Family Wealth Secrets Online Magazine

Got Trust Fund Kids? You’d Be Surprised!

As promised, I’m telling you about my lunch meeting with Doug Freeman, founder of IFF Advisors, LLC, which counsel ULTRA-HIGH net worth families. That’s those with $50,000,000 and more.

No, that was not an extra “0″ - that would be 50 MILLION. He works with their kids to prepare them to receive the wealth they’ll receive.

I’ve seen what happens when “trust fund kids” are not prepared to receive the wealth they’ll receive.

They become entitled, which results in not appreciating anything. They are overwhelmed by too many choices and can’t make decisions.

They are plagued by “I don’t know what I want” and “I should be happy, but I’m not and I can’t figure out why.”

And, here’s what’s going to shock you:

You very well might have a Trust Fund Kid even though you don’t have $50,000,000.

And, if you aren’t giving your kids the same kind of preparation that they are, your kids are in for a sore surprise and a miserable life when they blow through the million or two or ten you are leaving them and find there’s nothing on the other side and they STILL don’t know what they want out of life.

See, with the ultra-high net worth, at least they’ve got more leeway. Their kids can get “on the job” wealth training because if they learn their lesson by losing a couple million, it’s no biggie, there’s lots more where that came from.

So, what happens if you don’t give them the training?

Well, they are perpetually unhappy. And, they don’t know why. They don’t build wealth, they squander it. They are forever behind on credit card bills and they can’t seem to get it together to keep a job or find one they really like.

Life seems difficult.

How do you know if you’ve got a Trust Fund Kid?

Well, I’m putting together a website that will have a quiz you can take to find out, but in the mean time, if your kid doesn’t seem to appreciate anything, can’t hold down a job, and isn’t doing well in school and doesn’t seem to care much, it’s a pretty good sign you’ve got a Trust Fund Kid.

Whether you are leaving $1,000,000 or $50,000,000, you’ve got a big responsibility to prepare your kid to receive that wealth and give them the tools to build it and not squander it.

I’m working with Doug to take the programs he teaches to the kids of the $50 mill+ crowd and make them available to your kids. And, you don’t have to have $50,000,000.

Clients of MNA and other Personal Family Lawyer firms will be able to send their kids (aged 14-25) to workshops at the firm that will teach them the basic information they need to know about investing in stocks and bonds, real estate, and/or starting their own business.

We’ll talk about how to live life “on purpose” instead of just drifting through. And, how to be prepared to build the Family Wealth they’ll receive.

They’ll write book reports on pivotal books that will be instrumental to their future success. We’ll give your kids the tools they need to appreciate their opportunities instead of to feel overwhelmed by them.

We’ll only be able to have 8 kids in the first class, so to get your child on our priority access waiting list, send an email to support@familywealthmatters.com with the words “Trust Fund Kids Workshop” in the subject line and your child’s name and age.

That’s it for this week. Next week, look for a new format for my weekly Family Wealth Secrets email.

And, I’m also debuting an all new look for the Family Wealth Matters PRINT newsletter that gets mailed to your door every month.

If you don’t get that and you’d like to sign up to have it sent to you from your neighborhood Personal Family Lawyer, send an email with your address to support@familywealthmatters.com and put “Subscribe Print FWM Newsletter” in the subject line. Include your name and address and we’ll get it out to you.

To your Family’s Wealth, Health and Happiness,

Alexis Neely