The Importance of Geographic Diversity In Preserving Family Legacy

Geographic Diversication
Mayer Amschel Rothschild, founder of the House of Rothschild, practiced geographic diversification when he sent each of his 5 sons to a different European country to set up a bank. By doing this he avoided political, economic and natural disasters from hitting all areas of the family fortune at once.

Natural Disasters
The natural disasters suffered in the past couple of years around the world point out the continuing need for geographic diversity – especially of legacy items that can be destroyed or lost in a natural disaster.

The losses suffered in Japan as a result of the earthquake and tsunami, in Joplin, MO as a result of the EF5 tornado, and in Reading, KS where the whole town was wiped out by a storm; in the Texas wildfires; in the Christchurch earthquake; and the Mississippi floods all point out that we can quickly lose all the physical possessions that we have.

Surviving a Devastating Tornado
Envision yourself after surviving a tornado. Your house has been demolished, your cars are up in a tree tangled around each other, your possessions, files, computers, televisions, telephones, food, and clothing are destroyed or in the next county, mixed up with your neighbors.

What Do You Do First?
Obviously, you need to first seek shelter and get medical attention if you need that. There are multiple sites that help you understand what to do after a tornado. One of them is the Center for Disease Control’s site: http://www.bt.cdc.gov/disasters/tornadoes/after.asp

Getting Back on Your Feet
While you deal with the effects of the tornado, you need to start putting your life back together. You will have to recover your documentation to prove your identity and status with your banks (to get to your funds), credit card companies (to get new cards issued), state government (to get a new drivers license) and other institutions. You can get new clothes, re-build your house and refurnish it, re-stock with food and continue with your job (unless it was also destroyed). But….

You Can’t Usually Recover One of a Kind Legacy Items
If you have been the sole custodian of your family’s concentration of historical and legacy goods – such as great-grandpap’s hand carved bed, Grandma’s diamond graduation ring, 100 year old paper photos of the town from which your family originated , Uncle John’s hand made clay tiles or Grandpa’s oil paintings – you probably have little hope of recovering them.

If you are lucky enough to find some of your family items following a natural disaster, how do you proceed? The library of congress has some suggestions on their website.

What You Can Do to Safeguard Legacy Items
Two words, geographic diversification.

Parse out special family heirloom objects to family members in different geographic areas – but make sure they understand the significance and value of each item.

Take pictures of the real items and share them with the entire family – posting online or having multiple paper copies in different locations.

Scan in special photos so they can also be shared via online posting or multiple paper copies.

Make copies of legacy documents (such as hand written autobiographies) written by or about family members and distribute them.

You can also store items in a safety deposit box or storage garage if you aren’t ready to share them with the entire family yet.

If you care about preserving heirloom family treasures, consider geographic diversification.

Are You the Custodian of Your Family’s Legacy Items? How Are You Protecting Them?