Build an enduring finance legacy that will survive your death!

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In some cultures, discussions about death are carefully avoided. Talking about death is seen more like wishing it to happen, so its religiously or passionately rejected. While no one wishes to die, death has been a reality for a long time now and it happens to 'some' people everyday. In a bid to avoid discussing about death, some have made huge mistakes with huge finance ramifications for the surviving relatives and family members.

So in this article, I want to join the small band of people that are bold enough to accept reality and discuss an important finance subject regarding death. Some of the questions below are worth thinking about:

• How much assets will I leave behind when I die?
• would surviving family members have access to my assets easily?
• Would my assets survive longer than few weeks or months from my death?
• How would my assets be shared when I die?

The above are some questions that every strong, living person should consider at one point or another during the time they are still alive. Its not such an easy thing to determine or directly control what happens to wealth after death, but some decisions one takes now will definitely affect what happens when they are gone.

I have thought about death, wealth, career and about some of the questions above. I decided to share with you dear reader, 5 things I believe will contribute to an enduring finance legacy beyond the grave.

Lets start from this one

• Choose a career wisely:

This for me naturally is the beginning. One cannot talk about assets or wealth to be passed to surviving generations if none exists. I discovered that building a wealth legacy is much more than making money.

The type of career one pursues for a lifetime and other factors has a bearing on how much assets they are able to accumulate. Beyond that, leaving a finance legacy is often more solid if what is left will continue to generate more assets for surviving generations. So I want to ask myself if what I consider life career can be passed on to unborn generations.

Many careers could be used to establish something that could survive death if properly managed. But, it seems like being an employee is not a career that survives death or easily transferred. I mean no harm to all the hard-working employees around the the globe. I have friends like that. They are nice people. But then, when one suffers a terrible accident or some other life-changing incident, they are quickly replaced in their place of work and live goes on.

I think about multi-nationals like Pepsi, Mercedes and many organizations whose founders have gone, I realize that entrepreneurship seem to be a better channel to building wealth and preparing a finance legacy that survives death. Again, when I checked Forbes list of worlds richest people in the world, I saw that almost all are entrepreneurs.

My point is clear. Not everyone would thread the path of entrepreneurship. But then, in thinking about leaving a finance legacy, looking at the ease at which people are laid off today, I discovered long ago that choosing to build from scratch - to set up an entrepreneurial venture would make it easier for me to achieve a career/finance legacy for unborn generations.

So carefully think about what you are doing now to see consider if it will help you achieve same goals - building finance legacies for unborn generations.

Create Sustainable passive income streams:

A lot has already been said about passive income streams. We might not always have the capacity to work actively. Passive income guarantees that you are able to continue building wealth even when you have stopped working. Death is one such time when one stops working. So there would not be a better time to utilize passive income than when we are gone. It is therefore imperative to really think about the kind of income streams we have now.

Passive income has its many facets, but I strongly believe that a structure like our dear HBD interest could survive death. The most important thing to do now is to accumulate as much HBD in savings as you can. I already wrote a post about the potential of accumulating HBD in savings over a period of time. You can check this post. But then, even if I am not there, the interests keep coming and compounding. Unborn generations could actually continue benefiting from this passive income stream.

HBD savings interest is just an example. Whatever works for you is fine as long as it is passive income which surviving family members can act least leave on when you are no longer there.

Think about wealth transition:

This is another important area to get ready now that one is still strong. How will your wealth (if any) be easily accessed by surviving family members in case the worst happens. If I leave home and never makes it back, will my family members find it easy to gather whatever little thing I left behind?

Starting from cash for example, will it be easy for surviving family members to claim any cash left in my bank account? Well depending on where you live, it could be easy or hard. In my part of the world, it is extremely difficult to do that. It might take many months of stress and paperwork to actually claim money left in an account. For me, the easiest way here is to make sure my partner knows my ATM pin. That is it. When and if am not there, it is easy for them to gradually pull all the money from my account without the banks paperwork and stress. OF course, not many people would be at home to do this.

If I backed up my wallet keys, I will like to let a family member to know about it. For me again, this is not any risk at all. Or the use of a multi-signature wallet that gives any parties full right to the assets stored their. In this way, someone should be able to access whatever crypto I leave behind when am gone.

Again regarding property and company documents (assuming I run a company), a close family member need to be aware that I own so and so property. Of course, this will make it easy for them to claim or retain ownership of such property. There have been cases where a spouse secretly acquired and kept some property. Then when they are deceased, such property might be lost because no one is aware of them.

Basically, its better to make life easier for your famiy members that will survive one's death. Its very important to carry someone along when it comes to assets and investments. If something happens and you are no longer there, transition of assets wont be a headache at all.

Possibly, Get into crypto:

Crypto is the future of, governance and finance. The main reasons to try to get into crypto is because it provides a very easy transfer of wealth from one generation to another. Its not your key, its not your crypto. earlier above, I talked about custodial wallets, or even letting family members know where one's keys are backed up. Well, you wont have those keys if you are not in crypto in the first place.

Another reason crypto provides an opportunity to create wealth that survives death is because there are many credible projects that one can gradually accumulate wealth in. Some crypto projects have been known to grow in value over the years. So purchasing and HODLing some crypto now could be a great way to prepare and leave something for your kids or however stays when you are gone.

Crypto provides a rare opportunity to gradually grow wealth over the years and the technology to transfer such assets to anyone of your choice by simply handing over keys, or holding assets in custodial wallets. Either ways, getting into crypto is a cool way to build beyond the grave.

Write a will:

Writing a will does not mean you are about to die. It simple means you want to keep things decent and tidy after you are gone. So if you cannot do it now, do not put it off for a long time - not until you grow old or become weak.

A will ensures that your assets are shared equitably to whoever you wish to have a part in your assets. Besides, it saves surviving members from many headache, fights and disagreements that normally come up when someone with something substantial dies.

So do not forget a will, or your death might result in the death of another family member over wealth and property right fights.

Finally..

The above are just personal opinions of what I believe will contribute to building a finance legacy that will last beyond death. Nothing here is professional advice.

However, I strongly believe that taking meaningful steps like the ones above will be effort in the right direction for anyone that hopes to leave, transfer and sustain tangible assets to generations that will survive one's death.

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