With two to eleven trillion dollars moving from one generation to the next in inherited wealth (Minneapolis Star Tribune article on August 24, 2003), baby boomers are at a critical point in planning wise ways to transfer that wealth to their heirs.

A big element of our work with top business leaders locally and across the U.S.A. that has been increasing over the years is the area of non-financial legacy planning.

The area where we have found our coaching client's biggest void is in thinking about and understanding the spending habits and thought processes of their children and grandchildren and what they may intend to do with their inheritance once it is passed on to them.

Many of our clients have misperceptions as to what their heirs plan to do with the hard-earned inheritance they and their parents may have spent a lifetime to build. Are they aware of that child's credit card debt and the child's attitude toward debt and fiscal responsibility?

Today, our society is raising children who may never see money, only plastic. They charge their lunches, their clothes, and their country club bill and there is no accountability as to the debts they ring up and the amount of debt incurred.

It is critical that these affluent children are coached as to family expectations and that their family is also coached in understanding the behavior patterns, value systems and mindsets of the next generation to ensure that proper incentives, guidelines and controls are initiated to promote the highest degree of success in the management of the family's assets. Over and over again when coaching highly talented and successful leaders, we hear the fear, frustration and heartbreak of midlife and older generations who don't know what to do about their children and grandchildren who view an inheritance as a birthright and expect to use it to afford a lifestyle they perhaps cannot maintain with the own work ethic and earning capacity.

We see our work as "legacy strategists" as follows.we are independent third party legacy strategists who act as a sounding board for families (multi-generations) who may be in crisis around money management and power issues.

We offer legacy coaching to help flush out/iron out times of family discord around money and power issues. Areas may include:

• Power struggles
• Unaccountable spending habits by family members
• Conflict/stress around unachievable/unacceptable family expectations of one or more family members - I.E. You take over the family business or you are not qualified to run the family business, ETC., ETC.
• Certain established mindsets encourage certain types of behavior; if there are no consequences to unacceptable behaviors, they may only get worse