Intellectual Capital Account

The Intellectual Capital Account

Defining Intelligence and Exploring Learning Styles

Throughout the Legacy Family Planning process, we will be referring to the four Capital Accounts. Traditional estate planning uses legal documents to distribute assets and focus is typically limited to the distribution of financial assets. Legacy Family Planning is quite different.

Financial assets are invested in the education and training of family members to achieve a high level of competency in four capital accounts. These accounts include financial, intellectual, social and human capital. We will be expanding on the other Capital Accounts throughout our program. 

Here we are going to introduce to you, intellectual capital, which includes innate learning styles and the collective knowledge you and your family members possess. Knowing your natural learning style and creating a lifelong learning goals increases your intellectual capital.  

We are going to help you create an Intellectual Capital Competencies List by exploring nine types of intelligence and four types of learning styles. Gaining a deeper understanding of intelligence and learning styles will help you identify your personal learning styles and giftedness, which will allow for you to set learning goals.

What is intelligence? 

It’s a word and concept most are familiar with, but when pressed to define, one that may not be so easy to put into words. Merriam-Wester provides many definitions of intelligence that range from “the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations,” “an intelligent entity (angel),” “information concerning enemies,” and computer functions. 

We measure intelligence, Intelligence quotient (IQ), using a term first coined by German psychologist L. Wilheim Stern. IQ refers to the ratio of mental age to chronological age, and although the method Stern used is no longer in common use, the term IQ is still used to describe current testing procedure results. 

In 1983, the idea of multiple Intelligences was introduced by Dr. Howard Gardner, professor of education at Harvard University, who believed IQ testing was too limited. His Theory of Multiple Intelligences proposed eight different intelligences to account for the broad range of human capabilities. These multiple intelligences include:

• Naturalist Intelligence (“Nature Smart”)
• Musical Intelligence (“Musical Smart”)
• Logical-Mathematical Intelligence ("Number/Reasoning Smart")
• Interpersonal Intelligence ("People Smart”)
• Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence (“Body Smart”)
• Linguistic Intelligence (Word Smart)
• Intra-personal Intelligence ("Self Smart”)
• Spatial Intelligence (“Picture Smart”)

There is evidence of a ninth intelligence, Existential Intelligence, that is the capacity to tackle deep questions about human existence, such as the meaning of life, why do we die, and how did we get here. Discovering this concept of multiple intelligences helped me understand my seeming inability to learn a second language and lack of musical talent. To learn more about your multiple intelligences, click here.

Recognize your style to make learning easier. 

As a single mom, I returned to college and was required to memorize a poem for an English class. To leverage the hour-long drive to school each way, I created an audio tape to listen to while driving. Problem was, I’m not an auditory learner, and no matter how many times I listened to that tape, I couldn’t learn the poem. I earned my “A” by reading the poem, visualizing the words and writing them down. Now I know I am a reading/kinetic learner I don’t waste my time on audio tapes to learn new information. 

How about you? Which of the following is your natural learning style? 

• Visual: Seeing words, images and pictures
• Auditory: Hearing words, sounds, or rhythm
• Reading: Reading written material
• Kinetic: Physical activity, such as writing notes, drawing diagrams and moving your body

Do you have a prominent learning style, or are you a combo learner like me? Take the time to discover your natural learning style to shorten the learning curve. When put into situations that don’t fit your natural style, give yourself permission to ask for help. When I am on the phone and the caller is providing a number or spelling a tricky name I often say, “I am not an auditory learner, can you please slow down and repeat that?” 

Let’s put these pieces together. 

Our intelligence types and learning styles affect our ability and desire to learn certain information. Our schools are designed to teach linguistic and math skills through visual, auditory and reading modalities. Now can you understand how hard it is for a naturalist or musical intelligence child, who learns kinetically, to sit in a chair all day?

Investing in family members’ competencies increases the family’s capital account, which benefits the family by creating a depth of intellectual capital to make better decisions.

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Intellectual Capital Account | Goals

1. Review your own learning style(s) and determine your unique intelligence type.

2. Encourage every family member to identify and write down their unique intelligence types and learning styles. 

3.  Find an area in your life where strengthening your skills will add to you and your family's Intelligence Capital Account. 

4. Schedule a family dinner to discuss the results of this exercise. 

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Introducing Legacy Family Planning | 1 of 5: Overview

Introducing Legacy Family Planning | 1 of 5: Overview 

There is a little-known phenomenon of three generational wealth loss that is both historical and worldwide in nature.  The first generation creates wealth and transfers it to the second generation.  By the end of the third generation, the wealth is gone.  This cycle of creation, transfer, and loss is known by many names.  In America, we call it “shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves.”  In Japan, it is called “rice paddies to rice paddies” and in Ireland, it is called “clogs to clogs.” 

Because most people are unaware of its existence, it remains unchallenged.  The Williams Group, an industry leader in Legacy Family Planning, conducted a 20-year study of 3,250 families and determined that 70% of intergenerational wealth transfers fail when failure was measured by loss of assets.  Although this is a significant metric, and easy to measure, it does not tell the full story.  

In my own research, and that of others, the failure rate of intergenerational wealth transfer is closer to 85% to 90% when failure includes destroyed relationships, unnecessary upheaval, and loss of assets.  

There are many factors that contribute to this phenomenon: 

·      Death and money are taboo topics.

·       Wealth transfer failure, or failed inheritances, have been accepted as normal. 

·      Most people don’t understand the real issue, therefore cannot implement a real solution. 

·      In addition to the confusion and avoidance that surround the issue, perception biases get in the way of implementing solutions. 

Although there is a proven tool for preventing the three-generational cycle of wealth loss, access to it has been reserved for ultra-wealthy families supported by the Family Office Industry.  Unless you have more than 25 million dollars, odds are, you haven't never heard of this industry.   

Now, more than ever before, it is time to crack the inheritance code.  Over the next thirty years, more than $30 trillion dollars will transfer as baby boomers die.  It’s time to fix this broken system by providing families access to the time-tested estate planning tool that prevents the three-generational cycle of wealth loss.  Rather than focusing on wealth creation, this estate planning tool focuses on preparing the family to receive wealth by identifying unique family values, stories, and wisdom.  The secret to sustaining long-term wealth is the creation of a strong unified multi-generational family unit.  You don’t have to be ultra-wealthy to benefit from Legacy Family Planning. It has been the best-kept secret hiding in plain sight; a secret your family can use to preserve your wealth, and more importantly, preserve family relationships.

The purpose of this article is to introduce you to the real issue and provide a brief overview of the solution.  This is general information only, NOT LEGAL ADVICE.  But first, let me share a little bit about me and why this is important.

Introducing Legacy Family Planning | 2 of 5: My Story

Introducing Legacy Family Planning | 2 of 5: My Story 

My name is Cindy Arledge, MBA, 2 time best selling author.  When my parents passed away within eight months of each other I became an orphan at the age of 46.  Although it is a natural part of the cycle of life to bury your parents, it doesn’t matter how old you are when you lose them, it is a traumatic life event.  The greater your daily life is impacted, the greater your grief will be. For me, having worked in the family business from the age of 13, my life was turned upside down and inside out.

After they were gone, I quickly discovered how unprepared I was to live life without them. And, I wasn’t alone. My siblings, struggling with their own issues, and I found ourselves in an abyss of broken relationships that left me confused, lost, and heartbroken. Our experience was neither uncommon nor new.

“You don’t really know someone
until you share an inheritance with them.”
--Paraphrasing Johann Kaspar Lavater,
a German Theologian born in 1741

Because we were unprepared to receive our inheritance, and our ability to communicate and trust each other was nonexistent, we unleashed a dark monster I now know as the Cur$e of Inheritance.

The Cur$e of Inheritance is an ugly monster of jealousy, fear, and selfishness that crushes families, eats money, and destroys lives. The Cur$e of Inheritance is born in an environment of loss and grief, to unprepared heirs who feel entitled to unearned wealth and tragically forget to see each other as human beings.

Both my parents were Depression babies.  They knew what it was like to do without, and worked hard to create a better life for us.  Following the best advice available to them at the time, they set up a maze of legal documents to create an elaborate estate plan. 

Unfortunately, dad was afraid of losing control of his assets and refused to fully follow his attorney’s advice.  He was aware that his deviation from the plan would create a large tax liability and apologized more than once to me.  I never worried about it, because I never saw his money as my money.  I didn’t realize, until it was too late, that it would be my responsibility to gather the funds and co-sign the $1,833,385.12 check to pay the estate taxes. 

We faced another challenge with my parents’ estate.  Dad changed his will twice after my Mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, but because of her diagnosis, she could not update her will to match his.  This resulted in their estate plans becoming incompatible for the grandchildren’s portions of their estates.  To settle the estate, commercial real estate from the grandchildren’s trusts needed to be sold. In my desire to honor my parent’s wishes, I violated my personal value system and borrowed millions of dollars to purchase the real estate so my children would receive the inheritance my parents wanted them to receive. The timing could not have been worse.  The purchase was completed a few months before the Crash of 2008 that crippled the U.S. economy. Ouch!

Ultimately what destroyed my family was my father’s decision to remove several family members from his will following a disagreement. It didn’t matter that the family members Dad kept in his will were not responsible for his decision. It also made no difference that everyone received a generous inheritance from Mom’s estate.  Once the Cur$e of Inheritance was unleashed, it ravaged our family.

While I struggled with my inheritance issues, I asked questions. In my quest for answers, I discovered the three generational cycle of wealth loss and realized my family was just another sad statistic. Then it dawned on me, “Who is successful, and what do they do differently?” “How do they successfully transfer wealth, generation after generation?”  When I became a grandmother, I became relentless in my pursuit to protect my family’s future. I had found a better way and implemented the secret tools I had discovered. I was transformed from orphan to matriarch of the family .

Now, it’s your turn.  Through the eyes of someone who has lived through the Cur$e, our nation is facing a tragedy of epic proportions that most people have yet to recognize.

The American family is clueless to the greatest threat it has ever faced:
The Cur$e of Inheritance.

What you don’t know can and will hurt you and your family.  It’s time to discover the secret tool used by the most successful families to protect your family so they won’t be broke, bitter, and blaming you.  Are you an Avoider, Acceptor, or Anticipator?  Click here to download your free Estate Planning Pyramid Assessment.