Strategic Inheritance

Changing your mind

admin — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 17:46:43 +0000

How do you change the way you think and feel and behave? I’m not talking about the “oops!” kind of mind alteration–y’know, the revelatory, slap-your-forehead, “Oh! Of course! How could I have been so stupid!?!” mental shift. I’m talking about knowing what you need to do–or, even, having a sneaking suspicion that you need to change [...]

Telling your stories

admin — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 22:56:32 +0000

I’ve written already about some tools to help you tell your story (or stories). I thought I’d share a bit about how I’m doing with my own story-telling . . . and what I’m doing, specifically, to make my story-telling simply happen. (It’s not easy! You definitely have to decide you’re going to take the bull by [...]

Placing our priorities correctly

admin — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 05:41:31 +0000

Shankar Vedantam tells a disturbing story about a dog at sea to raise a serious question about how we humans prioritize our charitable endeavors. A fire broke out in the engine room of the Insiko 1907, an unregistered tanker, as it passed about 800 miles south of the Hawaiian Islands. The fire swept through the ship [...]

Family coat of arms

admin — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 21:03:35 +0000

A homeschooling acquaintance of mine who goes by the online moniker “Prairie Chick” posted a story that inspired me about how to pass on and reinforce family values even among elementary school-age children (let alone older children and adults). I saw her story on the Sonlight forums. When I asked her permission to share it here, [...]

Diversity and critical skepticism in foundation governance

admin — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 19:21:41 +0000

Just saw this from the Fourth Quarter 2009 issue of the ECFA Focus on Accountability newsletter: The majority of foundations defrauded by [Bernie] Madoff had four or fewer trustees. More than 80% of foundations that lost between 30 to 100% of their assets to Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme had fewer than five trustees serving on their [...]

Own an online business? Here’s a valuable tool!

admin — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:54:37 +0000

As I prepare for the inevitable, I am realizing how important it is to consolidate my records. I haven’t done this. I have plans . . . for what is to happen with my estate when I die. I have all the paperwork in order. Or so my advisors tell me. But I haven’t prepared the [...]

Memoirs–family history

admin — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:57:03 +0000

I’ve been writing about some tools that can help you record your personal, family history. I recently finished Bill Gates, Sr.’s book Showing Up for Life: Thoughts on the Gifts of a Lifetime. It’s not a particularly remarkable book among all the books one might read. But it struck me, as I read it: It [...]

Taking care of your online presence after you die

admin — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 01:32:25 +0000

This isn’t something I had thought about before, but I just saw an article titled Tools for Managing Your Online Life After Death. What happens to your Hotmail or Gmail account when you die? What about your online photo collections on Picasa or Flickr? Answer: It depends. And some of it depends on you! To give you an [...]

Estate gifts “gone bad”

admin — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:20:27 +0000

I’ve posted the story of a major bequest that came to the brink of becoming worthless–or worse than worthless–to the recipients. I imagine it’s a cautionary tale that many of us should pay attention to. Check it out on the Strategic Inheritance forums . . . and join the conversation!

DAFs v. Private Foundations

admin — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:15:11 +0000

I described the technical differences between donor-advised funds (DAFs) and private foundations back in June of 2007. Frankly, at the time, I saw no compelling reason seriously to consider creating a DAF. Following the FoundationWiseSM conference, however, I’m seeing more reasons than I did back then to consider this alternative. To recall the few reasons I mentioned [...]