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What Really is Estate Planning? Part 2

February 18, 2020 by Avi Kantor

Last month, I discussed how traditional estate planning focuses on wills, trusts, and other legal, tax, and financial structures. I emphasized that such an approach has been largely unsuccessful in sustaining multi-generational wealth. I proposed that if we “Put People First”, we might better sustain wealth and help people live more happy, fulfilled, meaningful, and joyous lives.

So, how might we put people first? We’ve developed what we call a “Universal Framework”. The framework breaks planning down into four phases – Discovering, Designing, Implementing, and Stewarding. Our framework keeps people top-of-mind as we engage in ANY planning process and implement financial and legal structures. By keeping people top-of-mind during each planning phase, we believe that planning becomes more relevant and ultimately more successful. Why? Traditional estate planning often focuses on minimizing taxes by dividing money among beneficiaries and/or deferring the payment of taxes. What winds up happening is that assets get distributed to unprepared beneficiaries, only to see those assets dissipated because beneficiaries weren’t engaged in the long-term planning and strategy of the family. In other words, the plans don’t involve the beneficiaries; they are done to them. We believe that what’s missing is the participation and involvement of all family members – in other words, the people.

What might we do differently? We begin by focusing on each individual’s True Wealth – that which is most essential for each family member. Each individual family member’s clarity and awareness about their values and priorities and their vision of the future prepares them to contribute to the overall planning, implementation, and stewarding of a family’s assets.

Much like a successful sports team or a high-performing orchestra, family members need processes and structure in order to perform at their best as an organization or enterprise. Everyone participates and contributes, even if their contribution is relatively small. This notion of a “Family Enterprise” seeks to optimize the way a family functions together; that is, the enterprise seeks to optimize the people, process, and structure of the family.

To carry the metaphor of a sports team or orchestra one step further, we (The Certior Group) function much like a “conductor” or “general manager”, maintaining the flow and momentum of the planning process. We adapt our Universal Framework to collaborate with other professionals. We then focus our endeavors on keeping people top of mind as we co-create, curate, and optimize products and services for the benefit of our client families. Our role is to maintain collective focus on long-term individual and multi-generational family happiness, fulfillment, meaning, and joy. It’s our notion of what “Stewardship” is all about.

Filed Under: Collaboration, Estate Planning, Family Enterprise Tagged With: Collaboration, Estate Planning, People First, Stewardship

Experiential Learning Breeds Collaboration

October 7, 2019 by Avi Kantor

I often speak about collaboration as an important, often overlooked, element in the work that professionals do. Recently, my colleagues and I had an experience that suggested what collaboration looks like in action and how to create the conditions for great collaboration to occur.

Below is a picture of a climbing wall in Chaska, MN. At a conference at this site, a group individuals from various professions including myself and Certior Group colleagues Hal Hershgordon and Patty Totaro were tasked with scaling this wall in random teams of three.

We were supplied with safety equipment – helmets, harnesses, ropes, etc. – and organized in a manner that minimized the risk of a fall or accident. But there were several constraints that made the climb unique: each threesome was tethered together and the middle climber was blindfolded. Patty Totaro is the blindfolded climber in the picture below.

Below, I’m beginning the climb blindfolded, guided by my two teammates.

Below is a picture of the teams of supporters controlling the safety ropes.

The people on the ground did much more than just provide rope support. They also gave the climbers verbal encouragement and often, verbal suggestions about the next critical move to make.

The unblindfolded climbers were highly focused on assisting and guiding their blindfolded co-climber. Hal Hershgordon is the climber on the left literally helping the blindfolded woman move her left foot to her next foothold.

(If you look closely, you noticed raindrops in the picture above. The downpour that occurred during the event made for slippery conditions, adding to the difficulty and complexity of the activity).

Ultimately, most of the groups succeeded in reaching the top. But in some ways, that wasn’t the main takeaway from the experience. In fact, while the experience itself was exhilarating, climbing the wall blindfolded with teammates and supporters has for me become a metaphor for collaboration in business and in life.

There are so many parallels, analogies, and lessons embedded in the wall climbing experience. For this article, I’ll focus on just three. First, as advisors, we’re tethered to our clients, guiding them, and helping them take the next small step – the next critical move – along their metaphorical climbs in business and in life. Certainly there are others giving encouragement, making suggestions, and “holding the ropes” from time to time. But we’re there with them, helping them steward their True Wealth.

Second, sometimes it’s raining, the wall is slippery, the situation seems overwhelming, and the next move is unclear. We use the acronym V.U.C.A. (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) to describe these conditions and, by analogy, the world we live in. Yet, the learning is in the struggle to move up the wall (or forward in business and life). It helps to have guidance and support.

Finally, after climbing we all got a chance to celebrate not only our own accomplishments but those of others.

We often don’t allow ourselves to fully experience and celebrate the positive moments in our lives. A motto that came out in the aftermath of the wall climbing experience was “Savor the Good”. It’s something that I hope we can all adopt and grow into.

Filed Under: Collaboration Tagged With: Collaboration, Experiential Learning, VUCA

Lessons from El Capitan

March 7, 2019 by Avi Kantor

“If you’re free soloing it’s about perfect execution…or certain death” – Jimmy Chin

On Sunday evening, Jackson Hole resident Jimmy Chin, along with his wife filmmaker Chai Vasarhelyi, won an Academy Award for co-directing the film “Free Solo”. The movie features climber Alex Honnold and Honnold’s dramatic, unprecedented free solo climb of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.

In this interview with Vanity Fair, Chin and Vasarhelyi describe what sets Alex Honnold apart from most people, even if he weren’t a uniquely talented climber.

Here’s an excerpt from the interview:

Chai: Alex lives every day of his life with intention. He’s doing exactly what he wants to do with his life.

Jimmy: But there’s also this misperception…people think “Oh, he’s a free soloist. He has a death wish”…that’s not who he is.

Chai: If he was a daredevil or a maverick, we wouldn’t have been interested in making the film. It was actually his process, his discipline…It was kind of a perfect storm for a documentary film…real existential issues lay in the dangers involved….in his courage he was connecting with people.

Ironically, although the movie focuses on Alex Honnold it also says a great deal about Jimmy, Chai, and their team. What Jimmy and Chai said about Alex Honnold also applies to themselves and their team. It took great discipline and a unique process for everyone involved in the project in order to create the gripping drama that audiences experience. “Free Solo” is more than a film about an extraordinary athlete accomplishing an astonishing fete. In fact, this movie is the story of two extraordinary human feats: Alex Honnold’s free solo of El Capitan and Jimmy Chin’s team filming it. Chin led a highly-skilled crew that filmed the accomplishment, shooting video and photos from positions on El Capitan that few – other than world-class climbers – could even reach, let alone film or photograph from. The experience that he, his wife, and their team produced is a testimonial to what can be achieved with collaboration, a sound process, and great execution.

Most of us can’t aspire to free solo El Capitan or win an Oscar. But we can aspire to live life intentionally, with courage to face obstacles we encounter, and with discipline, collaboration, and a well-conceived, well-executed process.

Filed Under: Collaboration Tagged With: Collaboration, Fulfillment, Process, Structure

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