Most people think of a legacy as a number on a balance sheet: the house, the investment accounts, the amount listed in a will. But the families who feel most at peace with their legacy plan tend to think about something bigger. They ask what they want their grandchildren to know about them, what values they hope carry forward, and what kind of difference they’d like their resources to make in the world.
A will is an important document, and everyone should have an updated one, but it can only transfer assets. It can’t pass down the story of how you built what you built, the lessons you learned along the way, or the causes that mattered to you. That’s where legacy planning comes in, and it’s a process worth thinking through well before you ever need it.
Here are five approachable ways to start building a legacy that reaches beyond your financial accounts.
What Does It Mean to Leave a Legacy?
A meaningful legacy is really made up of several layers. There’s the financial layer, which includes generational wealth, real estate, and other assets you plan to pass on. There’s the values layer, which includes the principles and priorities that shaped your decisions. And there’s the relational layer, which is the influence you have on the people who knew you.
When these layers work together, a legacy becomes something a family can actually feel the impact of, not just something they inherit. The five strategies below are meant to help you build all three.
1. Define the Values Behind Your Family Legacy
Before you can plan a legacy, it helps to get clear on what you actually want it to communicate. Some families prioritize education. Others center faith, entrepreneurship, community service, or resilience through hard times. There’s no single right answer, and your values may shift somewhat as your family grows and changes.
A simple way to start is to write down three or four principles that have guided your biggest life decisions, then talk through them with the people closest to you. This is also the foundation of what’s sometimes called a family mission statement, a short written summary of what your family stands for and hopes to pass along. It doesn’t need to be formal. It just needs to be honest.
2. Share Your Story Through an Ethical Will
An ethical will is not a legal document, and it doesn’t distribute property. It’s a personal letter, or sometimes a longer written reflection, where you share your values, life lessons, hopes for future generations, and the stories behind the decisions you made. Many people write one alongside their legal estate plan, not in place of it.
Some families record a video instead of writing a letter. Others create one together as a multi-generational project, with grandparents, parents, and children each contributing their own reflections. However you approach it, an ethical will can become one of the most personal pieces of your overall legacy plan, giving heirs context that legal paperwork simply can’t provide.
3. Plan for Generational Wealth and Wealth Transfer
The financial side of legacy planning still matters. Multigenerational wealth planning may include trusts, lifetime gifting strategies, coordinated tax planning, and the right combination depends entirely on your family’s situation, your goals, and the rules that apply where you live. Growth-oriented strategies could help an estate keep pace with inflation over time, but they also carry market volatility, and there are no guarantees that any particular approach will perform as expected. That’s why it’s worth reviewing your wealth transfer plan regularly with a fiduciary advisor rather than setting it once and leaving it untouched.
It’s also worth thinking about the human side of this equation, not just the tax side. Heirs who understand a plan before it takes effect tend to be better prepared to receive and manage it than those who learn the details for the first time after a loss. That’s exactly what values-based planning and family conversations are meant to address.
4. Make Charitable Giving Part of Your Legacy
For many people, giving back is one of the most meaningful parts of a legacy, whether through direct gifts, donor-advised funds, or naming a charity as a beneficiary in your estate plan.
To claim a deduction, you generally need to itemize on Schedule A, and your deduction generally can’t exceed 60 percent of your adjusted gross income, though lower limits of 20, 30, or 50 percent can apply depending on the gift and organization, according to IRS Publication 526. It’s also worth confirming a group is recognized by the IRS as a qualified charity before you give, since gifts to individuals generally aren’t deductible, even when the need is genuine.
Giving can also become a family project. The National Center for Family Philanthropy encourages families to talk through their shared motivations, values, and priorities before deciding which causes to support together. A qualified tax professional can help you apply the current limits to your specific situation.
5. Include Your Family in the Legacy Planning Process
A legacy plan built entirely in private, then revealed all at once after a death, often creates confusion instead of clarity. Bringing family members into the process while you’re still around to answer questions tends to produce a smoother transition and fewer surprises later.
That doesn’t mean sharing every account balance. It can be as simple as holding a regular family meeting to talk through your values, your intentions, and the reasoning behind your plan. Involving your children or grandchildren in age-appropriate conversations now can help prepare them to receive, understand, and steward what they eventually inherit.
Key Takeaways:
- A lasting legacy includes your values, your story, and your relationships, not just your assets.
- An ethical will can capture the personal side of your legacy alongside your legal estate plan.
- Generational wealth planning works best when it’s reviewed regularly, not set once and forgotten.
- Charitable deductions generally require itemizing, and the amount you can deduct depends on your income and the type of gift.
- Family communication is one of the most effective tools for a legacy that actually lasts.
Start Creating Your Lasting Legacy
Legacy planning touches nearly every part of a comprehensive retirement planning strategy, from how you structure your investments to how you talk with your family about the future. At Dedicated Financial, we help clients coordinate their retirement, wealth transfer, charitable, and legacy goals as part of our MaxAMAZING™ approach, which is built around helping you live with intention today while preparing thoughtfully for tomorrow.
End-of-life and legacy planning are essential to making sure your intentions are carried out, both if your own capabilities change and after you’re gone. Dedicated Financial doesn’t provide legal services or legal advice, but we’re glad to help you think through what you want for yourself and the people you love as part of the fully integrated financial planning we offer throughout your life, and to connect you with qualified, properly credentialed professionals for the legal and tax work we don’t handle ourselves. You can start by reviewing your current plan with our Retirement Preparedness Assessment.
If you’d like help thinking through where to start, reach out to our team to schedule a consultation.
