Kids, Wealth, and Consequences: Ensuring a Responsible Financial Future for the Next Generation

Appendix 2. Money Messages

• What is money for?

• How much will my children inherit, and when?

• Where did that money come from? A family business? From Mom or Dad's side? How many generations back does it go?

• What are some examples (in families of multi-generational wealth) of relatives who handled the wealth responsibly and those who did not—and what were the consequences of their actions?

• What do you (and should you—or not) feel entitled to concerning the family wealth?

• What actions and values do you, as a parent, not model that your kids should value and why?

• How has money helped and hindered you (the parents) in your own life? What mistakes have you made, and lessons have you learned?

• What misconceptions about money did you harbor as a child?

• What is the structure of trusts in which the children are beneficiaries, and what contingencies are attached to those trusts?

• What is the family's approach to philanthropy, and what role might the children play at different stages of their life?

• Should you try to dictate how your children will spend, save, invest, and donate the money they will inherit?

• How can your family develop a positive identity that is not defined by money?

• Will your children be able to afford to live the same lifestyle with their inheritance?

• Will your children have to work to afford the same level of comfort they currently enjoy?

• Under what circumstances would you "bail" out your children from problems and failures, and under what circumstances will the children have to solve their ...