Marie - The FMV Founder
Middle class members may manage to scrape together some money to pass along to their children, but most of us haven’t been exposed to the implications of money. Whether or not you now have money, if you plan to accumulate wealth, you need to understand what wealth can mean for your family.
Wealth can provide opportunity, but it can also sap desire and ability for independent action from your current and future family members.
My family has roots in working class and middle class America. We worked hard and long to accumulate a little to pass along to our children and their children. I have become very interested in learning what families do AFTER they accumulate assets: how do they organize their family, what advisers do they use, what investments are available to them, how is their lifestyle different than ours. Are there things that can be harmful if my children and grandchildren become wealthy – if so, how can we avoid those things. So, I began to seek out information on these questions.
The Search
My search for this information included searching the internet, scouring libraries and bookstores for books, looking for training classes, and attempting to talk to advisors. In short I looked for information in every way I could think of.
The search yielded a smattering of books, finds of partial information here and there on websites and widely scattered other resources. There was no convenient repository of information, about what to do after you have wealth.
There was no translation of how we could use techniques of the ultra rich families for our families. Advisors did not help, the Financial Advisor industry has not yet started significant focus on exploring the more emotional family/people related issues in wealth transfer. Personal financial education has historically been avoided in our country, but is now gaining momentum. However, its focus is still on basic items, like balancing your checkbook. It doesn’t yet explore wealth transfer issues across family generations.
The Result
I realized that my children and peers might find a repository of information about what to do after you have wealth beneficial. I further realized that families may do better if they focus on their values rather than solely on the financial assets and discovered that many families do not address that side of of the wealth equation. Consequently, I began experimenting with my family on ways to learn and use this kind of knowledge. FamilyMoneyValues.com intends to address these issues.