We recently introduced the topic of Family Legacy Planning, an offering The Blum Firm provides as part of the estate planning process. The aim is to help families succeed. With the Super Bowl coming up, let’s put this into football terms.
Noted family governance consultant James Grubman uses the analogy of a football game to illustrate what happens if you fail to prepare your heirs. At a football game, the focus is on the quarterback. The quarterback has perfect throwing skills. He hurls a pass from one end of the field to the opposite end. The football (the inheritance) is coming at the receivers, but no one has told them it’s coming, prepared them for how to catch it, or taught them what to do with it if they catch it. They’ve never been to a practice. They’ve never been taught the rules. They don’t even know how to coordinate with each other as team players. What are the odds that the receivers will catch the football and run the length of the field, without fumbling it, to score a touchdown? A family with unprepared and disconnected heirs almost always “drops the ball.”
Just as in a football game, you need to tackle these issues head on. You can’t wish them away and hope your heirs will figure it out. Hope is not a strategy. Let us at The Blum Firm help your family adopt a strategy to win the game.
Marvin E. Blum
Painting by Marvin Blum of his son Adam when Adam played football at Trinity Valley School. Let’s win this Family Legacy game!