Many think they have unlimited time to organize a will, structure finances for descendants, and transmit the most important life details to their children and grandchildren. But sometimes, life gets in the way – illness, incapacity, and death come sooner than expected and can leave descendants to unravel the complications left behind.
That happened to Josh Kanter, son of tax lawyer and venture capitalist Burton Kanter.
“When my father passed away from cancer in 2001, I was in the room, and his last words to me were take care of your mother and your sister,” said Josh.
The death of Mr. Kanter posed a challenging situation for his three adult children. They now faced the task of considering their father's succession planning and navigating through his intricately detailed financial matters.
“It took over 12 years of restructuring the enterprise and finishing litigation over my dad's estate. It was almost a requirement that somebody step in and try to figure out how to manage through this,” Josh recalled. Given that Josh was a practicing lawyer, and spent 18 months with his father during his illness, Josh became the natural choice to manage his late father's affairs.
The Evolution of leafplanner
Unraveling his family estate led Josh to develop what is known today as leafplanner, a wealth succession planning digital platform for high-net-worth families. Initially, the plan was much simpler: an owner's manual for the family that could be updated and shared with family members to be ‘educated and empowered.'
But that owner's manual has evolved into a powerful digital resource for wealthy families.
“About three years ago, somebody saw and really liked one of the owner's manuals I created for another family. A lot of stuff has been developed in the wealth industry for data aggregation, sophisticated general ledger systems, specialty programs, and all these things. But nobody has really tackled this idea of information collection. There is nothing like it in the industry. We turned it into a platform with the idea of helping hundreds or thousands of families understand what they need to think about and how to collect, organize, and share information. So that became leafplanner.” Josh explained.
Succession Planning is for Everyone
As people consider their individual situations, they may wonder if they need succession planning. While leafplanner greatly serves complex financial situations, ‘the concepts of what we are doing apply to every single human. We've got $10 million and billion-dollar clients, but the concepts apply to everyone.'
One of the goals of leafplanner is to capture the motivation or why behind decisions. “Using leafplanner or creating an owner's manual is a gift to your spouse, partner, kids, trustees, executors, advisors, or whoever is stepping into responsibility because there are so many ideas, concepts, and relationships, and the why behind these things needs to be passed on.”
The gift of legacy is often discussed in succession plans. While it is important to pay attention to the financial aspects of legacy, it can be equally important to pass on stories of values and character development.
“When you can get families to talk about the stories of what mom and dad went through, the trials and tribulations on their way to becoming financially successful, that's where the values are reinforced. The values don't come from a graph that goes into a straight line from bottom left to top right. The values come from the ups and the downs and what happened along the way,” said Josh.
Knowing about the past creates great momentum for future generations to build upon. In a study done at Emory University, adolescents were asked 20 simple questions about their families. The study found that adolescents who report knowing more stories about their familial past show higher emotional well-being and self-esteem. Combining family stories and values with traditional wealth succession planning creates a more successful future for descendants, and that is one of the benefits of leafplanner.
Creating a Family Office to Pass Down Values
A term often used in the wealth management industry is family office, but Josh helps us understand, “There is no one definition of a family office. In my view, a family office is designed to manage the family – not just the family assets – for a multi-generational period. The most important function of a family office is to help with the family's success, however, the family defines that success. That could be about legacy, churning out good humans, philanthropy, investment and tax advice, etc. If you take that mental perspective, then all of us are running a family office in one way or another.”
leafplanner tries to take this kind of family office perspective by helping families answer essential questions holistically and comprehensively. Josh explains how every family can benefit from clarity on its mission and values.
“Every family could talk about what they stand for, what they're doing, and why they're doing it. And there doesn't have to be a lot of money involved. Mission statements are based on values. They're based on the family's legacy, where they came from, what they want to do, and how they want to change the world. And the world can be their little nuclear family, or the world can be the world.”
Knowing that every family, regardless of financial status, can benefit from creating a family office and succession plan is empowering. As Josh learned himself in picking up the pieces after his father's passing, ‘If it's going to take me 20 hours to organize the pieces, I guarantee you it's going to take my kids 200 hours to figure out those same pieces.'
It truly is a gift to our descendants when we create a plan and organize the family information to pass on our legacy financially and emotionally. Using resources like leafplanner, owner's manuals, and genealogy research to capture family stories, the future can be smooth and precise for future generations.
To learn more about leafplanner and see if they are right for your family, visit leafplanner.com
Ready to learn more about your family history and pass that legacy on to your children and grandchildren? Contact Legacy Tree today for a free research quote.
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