Does Your Estate Plan Have a Gaping Hole?
Forget your wealth and possessions: Your beliefs, values and wisdom could be the most treasured assets you pass down to the ones you love. To get the ball rolling on a plan for that transfer, you could start by simply writing a letter.


“My father wrote me a lovely letter before he died. It is the most cherished thing I own,” a woman whom I was advising about passing on non-financial assets told me on the phone. I’ve heard similar statements from many others. I’ve also heard the opposite: “I wish I had taken the time to ask my mother about her life before she died,” or “It’s sad; I didn’t really know my grandparents, and they left nothing behind but a few photos.”
Oftentimes, people don’t think about the intangibles they should pass on to their heirs. Estate planning is so wrapped up in transferring financial assets that this becomes the focus. Once your financial team hands you your estate plan, you think you’ve got all your bases covered: You’ve got life insurance, a trust to avoid probate, an appointed executor and so on.
But what about your wisdom, beliefs, values, important family traditions and stories? What about passing on crucial knowledge about your business, money management or other skills? These questions bring to mind an African proverb: “When an old man dies, a library burns to the ground.”

Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free E-Newsletters
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail.
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail.
Don’t let your possessions become the only representations of your life. Whether you decide to take on a big project, like writing a memoir or producing an autobiographical documentary, or keep your documentation process simple and write a short letter detailing your principles and feelings, these representations of your thoughts, heritage and life journey are extremely valuable. They become the foundation upon which your family members build their lives.
Studies conducted at Emory University have shown that kids who know about their family’s past are more empathetic, have better coping skills and have higher self-esteem. There are other benefits to passing on your life stories as well, from decreasing depression in older adults to connecting with family and building trust to increasing the likelihood of a successful wealth transfer.
Your Three Asset Types
Your assets can be broken into three categories:
- Character assets: Your meaningful relationships, values, health, spirituality, heritage, purpose, life experiences, talents and plans for giving.
- Intellectual assets: Your business systems, alliances, ideas, skills, traditions, reputation and wisdom.
- Financial assets: Your physical wealth, investments and possessions.
Financial assets are relatively easy to pass along because they are already contained in a physical form and the legal vehicles — such as trusts or foundations — used to transfer them to heirs are well established.
The challenge with character and intellectual assets is giving them the same kind of physicality that financial assets are given. Even though your mother’s love, memories of summers at your grandparents’ house and lessons you’ve learned throughout your life may be more important to you than your car, there’s still the problem of turning those feelings, thoughts and insights into something that can be passed on to others.
That’s where legacy vehicles come in.
Packaging Up Your Legacy
Legacy vehicles are the physical structures that enable you to pass on your non-financial assets. Some examples include biographies, memoirs, specialty books, letters, videos, blog posts, audio files and artwork. The significance of these items is emphasized by how artfully you capture your essence and craft it into something that is meaningful and exciting for your family to discover.
There’s a reason great literature, masterful artwork and thought-provoking film are so valued. It’s that artistic component that helps an audience interpret events and connect with emotions. Your legacy vehicles should be crafted with the same care.
You’ll want to include key legacy vehicles as a part of your estate plan and determine how they will be passed on, archived and preserved over time.
Four Tips for Creating Your Own Legacy Vehicles
1. Identify your goals.
Determine why archiving stories, defining your values and passing on wisdom are important to you. Motivations for developing a legacy typically fall into these three categories: 1) to make a greater impact on your community, 2) to pass on knowledge and wisdom to your family and 3) to create a more meaningful life and improve your connection with loved ones. Decide what motivates you and what legacy vehicles you’d like to create that will convey your non-financial assets. If you haven’t done anything to capture your legacy yet, one of the easiest, most impactful pieces to begin with is a legacy letter in which you describe your principles and feelings.
2. Take inventory.
After you’ve decided why creating a meaningful legacy matters to you, take inventory of what you’ve already got. If you want to pass on family stories or wisdom, list everything that’s available to you, such as photos and letters from your parents. Then figure out what you need to collect. You could, for example, interview your parents about their lives or write up an article about your daughter’s birth. Get specific.
3. Make a plan.
Once you know what you’ve got and what you need, now it’s time to put together a plan that details how you’re going to produce the content you need. Make sure to include how you intend to distribute it (and to whom), and how it will be archived and included as a part of your estate plan. You don’t want the book of your life’s stories lost in an attic somewhere because someone misplaced it.
4. Take the simplest step.
A legacy is one of those things that is important but rarely urgent until it’s too late. By taking proactive steps and starting with the easiest-to-create projects, your legacy will come to life. For example, let’s say you’d like to write a memoir but haven’t quite gotten around to it yet. Consider breaking this task into smaller parts, or start with something simpler, such as writing a short article about your childhood or filming a two-minute video about your wedding day. When you see the results of these smaller projects, it inspires you to create more.
Profit and prosper with the best of Kiplinger's advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and much more. Delivered daily. Enter your email in the box and click Sign Me Up.

Laura A. Roser is the founder and CEO of Paragon Road, the leading authority in meaning legacy planning (passing on non-financial assets, such as values, wisdom and beliefs). For more information about legacy planning, visit www.paragonroad.com.
-
Stock Market Today: Solid Signals Lift Stocks Despite Tariff Noise
Markets are whistling over the White House in an ongoing display of corporate America's enduring ability to survive and advance.
-
Amtrak Joins Prime Day With Deals on Fares — But You’ll Have to Act Fast
Prime members can score 20% off midweek fares — what travelers should know before booking.
-
Key to Financial Peace of Mind: Think 'What's Next?' Rather Than 'What If?'
Even if you've hit your magic number for retirement, it's hard to stop worrying about money. Giving it a clear purpose is one way to reduce financial anxiety.
-
Three Estate Planning Documents a Business Owner Can't Afford to Skip
A business owner's estate plan should protect the company and its employees as well as the entrepreneur's heirs. These three documents are critical.
-
Financial Fact vs Fiction: Why Your 'Magic Number' Isn't Actually Magical
Do you think you're diversified if you're invested in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq? Do you think your tax rate will fall in retirement? Think again — and read on for other myths that could be leading you astray.
-
Opportunity Zones: An Expert Guide to the Changes in the One Big Beautiful Bill
The law makes opportunity zones permanent, creates enhanced tax benefits for rural investments and opens up new strategies for investors to combine community development with significant tax advantages.
-
Five Ways Retirees Can Keep Perspective Through Market Jitters
Market volatility is a recurring event with historical precedents (the dot-com bubble, global financial crisis and pandemic), each followed by recovery. Here's how people who are near or in retirement can navigate economic uncertainty.
-
I'm a Financial Strategist: This Is the Investment Trap That Keeps Smart Investors on the Sidelines
Forget FOMO. FOGI — Fear of Getting In — is the feeling you need to learn how to manage so you don't miss out on future investment gains.
-
Can You Be a Good Parent to an Only Child When You're Also a Business Owner?
Author and social psychologist Susan Newman offers advice to business-owner parents on how to raise a well-adjusted single child by avoiding overcompensation and encouraging chores.
-
How Advisers Can Steer Their Clients Through Market Volatility (and Strengthen Their Relationships)
Financial advisers need to be strategic when they communicate with clients during market volatility. The goal is to not only reassure them but to also help them avoid rash decisions, deepen your relationship with them and build lasting trust.