Beyond Estate Planning: Purpose, Planning, and Partnership
How Intentional Planning Shapes Family Legacies
Imagine a future where your wealth isn’t just preserved but actively supports the lives and values of your family. What if your estate plan could do more than minimize taxes and protect assets—what if it could create a legacy of purpose that guides your family for generations to come? In today’s rapidly changing world, families require more than estate planning strategies; they need a meaningful roadmap that turns wealth into lasting impact and possibility.
We have seen the most successful families engage in a three-part process built around purpose, planning, and partnership. While these elements do not always unfold in a linear fashion, each one is essential to creating a durable, meaningful, and effective estate plan.
I. Beginning With Purpose
Before deciding on the structure of your estate plan, tax strategies, or investment vehicles, it is crucial to pause and ask a fundamental question: Why am I doing this?
Too often, planning is driven by what we do not want to happen—or by fear. We do not want to pay unnecessary taxes or subject family assets to division in a divorce. We do not want our children to feel entitled or become unmotivated. We do not want family resources squandered by future generations. These are all legitimate concerns, and a good estate plan should address them. However, a defensive approach to estate planning misses the heart of the matter: What is the purpose of our wealth?
Rather than focusing on the negative (what you do not want), flip your thinking and ask yourself what positive impact you do want your wealth to have on your children, grandchildren, and future generations. Reflect upon the values that influenced the creation and growth of your wealth and how the resources you are passing on to your family could reinforce those values over the long term.
Defined values should serve as a North Star for both past and future financial and estate planning decisions. When values inform decisions, families are better positioned to move forward with clarity and confidence as they enter the planning and partnership phases of their wealth strategy.
Purpose in Action. We often see value in pausing to reflect on purpose when clients are considering gifts to multi-generational trusts. Frequently, the default assumption is that a gift in trust is the optimal solution. In many cases, a generation-skipping transfer (GST) trust can be an effective tool, offering a structure designed to support long term growth, creditor protection, and guardrails around the use of assets—each a meaningful benefit. However, when the donor pauses to think more deeply about the purpose of the gift, opportunities to better align the structure with their true objectives become clear. For example, if a client’s primary goal is to fund education, a trust that prioritizes distributions for education expenses and includes colleges and universities as charitable remainder beneficiaries, or a strategy that pairs a discretionary trust with a tax-advantaged college savings plan, may be more effective than a fully discretionary trust. Similarly, if a client intends to pay tuition directly, that decision will influence both the amount and structure of the gift.
While these considerations may seem obvious, too often this level of reflection occurs after the planning has already been completed because articulating the purpose behind the planning can feel amorphous and overwhelming. Where does one begin? There is no-one-size fits all approach; however, when helping clients uncover the purpose behind their wealth and planning, we often utilize tactile tools that create an interactive experience.
At SCS, we use several thoughtful tools created by 21/64, as well as some that we have created ourselves through years of working with families. In either case, these tools provide a structured, accessible entry point into complex family discussions, moving beyond abstract concepts to concrete, actionable insights. They leverage research-based psychological principles, such as visual thinking and guided questioning, to facilitate deeper self-discovery and collective understanding.
The process of articulating your “why” fosters clarity and a shared sense of family purpose. Taking the time upfront to define that purpose leads to planning that is more intentional, better aligned with your goals, and ultimately more impactful.
Recent Insights
II. Planning With Intent
Once grounded in purpose, the next step is to design a plan that aligns with your values, meets your financial and tax objectives, and can stand the test of time. A plan rooted in a family’s values tends to be more resilient because there is a shared understanding of where the wealth came from and what it is intended for now and in the future.
Families often share core values, such as compassion, hard work, and integrity, because values are passed down from one generation to the next. However, these values may be expressed differently among family members and especially across generations. For example, entrepreneurship may be a shared family value but expressed differently in terms of types of ventures pursued or how they are run. Similarly, civic engagement may be a core value that shows up in very different ways depending on a family member’s political views. A well-designed estate plan should align with shared values but anticipate differences of expression among family members and throughout time. This can be achieved by building flexibility into your plan, especially if it is intended to be multigenerational.
Flexibility, however, can sometimes come at the expense of clarity. For example, a trust held for a beneficiary’s lifetime that gives the trustee full discretion over distributions offers significant flexibility but provides little guidance to the beneficiary or trustee about how—or why—the trust assets are intended to be used. Similarly, an estate plan that directs significant assets to a family foundation or donor-advised fund may appear to be an effective way to engage the next generation in collective philanthropy. Yet without a thoughtful governance structure, even well-intentioned plans can quickly give rise to confusion—or family disharmony. This is why grounding your plan in purpose—and memorializing your intent—is essential.
Memorializing Your Intent. There are several types of documents you may utilize to supplement your legal documents to memorialize your intent while maintaining versatility for future decisionmakers and beneficiaries.
If you choose to formalize your intent through a written instrument such as a letter of intent, charitable mission statement or family constitution, it is important to think through several practical considerations. First, consider how the document will be used—whether it will serve as a holistic framework for future decision-making, or simply provide clarity around a specific issue or trust. Next, evaluate your likelihood of revisiting or revising the document over time. If you anticipate changes as your family evolves, keep it simple now and plan to spend more time when you are ready. Another important factor is how much effort your family can reasonably dedicate to this process. Comprehensive documents, such as a family charter or mission statement, foster alignment across family members and can be particularly impactful when co-created with the next generation as mature decision makers. However, they demand a commitment of time and collaboration. Planning fatigue is real—don’t try to do everything all at once.
Spotlight on Letters of Intent. A letter of intent is a powerful tool to help ensure your purpose is not lost over time. Although not binding on a trustee, a letter of intent provides guidance regarding distributions, which can be especially helpful with discretionary, multigenerational trusts where the future trustee may not have had a relationship with the grantor and is therefore less familiar with their wishes for the family capital. These letters can take many forms, but what matters most is taking the time to thoughtfully articulate your purpose—what is most important to you—and how the trust assets are intended to further that purpose. It is common, and perfectly appropriate, to include standard provisions such as a desire that trust funds be used for health, education, and support, and not to subsidize a lavish lifestyle. However, we encourage families to think more expansively. Consider what your loved ones might be able to accomplish as a result of having access to these resources. How can the trust serve as a positive force in your family’s story? How might it enrich the lives of beneficiaries and their families—and, more broadly, their communities?
When crafting a letter of intent for a multigenerational trust, it can be helpful to anticipate future distribution requests and consider how you would want a trustee to evaluate those decisions. While we generally recommend avoiding overly prescriptive or granular instructions in these letters, working through specific scenarios can be a valuable exercise. Doing so allows you to reflect on your reactions to these hypothetical distribution scenarios and distill them into guiding principles that may serve as the foundation for your letter of intent. Your SCS team can work with you to move beyond a template and craft a thoughtful, meaningful letter of intent—one that brings clarity to your wishes and helps ensure that your purpose and values continue to guide your family capital for generations to come.
III. Partnership with the Next Generation
Significant time, energy, and expense often go into crafting a well-designed estate plan. It can feel deeply satisfying to sign your documents and know they are safely stored away. While many view this as the end of the process, it is, in reality, where the most rewarding work begins. This third part of the process is called partnership, instead of communication, because engaging other family members in your planning requires their active participation, not simply acknowledgement. Moving from acknowledgement to a true partnership requires transparency, experience, and agency.
Transparency. It should come as no surprise that you will not be present to carry out your estate plan after your death. You will not have the opportunity to explain why you structured it as you did or to articulate your intentions for the wealth you are leaving to loved ones. For that reason, it is essential to engage the individuals who will carry your plan forward—now. While this is critical for post-mortem planning, it is equally important for lifetime planning, including trusts you have already funded and philanthropic vehicles, such as family foundations and donor-advised funds.
Key stakeholders differ across families and plans, but often include spouses, children, grandchildren, and in-laws. Beyond family members, they may also include independent trustees, investment and family office advisors, and philanthropic partners. Even when these individuals are not beneficiaries, they play a meaningful role in implementing your plan and should be part of the conversation around your purpose and intent.
While transparency is essential both for building trust with the next generation and for the long-term efficacy of your estate plan, it is important that transparency and communication are tailored to match age and maturity. Transparency does not mean revealing everything all at once. Instead, your advisors can help you create a multi-stage communication plan—as children mature, both the level of transparency and the complexity of information can increase. What matters most is initiating the conversation and inviting meaningful dialogue.
Experience. Many families expect that future generations will become responsible stewards of the family’s wealth and legacy. Achieving that outcome requires more than simply sharing information; younger generations must also have opportunities to engage with family capital in meaningful ways. Experiential learning is particularly powerful. Giving younger family members the opportunity to make real (but age-appropriate) decisions, especially financial ones, builds confidence and sound judgment.
Importantly, experiential learning includes allowing young adults to see decisions through to their outcomes, even when mistakes are made. We often learn more from missteps than from successes, and low-risk, hands-on experiences help prepare the next generation to manage greater responsibility in the future. In addition, making mistakes and bearing the cost emphasizes the important message: “what you do matters.” In families with significant wealth, kids can feel overshadowed, like their choices about spending, saving, or career don’t really matter. After all, they might never make a fraction of the wealth that already exists. Showing kids and young adults that their decisions have real impact is important. Don’t jump in to bail them out when a decision goes sideways.
Agency. Beyond decision-making, it is essential to provide rising generations with genuine agency when they are invited to participate. It is neither fair nor constructive to assign responsibility while expecting decisions to only be made your way. Doing so can create tension and, in some cases, lead younger family members to disengage entirely.
This dynamic often arises in family philanthropy. For example, if you ask the next generation to recommend grants from a donor-advised fund or to serve as trustees of a family foundation, you are also inviting new perspectives and approaches that may differ from your own. While families frequently share core values, those values may be expressed differently—particularly when it comes to how individuals choose to deploy philanthropic capital. Parents and children may agree on broad focus areas, such as education, the arts, or supporting underserved communities, yet diverge meaningfully on specific causes or approaches. While managing these conversations can be challenging, embracing new viewpoints is essential if philanthropy is to remain a shared and enduring family endeavor. A true partnership means trusting the next generation to make decisions guided by shared values, even when the outcomes look different from what you might have chosen.
***
Wealth strategy is not just about minimizing taxes or transferring assets. It’s about aligning your financial decisions with your values, preparing the next generation, and ensuring your plan reflects what matters most to you. When purpose, planning, and partnership come together, families create estate plans that are not only financially sound but emotionally grounded, resilient, and meaningful across generations.
Spotlight on Letters of Intent. A letter of intent is a powerful tool to help ensure your purpose is not lost over time. Although not binding on a trustee, a letter of intent provides guidance regarding distributions, which can be especially helpful with discretionary, multigenerational trusts where the future trustee may not have had a relationship with the grantor and is therefore less familiar with their wishes for the family capital. These letters can take many forms, but what matters most is taking the time to thoughtfully articulate your purpose—what is most important to you—and how the trust assets are intended to further that purpose. It is common, and perfectly appropriate, to include standard provisions such as a desire that trust funds be used for health, education, and support, and not to subsidize a lavish lifestyle. However, we encourage families to think more expansively. Consider what your loved ones might be able to accomplish as a result of having access to these resources. How can the trust serve as a positive force in your family’s story? How might it enrich the lives of beneficiaries and their families—and, more broadly, their communities?
When crafting a letter of intent for a multigenerational trust, it can be helpful to anticipate future distribution requests and consider how you would want a trustee to evaluate those decisions. While we generally recommend avoiding overly prescriptive or granular instructions in these letters, working through specific scenarios can be a valuable exercise. Doing so allows you to reflect on your reactions to these hypothetical distribution scenarios and distill them into guiding principles that may serve as the foundation for your letter of intent. Your SCS team can work with you to move beyond a template and craft a thoughtful, meaningful letter of intent—one that brings clarity to your wishes and helps ensure that your purpose and values continue to guide your family capital for generations to come.
Recent Insights
IMPORTANT DISCLOSURES
This article is intended for general informational purposes only and is not personalized tax, legal, or accounting advice. The tax, domicile, and estate planning considerations discussed herein are highly dependent on individual facts and circumstances and may change based on future law or regulatory guidance.
The views expressed in this document, and the description of data supporting these views, are those of SCS Financial Services (together with its affiliates, “SCS”). SCS does not provide tax, accounting or legal advice and prospective investors should consult their professional advisers as to the tax or legal consequences of any potential investment.
The information in this document is as of the date indicated and is subject to change without notice. In preparing this document, SCS has relied upon certain information provided by third parties without independent verification of the accuracy or completeness of such information and SCS accepts no liability for any direct or consequential losses arising from its use.
Certain statements contained in this document may be forward-looking statements. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements that reference past trends or activities should not be taken as a representation that such trends or activities will necessarily continue in the future. Any economic or market forecast presented herein reflects the judgment of SCS as of the date of this material and is subject to change.
Beyond Estate Planning: Purpose, Planning, and Partnership
Annual Financial and Estate Planning Checklist
Inside California’s Proposed 5% Billionaire Wealth Tax
Teamwork, Alignment, and Investing at SCS | Capital Allocators Podcast
From Snow to Sunshine: Navigating a Successful Move to Florida