, I think. So your legacy wealth vault contains your past, present, and future contributions to your family capital. That’s your relationships and the wisdom and the visions and values and traditions and the blessings that you wish to pass to future generations. Your legacy wealth is that priceless non-financial inheritance that you hope to leave for your children and grandchildren.

Stephanie Greene (25:43)
Mm-hmm.

Chris Tanke (26:06)
and the very nature as we said of its personal impact and generational endurance positions your legacy well as the greatest asset that you or your family could ever hope to own.

So this is definitely not going to be accomplished in a weekend, and that’s okay. So our goal is not to create a list, but to say here’s five categories of legacy wealth that you might want to make sure that you’re doing something in, or maybe to add a few opportunities here that we might suggest. And this is not exhaustive by any sense of

the imagination, but we’re just trying to prod you along, at least initially. So, the big idea here is in your legacy wealth vault, we’re encouraging you to do things. Number one, recognize and organize your past and current legacy wealth efforts, because you’ve been doing a lot of stuff. Maybe you have a family vacation that you take every year, no matter what, and it’s just part of what we do. Well, guess what?

That’s legacy wealth. That really that’s fabulous. And we talk about that. you know, maybe there is, ⁓ some kind of mutual, desire to serve or to give you have a family project, something that you’re proud of and that, that your children and grandchildren are proud to be involved with. And every year you’re accomplishing that you care about it. You’re growing your benevolence to it. That is legacy wealth.

what you’re teaching your grandchildren, fabulous stuff. So you have some of this already. Maybe some of the stories that you’ve been telling. That every Christmas Eve you tell the story about the family and the kids remember that. That’s how a lot of legacy historically has been passed on for millennia, is stories. That is legacy wealth. So you have some. What we’re saying is identify it, collect it, and

Stephanie Greene (27:29)
Mm-hmm.

Chris Tanke (27:52)
make sure that you’re continuing it, and then consider some other ideas that we might have for you here. Does that make some kind of sense?

Stephanie Greene (27:58)
Mm-hmm. And I was

just going to bring in one of our family legacy wealth traditions, I guess you’d call it. I think I’d mentioned this in a previous podcast that we did for Navigating Abundance. But one of the things we started when I was elementary school age is every year we would go to Bronner’s, which is ⁓ the world’s largest Christmas store, I think, in the nation, if not the world. And every single year we would go and we would get

five bucks to buy a Christmas ornament and that’s what was put on our tree. And so even just now, well just even, no gosh, no, no, no. Well, notice even now that when I’m putting up Christmas decorations with my kids, because I have little boys, our Christmas tree is filled with those ornaments that I remember getting when I was a kid. And so we’re going to continue that.

Chris Tanke (28:27)
This was in the 80s everybody, this was in the 80s, so five bucks went a long way. What a cheap.

Stephanie Greene (28:48)
tradition with my boys and how cool is that that we’re now building their family Christmas tree that they’ll eventually do with their kit. It’s just for me when it comes to those traditions, it’s you want to protect those and make those a priority. And you know, as much as you can, especially when life gets busy, you got to come back to it if you you because that’s again, that’s that is the life of it. It’s not the five bucks.

Chris Tanke (29:08)
Yep. Yep.

Stephanie Greene (29:15)
is that the life of it is the experience and tradition.

Chris Tanke (29:18)
Yeah, and traditions are so important for family continuity and family appreciation and belonging and all that sort of stuff. This is just what we do. And yeah, a lot of you have those. And as Stephanie said, you know, they’re easy to lose. So you have to fight sometimes for them. ⁓ Keep fighting for them. They’re so super important. They are going to remember that when I’m dead and gone.

Stephanie Greene (29:25)
Love you.

Yep.

Chris Tanke (29:42)
My children and grandchildren are going to remember Bronners and what we did. And I don’t like Bronners, it drives me nuts. But anyway, too much, it’s tinsel on steroids. But the kids go crazy. And if they can come up with ornaments that they’re hanging on their tree, remembering when they were with Papa picking them out, sheesh. I’m a rich, rich man indeed, even though I’m not even here. So your essential files organized.

Stephanie Greene (29:48)
I know it’s overwhelming. All the glitter, all of the… yeah.

Chris Tanke (30:09)
in this area about your legacy vault under five categories your family relationships your family ethos or spirit your family wellness Your family practice how you make decisions and your family philanthropy as well And we we believe Quite strongly that out of anything we could ever share with you about

pursuing a total family wealth success story. The greatest thing you could ever spend time, money on far more than your trust work, far more than your investment portfolio, your real estate, far more than your business valuation. The greatest thing you could ever spend time, money, and sweat and tears into is develop a heart of giving in your family.

Stephanie Greene (30:54)
Mm-hmm.

Chris Tanke (30:55)
If and then we’ll talk about that in a second too, so so sorry I’m gonna get off the soapbox. We’re gonna put up for you right now your legacy wealth amplified which essentially is Just looking at your legacy wealth categories under these five areas and then there’s bullet points under each of these and so we’ve expanded it and When we then started saying here’s some things you can do

to consider improving your legacy well fault or organizing it, and to cast vision, we have a little bit more meat on the bones of things you can do. Now, I’m gonna say this too. When you do get a copy of the essential file, you’re gonna realize that the first half, no, first third of the essential file covers one through four. The second two thirds of the essential file covers this, your legacy well. So you can see where our,

Stephanie Greene (31:38)
Mm-hmm.

Chris Tanke (31:40)
Priorities are but you can also see that we’re just not producing lists We’re also trying to coach you and prod you to consider some of these things and again Many of you are so much better at this than we are we’re not the experts on this. We’re just saying hey, here’s some ideas Just to scratch the surface All right, so as we don’t want people to get overwhelmed as they go through this Don’t do that. Just pick one or two things maybe to add to what you’re doing

Stephanie Greene (31:59)
Mm-hmm.

Chris Tanke (32:04)
⁓ Or to maybe supercharge what you are doing and want to do better and man We’re accomplishing our goal and do that every year.

So as we go through this exercise, ⁓ three things we ask you to think about. What am I currently working on that falls under this example or this category already? Second, should I think about adding this idea to my legacy wealth planning? And third, I like this, we’re going to hold you accountable.

Stephanie Greene (32:15)
Thank

Chris Tanke (32:31)
Have I clearly documented my past present and future legacy wealth projects and ideas yet? Right from vapor to paper. Let’s think about it, but can’t leave it up here, right? Let’s let’s write it down And we encourage you to do it. So basically, I don’t know if I’m go through all these probably not Category one family relationships. The big question is what can I be doing to encourage love within my family?

and we talk about different things that you can do there. Category two is family wellness. The question’s a little different. That question here is what can I do to support the personal fulfillment of each family member? Physical, mental, spiritual, vocational, educational fulfillment.

Stephanie Greene (33:07)
like this.

I like this.

I, because I just, I think sometimes you can get, and I, my kids are little and I get stuck on this thinking of what they should become versus who they are. Right? I like this to talk to them about what do you guys want to do in your, in a career? Is it work in the family business? Is it not? Yeah. I like this dad.

Chris Tanke (33:18)
Right.

Yeah, well, here you go. Let’s we can be a little spicy. So, but if that gets people to move, that’s great. A vocation or calling let me read this. Just a couple sentences. Many movies have been made in novels written surrounding the drama of a son or daughter choosing their own path versus joining the family business. This dynamic tension is sure to produce excellent entertainment, but equally sure to produce damaged families in real life, right?

Stephanie Greene (33:47)
Mm-hmm.

Yes!

Chris Tanke (33:55)
We are all fearfully and wonderfully made and that guarantees that not all of our children and grandchildren will be like us. What an honor and blessing it is to be able to encourage and support each family member to become all they were created to be.

Stephanie Greene (34:08)
And so, yeah. It was written. I’m just thinking about when I, because this is not my first vocation when I first started out in a different career. And dad, just, you were like, think you should go into this area instead, but you held your tongue. You let me do it. So yeah.

Chris Tanke (34:09)
That’s… Man, that’s just so poetic.

Who wrote that?

Yeah. Well, the truth of the matter is not all of our kids are like us. And that’s that’s that’s in a lot of ways, that’s really good news. So I mean, yeah, so make sure that that’s a paradigm shift for lots of families to say maybe that person doesn’t have to be in the family business, or that’s not our expectation, that might be our desire, or maybe they’ll come back later. That’s was really what Steph did. But, you know, you’ve got to let them find out who they are. And that’s your job.

Stephanie Greene (34:35)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Chris Tanke (34:57)
And so when it comes to family wellness, helping them become all that they want to be in their vacation and calling, et cetera, and we talk education, all sorts of stuff. Category three is family spirit or family ethos. The big question here is what can I do to encourage an appreciation within our family? So important. And we talk about history and roots and stories and core values and traditions.

Stephanie Greene (35:13)
Thanks.

Chris Tanke (35:20)
How do you encourage family roots and that appreciation for that? We talk about digitizing some of your family blessings that you might want to give to others. Or some of your stories. You know, again, for millennial, all you had was the spoken word. And people became really good storytellers of necessity because that’s how we understood where we came from. Gee whiz, you know?

now you can record it.

Stephanie Greene (35:43)
Mm-hmm.

Chris Tanke (35:43)
Uh, and what a powerful thing that would be 200 years from now, somebody to look at your recording, telling you about a story. It’s their great, great, great, great grandfather talking about coming over on the Mayflower or whatever the case might be. Wow. How, what would you give for that? I’d give a lot of money to have that. Uh, you can do that. Neat stuff.

Stephanie Greene (36:01)
Yeah. Something with

a simple two word. I don’t think I told you this dad, but my husband and I were gonna start this year for our wedding anniversary. We’re gonna call it our family’s birthday and get a birthday cake and get the boys to celebrate because that was when our little nuclear family started is when my husband and I got married. So.

Chris Tanke (36:16)
neat.

Stephanie Greene (36:23)
That’s just kind of like a very small way that we’re getting even our young kids into this sort of appreciation for the family and where they came ⁓ and how it all started with grabbing them with cake.

Chris Tanke (36:32)
Yep. Yep.

Yeah, and by the way, that quickly spills over or melds into core values, family core values. ⁓ And usually when family stories were told, they were there to teach a value, right? ⁓ So we talk about family core values. We talk about how you might want to develop a family mission statement, ways you can go about doing that.

Stephanie Greene (36:40)
Thank you.

Yeah.

Chris Tanke (36:55)
You might look for opportunities to exercise your core values. So I wrote down here, let’s say you identified that one of your core values is we want to look for opportunities to apply our values as a family project. Kindness is one of our core values. Well, let’s model it and get your children, grandchildren together to pass out cold bottles of water to strangers on a hot summer day in the park as a random act of kindness. And by the way, we’ve done that before and it’s fun.

Stephanie Greene (37:18)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Chris Tanke (37:21)
If protecting the environment is a core value, then go back the following weekend and pick up all those empty bottles. But the point is it just doesn’t sit on the page. You’re saying, how do we exercise this together as a family? And your kids will remember that. They will remember that. And we talk about an ethical will, a non-binding document that you would write, different from a blessing letter. That’s for personal people, kids.

But an ethical will is generally addressed to the entire family. And again, I’d love to have a great grandparent on a recording saying, I don’t even know you, but I just want you to know, here’s the core values. Here’s what made me who I am. Here’s what I hope that you never have to go through. Don’t make this mistake or whatever. It would be priceless stuff. You can do that.

Stephanie Greene (38:11)
Mm-hmm.

Chris Tanke (38:13)
You can do that. You should do that. How valuable. Wow. Super exciting. category four is family practice. We want to encourage you to do that. The question here is what can I be doing to encourage unity in my family? Not unity of decision, but unity of spirit or decision making. Cause not everybody’s going to agree all the time. Right? So we talk about family meetings, family governance, family trusts, family treasury, not in

Stephanie Greene (38:32)
Mm-hmm.

Chris Tanke (38:38)
great detail because we can’t in this format, but we’re raising the concepts and then giving you resources to go further if you’d like to delve deeper into this. Again, the goal is not unity of thought. The goal is unity of spirit. In other words, we’re going to agree to disagree agreeably. How can we develop those kind of hearts in our folks? So how do you make decisions together as a family?

Stephanie Greene (38:54)
Yeah.

Chris Tanke (39:00)
Do you have a family council? Do you have what’s called a family treasury? If you’re a larger family and you have significant assets, you might want to figure out that if somebody has a request for some money or would like a loan or whatever, maybe it’s not a good idea for just one person.

the Gen one person or couple to make that decision. That’s a lot of pressure. No, come up with a group of people that make that decision together as a family and have the parameters on how to do that and what the requirements are and what the expectations are. That will help with family harmony a lot. And then grantor letters are really neat, too. you have wonderful trust work, but trusts are there really primarily to say this is what I want.

And this is how I want it to be done and they’re perfect for that They’re great for that long after you’re gone. Those things will happen because they’re codified. They’re legal But what about the why behind it all why did I want that done? What was I thinking? What were my concerns? What are my aspirations? And again, you might have a child who’s disappointed with the way the trust was worked out, but if they have a grant or letter

accompanies the trust explaining it at least they’ll have the context of your decision they still might be disappointed but at least they’ll know why you did what you did and a lot of trust the why it’s not there so what a great thing to do for the unity of your family and again a way to teach a way to share your heart you know and then finally coming in for a landing

Stephanie Greene (40:15)
Yeah.

Chris Tanke (40:26)
This is sort of frustrating for me, Stephanie, because there’s so much awesome stuff to talk about here. But that’s why you need to get this essential file and start plowing through it. And maybe you can find something that will inspire you, right? Family philanthropy. The big question, what can I be doing to develop a heart of generosity within my family? So as we say it here, I’m going to read it.

Stephanie Greene (40:29)
⁓ I know.

Chris Tanke (40:46)
Here at Navigated Abundance, we believe that the one, one of the greatest contributions you could ever make to the advancement of your total family wealth would be to ignite a spirit of generosity deeper than the hearts of your children and grandchildren. Do that and your pursuit of total family wealth will be far more joyful and productive. And we talk about developing a heart of joyful giving through personal engagement, how you might use donor advised funds even in,

in holiday traditions, things that you can do, you’re going to donate or buy a fund. And of course, you might be more advanced than that with a family foundation and those sorts of things. the idea is is to develop to develop a heart of of giving and generosity and appreciation and of stewardship. I’m going to read this joyful giving. Generous people at the core.

are grateful people.

Generous people truly appreciate how blessed they are and look for ways to help others by way of their wealth Since their worldview doesn’t revolve around self they strike out each day with a it’s not about me philosophy They act out of an abundance posture not a scarcity posture their glass is always half full never half empty They are beautiful positive well grounded souls Chances are you would really like them? Now

Practically speaking, can you imagine how much more progress you’d be able to make in improving your family relationships, wellness, ethos, practice, if most of your children and grandchildren approach the world in that way? Or the effect this attitude might have even carried over into your family business, your family office, and your family relationships with money? Revolution.

Stephanie Greene (42:13)
Mm-hmm.

Chris Tanke (42:23)
So think about, and we give some opportunities here, things to consider, how do we start letting people know, really understand that I am blessed beyond deserving, this is not about me, I’m in a position here, I have responsibilities to recycle what I have into this world. And watch your family soar, if you can do that.

Stephanie Greene (42:41)
Mm-hmm.

Chris Tanke (42:45)
Yep, neat, neat stuff. So that’s it. So yeah, maybe not one week, maybe two weekends you get all this done, but the idea is it’s giving you something to shoot for. It’s a lifetime pursuit really. But now at least you can start organizing your thoughts around it, we would say.

Stephanie Greene (42:52)
Well, I would.

Yeah, and I was going to encourage too. I mean, as you’re going through the essential file and you’re inputting all of the data and it’s getting you to think about some things. As you go about your day to day business. Your estate planning attorney will call you and I had to put that my essential file. So I think that as you get started, you’re going to have a really great foundation of all the things that you can easily grasp or easily think of and then throughout the next month or so.

things will just naturally pop up that you realize like, that should go into my file. And I think once you really get into the swing or into the mindset of looking for things that should be added to this file, it will fill up in a very natural fluid kind of quickly way, and it won’t feel so daunting. That’s just been my experience. It won’t feel so daunting if you’re always looking for opportunities to fill it, if that makes sense. ⁓

Chris Tanke (43:50)
Yeah, and you eat

the elephant one bite at a time. So just take a couple chomps. That’s all we’re saying here. it certainly is, think, none of this is revolutionary. But I think the way that it’s organized for you kind of makes the odds of you seeing improvement.

Stephanie Greene (43:53)
You have to.

Chris Tanke (44:11)
in collecting this stuff, think perhaps a little bit better. Now some of you might have a better system. That’s awesome. That’s fantastic. Yeah, that’s right. That’s right. It’s a lousy system if other people don’t know your system, right? So it can’t pass on with you. All right. So anyway, so please check that out. There were a few comments, think, Steph, we were gonna share with people about how to approach this thing.

Stephanie Greene (44:18)
Make sure someone else knows your system though. You can’t be the only one to know it.

Yeah, exactly right. Yep, exactly right. Yep.

Yeah, exactly.

Chris Tanke (44:38)
this essential file.

Stephanie Greene (44:39)
Because again, as you get this document and you start to open it, could again seem a little overwhelming or little daunting. As we said, elephant one by at a time, you will get it done because you are going to be motivated. You’re going to keep working on it.

Here’s a couple of bullet points I just want to put into your head as you’re preparing yourself to enter into the season of gathering this information and then just ongoing as you are updating it as needed. But here’s a couple of pieces of advice that I have for you. One is to take inventory. So as you’re working through your essential file, what is already documented? What do you have half done that needs to be completed and what is completely missing entirely?

My recommendation for you is once you’ve input what’s been completed, when you have the option to focus on what’s incomplete or what’s missing, focus on what’s incomplete. So now you have even more things completely done, check off your list, then dive head first into the completely missing categories. Two is identify gaps that you may have. And that’s what I like so much about this essential file is as you’re reading through it, I think it’s

robust that it’s going to bring up certain areas or certain ideas that you didn’t even consider but realize the importance of now. So just go into it thinking I’m going to identify some gaps and that is okay. It’s good that you identify them first. Never even consider those things. I would encourage you to pay certain attention to your logistic wealth and your legacy wealth.

Chris Tanke (45:52)
Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Greene (46:05)
As dad said, those are two areas in your essential file that people have a hard time thinking through and categorizing. So just pay closer attention to those two areas. My third point is engage your advisory team. So your essential file is a tool to not only get all of your information down for your loved ones, but also for

those professionals that are helping you on the day to day or will be helping your loved ones when you’re no longer here are able to make those decisions for yourself. So lean on them quite heavily for documentation. If you have a large estate plan that you know they gave you 10 years ago, just ask your attorney for it. Save yourself some time. Lean heavily on them when it comes to documentation, because they’ll get you up to snuff with what you need to have.

Chris Tanke (46:34)
Yeah.

Yep.

Stephanie Greene (46:51)
Once you have this essential file done, it’s never done. We want to encourage you to review it at least once a year. And most certainly, if there’s major life events, a kid got married and now her last name changed, or there’s a birth in the family, most certainly take a few minutes, look through this, see what do I need to change to reflect those big life events. And just if you keep it updated, it’s gonna be a lot easier to keep it current and to keep it relevant to

where you’re at in your life. We do recommend that you safeguard your original documents. So as I talked about with that estate plan, once you find that estate plan document, I would recommend, I mean, just even like what one of those boxes that will survive a fire and explode, put it all into one place with your essential file, put everything in one place and organize it. ⁓

Chris Tanke (47:43)
and maybe

have a second copy held elsewhere, maybe at the professional’s office, right? Yeah.

Stephanie Greene (47:46)
Exactly right, exactly right. Again, I just

think about not only for you as you’re updating this annually, it’d be very nice for you to have all of your original documents and the amendments all in one place, but then with a spouse who maybe has not been interested in going to every meeting now coming into the first time and looking at this, it’d be nice for them to see the progression of these documents that you had put together. So again, we just talked about secure it. So store it in something that’s fireproof.

cloud encrypted, you’ve got, I don’t know, safety deposit box, all of the safety measures that we need in today’s world. Make sure that it is safeguarded. And also as the world gets better and better at doing bad things, also make sure you’re updating your cybersecurity to keep pace with that as people figure out more and more ways to break into secured files. So that’s also something I want you guys to be looking at annually is not only are my files updated,

Chris Tanke (48:29)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Greene (48:43)
is my security around those files also updated to keep pace with what’s going on in the world. And then also be prudent. So the essential file is gonna contain a lot of private and personal information. So you really need to be, I would say just be conscientious of who needs to know about it. And then just be wise with what information you’re sharing from this essential file to everyone, because not everyone needs to know.

but you do need to have a few people that do know. so find those trusted advisors, those trusted people in your life and just share with them, here’s what it is, here’s where it is, here’s how you access it and just, yeah, make sure those people know. So anything you wanna add, Dad, before I come in for a landing?

Chris Tanke (49:10)
Mm-hmm.

Right.

don’t be overwhelmed. well, the first thing you have to admit is this is beyond me and it’s too overwhelming. Okay. It is what it is, what it is. You know, gravity exists, but we all have to deal with it. this is overwhelming, but don’t be overwhelmed. Right? nobody can do a great job right off the, out of the gate. You can’t do it. So just do a good job.

Stephanie Greene (49:27)
Yeah.

Chris Tanke (49:48)
and see this as not only a gift to those who might be, I say, settling in a state, which this would be very valuable for, but a gift to future generations if you speak into their life long after you’re gone. That’s worth some effort. That’s a lot of fun, I think. I think the legacy wealth part of this, that’s the fun part. And I like some of the logistic wealth. That’s kind of fun, too.

You know, the Ledgerwell stuff, it’s But I mean, it’s fine. Yeah, I mean, we make a living managing Ledgerwell stuff, so I don’t mean to be ungrateful or indifferent. But I mean, really, what gets me jazzed are the people. And so it’s worth it, as we say all the time, your family is worth it. Get a copy of this. you know, we encourage you to start thinking this through. And again,

Stephanie Greene (50:13)
We love the people. I love the people.

Chris Tanke (50:34)
you know, we’ll let you know when we make significant renditions to it. Because there’s already things we’re thinking, gee, how can we do that better? We’re always trying to think about that. So we what we just want to do is to put something in your hands, at least in this this first of a couple deliverables we’re working now here at Navigating Abundance to not only what the take from what we’re saying on paper total family wealth, and now actually putting some meat to the bones on here some stuff that you can do to start making that happen.

We haven’t done it heretofore other than encouraging you through podcasts. Now we’re saying, okay, take a look at that and let’s start working on it, right? Yeah.

Stephanie Greene (51:07)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

And the biggest thing too is that we’re here to help. I think you can really get a sense of our spirit of just wanting to help and come alongside you when it comes to such a large but important file for you to put together. So as Dad said, here at Navigating, we just always say that it’s about advancing the pursuit of total family wealth. And we created this essential file to be a valuable tool.

towards that end. So if you’d like to further explore how you can best apply the essential file to your family’s total capital, we would be so happy to help answer a phone call and help you through this and to talk with you about it and just kind of cast some vision and give some encouragement on areas to think things through. So go to our website, navigatingabundance.com for contact information on how to reach us. And also I think we’re going to be putting this on our website, is that correct? Okay.

Chris Tanke (51:59)
We will.

Yep, you can download it.

Stephanie Greene (52:00)
This will be up on our website, then

you can grab it and download it. And again, as you’re leafing through it, please use this as a resource. We’d be happy to do that.

Chris Tanke (52:08)
Yes, thank you very much guys. If you have any comments too, don’t hesitate. We’re just trying to be helpful. That’s all we’re trying to do and that is the fun part of our lives. So, appreciate you tuning in. It means a lot to us. if we can just, if we can encourage one another, you us and us you, fabulous, fabulous.

Stephanie Greene (52:17)
Yes.

Chris Tanke (52:25)
All right, so this is Chris Tenke with Navigated Abundance with my daughter Stephanie Green with an E on the last of it. G-R-E-E-N-E. Reminding you again, the reason we go through all this work and this has been a lot of work. I’m kind of tired. This has kind of kicked me around a little bit, but it’s I thought it was so important to do. Why? Because just like my family, your family is worth it.