We all love your families and taking care of them financially is one way we show that love. Emily Lampa spoke with a financial expert about what you can do to make the transfer of assets a smooth one for your loved ones.
There was a survey that was recently done that had some surprising findings. Marcy Keckler, Senior Vice President of Financial Advice Strategy, Ameriprise Financial is a certified financial planner says Ameriprise did our study, Money and Family, to understand how are people are thinking about the idea of generational wealthing, passing on what you have been able to save and accumulate through your hard work over your lifetime and passing it to the next generation and learned it is a very common aspiration. She says 8 out of 10 people say that it is what they strive to do and two thirds say they are taking steps actively to make that happen, but somewhat surprisingly, they are not necessarily telling their families, so fewer than 20% have shared the details of those plans with the next generation who are going to be impacted. She says there is definitely a communication opportunity across generations within families.
What is it that keeps people from talking about their finances? Marcy says there a few reasons and top of the list for when we said, well why haven’t you shared that information, number one was, I don’t think it is their business. She says we do know if you are intending to leave an inheritance it is going to have an impact on the people who are going to receive it, hopefully a beneficial impact, but it will be an impact none-the-less and so sometimes people aren’t exactly sure how much they are going to be able to leave, they know they would like to leave something but they want to make sure that they have what they need for their own lifetimes, and that can one of the barriers to sharing more specifics. Marcy says to address that we are going to recommend that people do some projections. She says it could be on your own, could be with a financial advisor who can help you make some predictions around what might it cost to maintain the lifestyle you want throughout your retirement period and then what would be a little cushion you would want in place in case you need some extended care for a health situation or your spouse does, whether it is in the home or care facility. Marcy says doing some projections on that can really raise your confidence about the potential size of an inheritance and then you can let the next generation know, if not a specific number, than at least something in the general ballpark; is it enough to pay for a vacation, is it enough to pay for a college education, pretty different price tags there and so doing some planning can help open the lines of communication and help people feel a bit more comfortable sharing important information.
For more information go to Ameriprise.com/family
