By Harry S. Margolis
Financially successful people have a problem when planning their estates that those with fewer resources do not face. How can they provide for their families without undercutting their ability and desire to make their own way in the world?
When I was growing up, my parents had a friend who had inherited a lot of money. He tried many careers and businesses and failed in all of them. My impression was that his lack of success was not the result his having less talent than the next person, but he lacked perserverance when the going got tough because he could afford to walk away and try something new. If he did not have that choice, he would have persevered and found success in one or more of his endeavors.
Perhaps if this man had been content in his dilettantism, his flitting from job to job would have been fine. But he was unhappy due to his repeated failures and never finding a true calling.
So what could this man’s parents have done with their estate plan to have encouraged a different outcome.
