Talking about money with anyone is difficult. The scale of inheritance involved with the families in the below linked article is life changing for their children.
But regardless of whether your Family has been inheriting wealth for generations, one generation or merely aspiring to create wealth in the current generation, not talking about it means that your children may well be ill prepared to make sound decisions in dealing with it and in fact a gift may turn out to become a burden.
Family meetings, informal enough to encourage discussion yet formal enough to include an agenda, can be struck to discuss the genesis of inheritance, wealth creation or aspiration in every Family.
Parents, Grandparents work hard; wealth creation may be the result. The principles of fairness, work ethic, vision, privilege, sacrifice, education and common good in its engendering should be explained to their Sons, Daughters and Grandchildren.
Followed by the concepts of stewardship, defined as: “the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care”.
Which then leads into such financial literacy discussions as income and expenses, savings, compound interest, investments, insurance, wills, estate planning, planned giving, estate taxes and inheritance; broken down so as not to overwhelm but to prepare and educate.
In the words of Benjamin Franklin: “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest”.
Sullivan, P. (2017, June3). How the wealthy talk to their children about money. The Toronto Star. Retrieved from www.thestar.com
Brian Etherington is the Chairman at Etherington Generations; a risk management firm that specializes in family life insurance and estate planning. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in 2004 and a recipient 
of The Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002 for community service, as well as The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012. He is a Founding Chair of the Special Olympics Canada Foundation and a chair on the advisory council for the 2019 International Youth Games presented by Special Olympics Ontario.
