Lawrence and Allison, both their late 70s, approached Rubach Wealth to talk about philanthropy. The couple retired about 15 years ago from successful careers in the engineering and pharmaceutical industries and had accumulated significant assets over the years. Now they wanted to give back.

While it was great to see their new clients being proactive with legacy planning, the Rubach Wealth team wanted to ensure first that Lawrence and Allison’s philanthropy goals could work within their overall financial and estate plans. The couple have four adult children. The eldest child has three kids while the youngest – a daughter who lives with multiple sclerosis (MS) – has two little ones. 

Given that Lawrence and Allison also wanted to leave money to their children and grandchildren, the key question was: How do they plan their estate to ensure they achieve their goals for retirement, intergenerational wealth transfer and philanthropic giving?

Here’s how Rubach Wealth helped Lawrence and Allison:

• Clarity on lifetime goals. Through our in-depth discovery process, we learned that Lawrence and Allison had a number of key goals for their years in retirement, including more overseas travel, continued volunteer work with their favourite charities, and maintaining the support they’ve been providing for years to their daughter with MS.

• Clarity on wealth transfer and legacy goals. Before developing estate and philanthropy plans, the Rubach Wealth team suggested that Lawrence and Allison sit down first with their children to discuss their wishes. Throughout the course of several conversations, the three oldest kids stated that they were doing well financially and urged their parents to provide inheritances only for the youngest sibling and for the grandchildren.

• New financial, estate and philanthropy plans. Based on their findings from the discovery process and from the family’s discussions, the Rubach Wealth team created a plan to address Lawrence and Allison’s financial needs and wealth preservation goals in retirement, as well as estate and philanthropy strategies that ensured the couple could pass on their wealth in a way that was most tax-efficient for them and for their beneficiaries. Testamentary trusts were set up for the grandchildren’s inheritances and an insurance policy was also put in place to cover future tax liabilities.

• Financial education for the next generations. Lawrence and Allison wanted to be assured that their beneficiaries would have the financial literacy needed to handle their inheritance. Rubach Wealth provided one-on-one coaching to the youngest daughter and organized a seminar to introduce the grandkids to basic financial concepts.

Normalizing the money conversation: A key takeaway for Lawrence and Allison

Lawrence and Allison accomplished a lot more than they had set out to do when they first approached Rubach Wealth. But what they’re most pleased about were the money conversations they had with their children. These discussions – which were sometimes difficult – brought the family closer together and opened the door to similar discussions in the future.