KIDS, WEALTH AND CONSEQUENCES

Leaving children with a substantial amount of money can be a boon or a burden. High-net-worth parents need to give their children an education to navigate today's complex world. The question becomes how to raise children with a sense of reality and balance, imparting a strong work ethic, and making them good stewards of their wealth.§Kids, Wealth, and Consequences enlightens high-net-worth parents about the unique issues they need to explore. The book addresses the "hard" financial issues, such as investing and estate planning, as well as the "soft" emotional issues relating to values, family, and communication. Morris and Pearl detail strategies and techniques to help parents raise children who appreciate and know how to manage the wealth they inherit.§Richard Morris spent many years working for his family's multimillion dollar business, and learned firsthand the challenges of business ownership and family wealth.§Jayne Pearl is an experienced journalist who writes about families, family businesses, and money. How to make the financial rewards of one generation the starting point for the dreams of the next generation§Kids, Wealth, and Consequences provides an iterative, chapter-by-chapter process that leads parents to a deeper understanding of themselves and what their choices and actions mean for their children.§The book describes how parents can impart to their children the skills they need for successful, happy lives. Morris and Pearl help parents evaluate how their choices in spending, financial management, and estate planning affect the wealth and the legacy they will leave behind. The authors offer ways for parents to discuss money with their children, teaching them how to spend, invest, and manage it responsibly. Parents also learn how to avoid the unintended consequences of inherited wealth, such as uncontrolled spending, lack of directing, lack of self-esteem, and dependency.§In addition, the authors address the key financial, intellectual, and emotional issues of wealth. The book tackles such "hard" issues as investing and estate planning as well as such "soft" issues as values, family, and communication in a way that underscores the interplay among all three areas.§Morris and Pearl cite experts to illustrate key points and also include insights into how recent economic difficulties have affected decision making. For Wealthy Families, The Stakes Are High§Inherited wealth can be a bessing or a burden. Money can provide education, comfort, travel, and culture; or it can drain ambition and meaning, cause guilt, or instill a toxic sense of entitlement. The question becomes how to raise children with a sense of reality and balance.§Kids, Wealth, and Consequences shows high-net-worth parents how to provide their children with the monetary and psychological skills needed in today's complex world and to instill a strong work and philanthropic ethic. At the same, parents will discover how their own choices and attitudes about money affect their children's ambition, motivation, and values.§The book covers not only the financial issues but also parents' intellectual and emotional challenges, as well as how all three relate to and affect each other. In the end the goal is to help high-net-worth children become responsible, well-adjusted stewards of family wealth.§"A much needed addition to the filed. The authors explore some of the unintended consequences, often ignored in other books, that wealth may have on children--such as unrealistic expectations, failure to become producers of new wealth, or lack of skills and confidence needed to become productive and independent."§--Judy Green, Executive Director, Family Firm Institute, Inc.