Legacy Planning
What is Legacy Planning?
If you are a business owner, weather a small business or a large enterprise, and you are looking for a multi-generational wealth transfer plan and a proper business succession plan, it means you are looking for a Legacy Planning.
➤ WHAT
Legacy planning is a financial strategy that prepares a person to bequeath his assets to a loved one or next of kin after death. These affairs are usually planned and organized by a financial advisor.
➤ WHY
Many people want to pass on their wealth as a blessing to their families, but they often become their shackles! Will is the most basic wealth inheritance tool. Trust is an important way to avoid debts, minimize taxation and achieve property independence. While large sum assured insurance policies is another important wealth inheritance tool that is gaining wider acceptance with more people being promoted and educated by the financial advisors.
➤ HOW
Legacy planning is well accepted and implemented in western society while it is still a relatively new concept in Asia, especially Malaysia. Below is a simplified example to demonstrate the different approach taken between an Asian grandparent and a Western grandparent to pass on and preserve their wealth to their next generations.
Find out what a Malaysian grandpa would do?
A Malaysian grandpa who is a millionaire would typically pass on his wealth to the second generation in the form of cash.
He worked hard for all his life, saved all his wealth in the form of hard cash and he did not enjoy his life. Each of his two sons only inherited half of his wealth. Similarly, his second generation would pass on the cash to the third generation.
The drawback of this wealth inheritance method is he can only be one-generation millionaire and his wealth is not preserved over the next generations.
Find out what an American grandpa would do?
An American grandpa who is a millionaire would split it into 70:30.
He took out 70% of his wealth in the form of cash and used it to enjoy his life with his spouse. The other 30% would be used as the premium to purchase an assured life insurance with 1 Million value each for his two sons.
Upon his decease, each of his sons would inherit a paypack worth 1 Million from the insurance company. Similarly, the second generation would do the same method to pass on the wealth to the third generation. In this case, each of the beneficiaries of this grandpa would still remain as a millionaire upon his decease!