← AICPA Personal Financial Planning (PFP)
AICPA Personal Financial Planning (PFP)
Building Financial Capability Across Generations
00:28:06
When families look to CPA financial planners, they’re often asking more than just tax or investment questions. They want to know: Will my kids be ready when it’s their turn to inherit? In this episode, Cary Sinnett welcomes Mindy Kalinowski...
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- [00:00]
A
As a CPA financial planner, we're often brought in to manage the numbers, but the families we serve are wrestling with much more than tax brackets and investment allocations. They're asking things like will my kids be ready when it comes time to inherit this wealth and legacy? In this episode, we go beyond the balance sheets to explore how financial planners can guide families through one of their most pivotal planning challenges, preparing the next generation not just to inherit wealth, but to inherit purpose and values leadership. We'll ask what does a modern curriculum for rising generation family members look like? Who should be teaching advisors, family members, mentors? We'll find out. And what are families actually passing down through their behaviors, whether they mean to or not? If you've ever been the most trusted advisor in the room and still felt like the emotional dynamics were the real story, this conversation is for you. Because the most successful legacy plans aren't just tax efficient, they're human centered welcome to the AICPA's Personal Financial Planning Podcast. This is Kerry Sinnett. On behalf of the AICPA Personal Financial Planning Division and the premier community for trusted financial planning expertise, we're happy to bring you thought leadership from experts in all aspects related to personal financial planning, including today's topic of Preparing the Next Generation for wealth and Legacy. Be sure to Visit us@aicpa.org Pfp to find more resources on this topic to help you deliver premier financial planning to your clients. Let me tell you about our guest today. Mindy early is one of the most respected voices in family learning and rising generation engagement. She serves as the founder and President of Family Wealth Factor, a boutique consultancy helping ultra high net worth families and their advisors build continuity across generations. She also continues her work as Chief Learning Officer at Family Office Exchange, where she develops transformative education strategies for family offices around the world. With two decades of experience working at the intersection of family dynamics, education and wealth, Mindy has shaped how family offices and advisors think about preparing heirs not just to inherit assets, but to lead with purpose and shared values. Her work challenges advisors to move beyond spreadsheets and into the deeper work of legacy stewardship. And she's a frequent keynote speaker, podcast guest and contributor to thought leadership platforms like Investments and Wealth Institute, where her recent article on a rising gen engagement has become required reading for advisors working with multi generational families. Mindy brings warmth, clarity and deep expertise to every conversation, and she's here today to help us as planners explore how we can play a pivotal role in shaping the financial leaders of tomorrow. Mindy, welcome to the show thank you so much.
- [03:20]
B
What a lovely introduction. Thanks for having me, Carrie. I'm excited for our discussion.
- [03:24]
A
Absolutely. Me too. Well, first thing for our audience, let's lay down the foundation. What does it mean to educate the next generation?
- [03:34]
B
Such a simple question, right? It's a really big topic and it spans exactly like you said, beyond the balance sheet. Right. So if I could distill it down to something really simply, I kind of envision two parallel roads. So rising giant education is preparation for a purpose driven, thriving life, right? Separate from wealth, separate from being part of a business, owning family. But just whatever you are, be a good one, right? Understanding, utilizing your talents, putting those talents to work, feeling confident and credible and satisfied with your life, which is what we all want as humans, whether you're in an ultra high net worth family or not. The other part is the unique component is, is preparing individuals for the roles that they will and may play into their family system. Right. So we want prepared individuals who can very clearly articulate what they're good at, what they aren't, what they're interested in, what they aren't. So they're not perhaps saying yes to a role in the family business when that wouldn't be the right fit for them. So we want that authentic education and that like Socrates, know thyself kind of component along with preparation for unique roles in families of significance, Forbes list families, household name families, or a quiet business owning family in South Carolina that has a growing successful business. And, and this ranges then from the qualitative to the quantitative, which we'll get into later. So it's not just the financial preparation, but it's some of those, what we previously called and have now changed the nomenclature from soft skills to the qualitative components of trust building and communication and decision making and all of those unique elements that when you're working with family can get very complicated. So the quickest way to describe it is that it's preparation for the unique lives that the individuals I'm working with will be moving into and fulfilling and ensuring that they're feeling confident to fulfill those roles.
- [05:44]
A
Okay, so let me dive into, hopefully I get it right. The qualitative components, we won't call them soft skills for this episode, but that sounds so interesting. I care about my client, I care about the next generation of my client and I want to get in there and I want to make sure that they have the tools for success just like Gen1 does. They want Gen2 to be successful at life. But what's my first steps? How do we design education for rising generation family members that goes beyond just financial literacy to develop the emotional intelligence, a stewardship mindset and family cohesion essential for multi generational wealth continuity. And then of course, pair that with what you're saying that it sounds like it's going to be bespoke or really unique to the individuals. But help us as technical practitioners, what framework should we prepare? How do we dive into this? For the first time, for me, that.
- [06:55]
B
As you know to be true, the financial literacy really is just a part. It's, it's not the start. And when families come to me asking for education programs, family learning program design, or walking alongside their education committee, in some cases the ask is to start with or highlight financial literacy. Right. We understand their families of wealth. This is a big, you know, topic, big concern, big opportunity for learning. And for me, I always maybe share a word of caution or encouragement, whatever you, however you want to take it, that starting with the money is really placing an unnecessary weight on the wealth and not the best place to start. And I do, you know, I facilitate family meetings, I have children, children's programs, I work with all ages. But regardless, when we begin with that money conversation, we're saying that the money matters and it does and it's important. I don't want to turn off your audience right off the bat here, but.
- [07:55]
A
Now, now I'm interested. So if we're not starting with money.
- [07:59]
B
What do we start with?
- [08:00]
A
What do we start with?
- [08:02]
B
Yes, yes. And, and this isn't to say you again in tandem can't do financial literacy focused learning, but all of the other topics related to family values, which I know we'll talk about the qualitative skills of good communication, trust, generational cohesiveness. So you, when you were a teen, up the question, you said the G1 experience to the G2, to the G3, G1, have it complicated and easy, right? There, there's one of them or it's a partnership and they get to understand and go through an experience where they're learning and growing and gritty and, and learning by fire, trial by fire. When we're at G3, we have a group of cousins and There are from 7 to 30 plus and they have to learn how to work together. And sometimes that's more complicated. Right. So that's where I say that for first, that personal component of knowing who you are, communicate, we'll talk about assessments a little bit later. Then the ability to bring that into a group, all of those things are what really are part of a good Balanced learning program. Right. And, and this includes elements of personal development. I love a good assessment to work with individuals or families on their strengths, their communication style, whatever that may be. Um, the areas where we see, you know, families break down or get stuck, and those are those qualitative areas. Um, there is a favorite author, thought leader in this space, David York, who has a phrase you probably know. Are you preparing the kids for the wealth or the wealth for the kids? And, and we know in this space a lot of really good work and thought goes into preparing the wealth for the kids. And not often is the focus on preparing the kids for the wealth. Whether that's incremental wealth over time or unexpected sudden wealth. No matter what it is, individuals handle that differently too. So the education program should cover the full spectrum of things that are important. I will say so outside of me and peers in the space like me that create learning programs for families, another really fantastic resource came out within the past year or so is the 10x10 learning roadmap. And it's a book. They also have an online education series. And it is the most robust framework to exist outside of the custom design learning experiences. And this is, it's from Money, Meaning and Choices Institute, Joan deferia, Stacy Allred, Stephen Goldbar. And it's a framework, it, it is comprehensive, but you could pull and kind of pick and choose what you want to cover and what topics are most important. And in my role, you mentioned my dual role with my practice and at Fox, at Fox, we also have some of the 10 by 10 learning framework in our elearning courses. So there is a way that you have access or your listeners would have access to, to take a course like that if they want to understand and it is advisor focused how to begin. Right. And I think that's the hardest part. Where do you begin? When? Okay, now we've expanded from just financial topics to all of those other things and what is in my lane and what should I not cover and who do I rely on? I guess to, to sum it up, each of the resources that I mentioned from the fox to the 10 by 10 really align with my personal philosophy that we need to prepare solid individuals that feel good about themselves to be able to serve in their family and then community. So you can picture these concentric circles of your personal, then your family, then your community, the world. And the fun work that I get to do is help them feel prepared and whole. And, and that's our community work. Right. If you're meetings with advisors at the family office, attending External programs. That's the fun of it and the complicated part as well. But I think it's also understanding the family you're working with and learning your client and figuring out just an initial starting point and building from there the.
- [12:18]
A
Concentric circles of healthy well being financially, but first as an individual and really being able to understand it and operate. And then second as a family, third, maybe extended family or community and really helping the next generation get there. One of the questions that I, that I heard in practice that was so amazing and really opened my eyes to the need for this is asking clients is there an amount of money that could be harmful for your kids to inherit immediately? And not because any set number is going to help or harm, but it gets people thinking about money is more than just dollars on a page. It has influence and impact in our lives, how we see the world. And so now let me transition to thinking about the things that we talk about with our families who need this type of education. So in a world of gosh, accelerating technological change and blurred global borders, what should a education system for a next gen family leaders include? Are there two or three things that, okay, absolutely. You need to know about these things in order to develop a next gen family person who is going to be able to handle inheriting wealth or legacy or a company. And do we teach it? Do we invite people to this meeting? How do we approach this when we see that need for our clients?
- [14:07]
B
Yes, we all teach it, whether we're teachers or not. Right. There's always a teachable moment. I'll first say because I get the word and I, as an educator, I, I connect to the word. But curriculum is also this, like, oh, I have to get out this big book. Right. Like it just sounds dusty and huge and weighty and where learning should be in and is adaptable, agile, relevant, real time, experiential. Right. I mean I have interesting examples of working with families that own sports teams. And there's a family later this fall I'll be working with and we'll be going to a game and then, you know, meeting with players and talking about financial literacy topics and the investing approaches for the players, their philanthropic approaches. So that's a way to bring, if you're working with this is a group of teens to get them really excited about philanthropy and investing and to bring it home. Right. Another family were out in the oil and gas fields with little kids and I have so many different examples of just getting families out into interesting environments. And then you, you can create and design any learning Experience. I'm taking a family with a business partner to D.C. in a couple of months. And where there is the Museum of American History has an amazing exhibit about American enterprise and inventions and a couple other things that are just perfect for the learning journey we've been going on with this family. They also have some named spaces around the city. So we're combining the financial literacy, the philanthropy, the community service, a number of things with. You could call it a field trip, but it's highly experiential. So of course, sometimes we're also in meetings. Right. And. And then we can go over certain investments or do mock investment scenarios like the stock market game. Right. So there are fun things to do. I think you can make anything fun, in my opinion. There's another point I'll get to just in terms of the kind of the polaries and spectrums in this space too. But I'm really big on making this learning fun.
- [16:27]
A
Okay. I promise I'm going to move from curriculum to calling it conversations. And, and maybe if I'm really good at this, I'll move from education to experiences. Am I hearing you correctly?
- [16:41]
B
Yes, absolutely. Doesn't that just sound more fun Anyway, like, I invite you to a meeting or I invite you to an experiential opportunity. I don't know, like it's just a plan or it's especially with. I have work with younger individuals, teens, kids. And so the, the wording matters. Right. So more specifically, in terms of what this modern curriculum should look like and who should be teaching it, to me, it's a matter of maybe not polarities. That sounds oppositional, but like spectrums, there should be individual learning experiences, that is one on one with your advisor, that is maybe a gamified view of your personal investments. There is also the importance of group and shared learning with your peers. Maybe with no family member in the room, you're at a Kellogg program or HBS program. And then there's also the importance of family learning together, so that you may be covering a financially focused topic. But you're also, while you're talking about investment performance, you're talking about the family's investment philosophy and why they chose to invest in certain things over time. Right. So it's the individual, it's the group, it's the qualitative, the quantitative. I think when I'm working with families, you know, there's also the awareness of. There are some things in our control and outside of our control. For we're trying to design a education program. You can't force curiosity Motivation, interest. But you can tease and pique those things. Right. With the education at, you know, the sports team location. I did a program with a family where we were teaching about the family history and the culture before we got to the financial stuff because we wanted individuals to see struggle and success and perseverance and hard work. And so we put a family timeline and stuck pictures to the wall all around the room. And kids walked around the room and saw black and white photos or their parents when they were young. Right. So it doesn't have to be grand, but it can be fun. So back to. You can't force motivation, interest, curiosity. I think one thing that if we're leaning into that kind of trying to find unique learning opportunities, we have to be aware of what we're preparing individuals for and a mindfulness of the design and the purpose. And I have a higher education background and I think the phrase that I disliked so much, if I could share is this, find your passion. Right. Like we're sitting down with a younger individual. And that can be paralyzing when we're working with people that have an amazing amount of choices. Right. But it is more of that conversation around the values which, which we'll get into. I know the, the curriculum. I think it depends on your role. Everyone does have a part in it in our conversation, right. From a nanny in the home to me as a consultant to wealth advisors to anyone in their finds opportunities to lean into those teachable moments. I'm a big in person, learning person, obviously, but I also designed at Fox Elearning, there's an importance to that. Just being respectful of time and calendar challenges, short term, quick microlearning, listening to podcasts. Right. That's important. The balance of that with deep, intense study. So there are so many ways to kind of slice and dice if you're going to put together a curriculum. To me, it's the, I guess the summary is what is the right set of topics that matter for the individual you're sitting with? Right. So later today I have a meeting with a family education committee there at West. We're meeting by Zoom, obviously, and they have identified the buckets of most important for their family to learn about. And it includes financial literacy, philanthropy, governance, family office, family business, personal and family history, culture, values. So when you know what those are, you say, well, I'm not the financial literacy bucket person. I bet it's not my space, but I will help and support these other buckets of learning. And then what that looks like is where the fun design comes in. Or the key. I think it's more of a curation of learning experiences too Mindy that I.
- [20:53]
A
Can see how valuable that is. I want to close with a difficult question I think that advisors sometimes run into because Gen1 can have high expectations and you put together some great ideas for having conversations and experiences. See, I. I got it there for gen 2 and even gen 3. But sometimes members of that group or unfortunately maybe the family might be implicitly teaching the next generation through action or unspoken lessons hopefully that align but sometimes conflict with the values we say we want to pass on. How do we navigate when we see that happening? Perhaps a value that is present that conflicts or at least doesn't align with where the entire purpose is pushing towards what should we do?
- [21:58]
B
That's so tricky that goes into the hard conversation space, right? So I can't give any talk without giving a book recommendation books in my love language. But I often reference a book that has impacted me and an individual I've been able to learn from Ellen Perry. The book is a wealth of possibilities and one of her phrases throughout her work and the book is if I followed you around for two weeks, I'll tell you what you value, which is so true. And suddenly you're like oh my gosh, if someone did follow me, what would they say I value? So in that same theme in thinking about family values, a tool that I use have used facilitating family meetings that anyone can purchase and use is the Values Edge cards. It's by Dr. Cynthia Scott and Dennis Jaffe. Great resource to start a discussion around family values. But you're right, the values are caught, not taught. You know, hard work, kindness, consistency, the kids are watching. And if your actions are not congruent, then that's where we have the conversation to talk about it, right? Because we contain multitudes, we're making different choices throughout our day. But if I'm in a family of wealth and I'm taking a car service rather than driving, I'm over explaining in the way that like if my daughter's eyes roll, I know I'm doing a really good job, right? I'm over explaining that I'm making this choice because I can be productive in the car and get work done, right? It's not that I feel like I should be driven around. If I'm spending a large amount of money on a family vacation, I want you to know it's because I value our family time and making memories more than being at this fancy resort. So if there is that a little bit of inconsistency where you feel like you're not constant modeling our values. It's the conversation surrounding it. It's the rapper, right? Things that stick with me. I have a rising Jen I worked with years ago. Her parent consistently invited her to Tennis Tuesdays, Thursdays, 9am Right. And they were like how do I model this family value of hard work and serving on the committees and you know, do this when I want to do the family time thing but also live up to what is expected of me. That's another conversation at both ends, right? Like I love you so much, I want to spend time with you. I'm at a different life stage. I can be playing tennis every Tuesday, Thursday at 9am and we have to then be mindful of letting the kids be in their working years, their grinding years. They're not vacationing like a 60 year old years and they will be better for it. But that's really hard to do. We all know that as parents, right? So it's not we can't afford that. It's not we, that's not what we want to spend our money on. Outside of the conversations, put those expectations in your family documents, codify it in a family charter, in a constitution, talk about it at family meetings. Advisors can be supportive in those conversations when they have deep trusted relationships with families. It's just that recognition and representation of the values and being a family values cheerleader to some degree. And I've, you know, honestly I've worked with or heard the stories about as we have families that have gotten away from that. And a lot of my work is with rising gen and it's, it's not a fault of a rising gen who's lacking in motivation or work ethic or personal purpose when it hasn't been modeled for them. That's a, that's a really tricky thing. One more book recommendation because this story comes to mind because it just sticks with me. But I read Believe in People by Charles Koch. You know, if you've heard of Charles or know him, he's on the Forbes listed billionaire, right? So he's going through his, his father's personal item months after his passing and found a letter addressed to him and his brother. They were the only kids at the time. And it basically says you can choose to let money destroy you, it can be a curse to you. But what I hope is that you find the glorious feeling of accomplishment. And if I think if we could sum up like how we work with rising gen ultra high net worth families, they can find that feeling of accomplishment right like you know when you end a podcast or have a good meeting or have a good day, like what that feels like and that's part of what we're focusing on personal accomplishment. Feeling good about being in meeting with your advisor and understanding your statements and the numbers. That's accomplishment and that's what we want for Rising Gen is not to feel like they don't deserve to have the skills and tools and knowledge. So bit of a detraction but I just, I love that as a summary as a way to think about for individuals as we're preparing families in Rising Gen, that feeling of accomplishment. But yeah, values are and can be tricky. But model or talk about it as much as possible and make sure that you have people around you supporting you that also talk about it in that way.
- [26:44]
A
Mindy, so insightful. Thank you for sharing with our community of listeners and our hope to you listening is that you got a valuable takeaway. Check out the Show Notes to find resources related to this episode and to learn more, visit the AICPA pfp section@aicpa.orgpfp we'd love to know your speaker and topic ideas for future episodes, so send us an email@financialplanningicpa.org if you get value from this podcast. We would appreciate your support by following the podcast in your favorite podcast app. Thank you and look forward to next time.
- [27:24]
C
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