How to Preserve Family Wealth

Individuals with significant assets should consider their options to preserve their wealth when they are no longer around to manage them. While documents like wills and broader inheritance law will ensure wealth will pass down to their children or spouse, this is not the most efficient way of ensuring that the assets are passed on to the correct beneficiaries. Here are some tips on how to properly preserve family wealth.

Create a family wealth plan

As with most financial matters, ensuring family wealth preservation is a matter of effective planning. Establishing the various friends and family members who will take on certain assets in the event of an individual’s death is a practice known as estate planning. It is different from a will, as it is more for the benefit of the asset owner, allowing them to plan out their assets long term, in order to more effectively transfer their wealth to younger generations.

This isn’t just about assets, it also includes passing on any positions of power in organisations, taking on any debts, and figuring out any tax or legal complications in these processes and how to avoid or mitigate them.

The initial estate planning process should include creation of a comprehensive list of all assets (including things like valuable items), debts, retirement accounts, insurances (including life insurance) and other financial instruments.

Create a will

Once the financial situation is all accounted for, the next thing to do is establish which family members and other beneficiaries will receive which assets. This will be done via a will, which should be created in collaboration with a lawyer. This lawyer may also suggest alternative ways of arranging your assets to better protect family wealth.

DFA Law can help you with your multigenerational wealth management needs. Contact us for advice on how to preserve family wealth, ensuring that assets are protected for future generations.