Practical Tools for the Caring Advisor
In the realm of legacy building, there are lots of tools around. Many are very beautiful, some are rather clever, and a few are quite expensive. Unfortunately, nearly all of them are largely impractical. In the real world of real advisors and real clients, either they don’t work, people won’t use them, or both.
Most clients aren’t billionaires who want to use their money to “fix” all the relationships they messed up during their lifetimes. Most clients don’t have the time or the ability to sit down and write their life story. Most clients aren’t inclined to produce a feature film about their lives, or to bankroll a lavish family legacy retreat.
While most clients are concerned about sharing the meaning of their lives and the wholeness of their wealth, they want the process to be simple and practical and fun. They also want it to fit in with the rest of their life. They would love to work with an advisor with the skills and tools to gracefully integrate legacy building into their estate planning, financial services, pre-need planning, philanthropic giving, elder law services, or other professional relationships.
SunBridge has created the next generation of legacy tools to help you succeed in this role. Our legacy tools are practical, fun, easy-to-use, and effective. They are elegant yet simple. They fit seamlessly within a busy practice. They actually work with real clients and real advisors. (See a description of some of these tools below.)
With these tools, you’ll be able to connect deeply and quickly with clients and prospects, and help them build a legacy of significance. As a result, you will attract new clients and higher fees. You will deliver additional services to existing clients, generating additional revenue. You will become your clients’ most trusted and admired advisor, the one to whom they bring their business and their referrals. You will enjoy new meaning and energy in your work. You will discover that your work with legacy building will profoundly change lives. One of those lives, it turns out, will be your own.
As a wise and caring advisor, you owe it to yourself to make legacy building an integral part of your business.
SunBridge Legacy Tools
Your Legacy
A conceptual model that identifies the key components of a legacy filled with passion and purpose, and how the various components should fit together.
Priceless Conversations
Family of Tools Priceless Conversations are the perfect tool to conduct a brief but deeply meaningful conversation with your clients about the issues that are on their minds and in their hearts. It allows them to share the stories and life-wisdom that most define who they really are and what they most want to convey to those they love. help you, as their advisor, to create richly significant and appropriate plans for them and to offer more appropriate counsel.
The Treasure Chest Game
A one-to-one or group sharing technique that invites deeper sharing and deeper introspection, helping us recognize the wisdom in all of us. You can create a warm, uplifting experience with any group, using a set of “wooden nickel” tokens tucked inside a real wood “treasure chest” or a cloth draw-string “booty bag.” Share memories and life-lessons during donor meetings, family reunions, and office retreats, or as appreciation gifts.
The Bridge Builder
A powerful piece about the importance of serving, giving back, and leaving a legacy for those who come after us.
I Come from a People
A group introductory exercise that promotes a depth of connection in a few minutes while allowing participants to connect with and share their heritage and their most important values.
Your Life in a Brown Paper Bag
A one-to-one or small group activity that facilitates the discovery of each other’s deepest self and the discovery of what really makes us tick, through the use of small personal objects and the stories behind them.
The Lighthouse
A presentation built around the “Turning Point” video that helps us see the potential impact of the small acts—and the small objects—in our lives and the lives of others.
Stories, Pictures & Heirlooms
A presentation that creates human to human connection between the presenter and the members of the audience by tapping into the experiences and feelings associated with our stories, family pictures, and heirlooms.
Words from the Heart
A presentation that demonstrates the power of words of wisdom left to children and grandchildren by a parent or ancestor; serves as an introduction to the Personal Legacy Declaration.
Personal Legacy Declaration Questionnaire
A booklet that simplifies the process of creating a first draft of “words from the heart” and sharing wisdom with those we love.
My Life, My Legacy
Unfolds the quadrants and major components of the Your Life model into a comprehensive summary of the life-wisdom of the client for his or her loved ones.
Lifeline of Significance
A one-to-one or small group activity that uses a thumbnail sketch of the major events of a lifetime to deepen understanding of the person and how they deal with life transitions.
Building Bridges
A presentation with beautiful graphics that explores how we can leave a legacy using all of our wealth—both financial and non-financial—to tell the story that will be left when we are gone.
Angels & Heroes
A one-to-one or small group activity that creates a true and unvarnished view of a person’s deepest and most closely held values by sharing the clients’ stories of the most impactful people in their lives
The Book of Life
A simple tool for solving a complex problem—how to capture and organize the myriad of stories and experiences that make up our life history, in a way that is both fun and effective.
How Will You Be Remembered?
An 11x17 worksheet tool that helps clients clarify the difference they want to make in each of the key roles and relationships of their lives, and how to get started purposefully creating the legacy they will leave in each role or relationship.
Building Your Legacy with Passion & Purpose
An 11x17 worksheet tool that empowers advisors and clients to find what matters most in each component of the client’s legacy and then create a game plan for making it happen.
Priceless Objects, Important Stories
A one-to-one or small group activity that explores the true value of important objects that will become part of the clients’ legacy if the bonds between the objects and their associated stories are unbroken.
Memorandum of Significant Personal Property
An estate planning tool designed not only to designate who is to receive what, but also why the object is significant, why each recipient was chosen to receive it, and what they will hopefully do with it upon receipt.
