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Family Wealth Retreat Program Empowers Families To Redirect Social Capital
Wealth advisor answers trend toward transferring values as much as valuables
01-19-2004 - Cleveland, OH - Richard Tanner, a family wealth counselor and president of Ownership Advisors, Inc. in Cleveland, facilitates an intense family wealth retreat using a 22-page question and answer format to help business owners redirect more of their social capital to the causes close to their hearts. His methods answer a growing trend among the affluent toward transferring values as much as valuables.
"The objective is for the family to avoid legal challenges to their will. This can be accomplished when more time and attention has been put into gaining clarity and communicating the intent of the individual. Affluent people are finding that they can redirect 100% of their social capital to causes they choose, rather than simply allowing Uncle Sam to disperse at will," Tanner said.
Tanner said most couples tell him the family wealth retreat is the first time they have ever thought through their desires for using their family wealth. "Most don't realize they have options for using more of their wealth to help others," he said.
In an unofficial poll of affluent clients, Tanner found that affluent clients on average believe that 80% or more of their tax dollars are wasted on government bureaucracy. When asked about giving money directly to their own social causes these same clients believe that 80% or more of their dollars are going towards helping people directly and not funding an inefficient bureaucracy. This means that self-directed social capital may be up to four times more efficient.
According to noted wealth researcher, Dr. Paul Schervish, 20 trillion dollars of wealth will transfer over the next twenty years of which 26% or about 5 trillion will go to taxes and fees. "If this is true then giving directly versus paying taxes may be up to four times more effective. In essence, Family Wealth Counseling™ can make $5 trillion do the same work as $20 trillion that has been redistributed through taxation."
If everyone used the process he advocates, Tanner believes they would pay no estate taxes at all and capital gains and estate fees would be significantly reduced.
"When families make this choice the entire country benefits significantly because the wealth tends to stay in their local communities and families stay involved. There is a much greater chance that your money will go to helping people as opposed to supporting bureaucracy," Tanner says.
Richard Tanner is a contributing author of "Giving...Philanthropy for Everyone", a resource for making charitable contributions. Tanner is a leader in relationship solutions in the financial services industry and an authority on the use of Employee Stock Ownerships (ESOPs) in family held companies. He writes and lectures on subjects pertaining to why we work, who and what we value, what causes are close to our hearts and what we'd like our legacy to look like.
For more information, contact Richard Tanner at 216-328-5538 or by e-mail at rtanner@ownershipadvisors.com.
More information can be found on the Web at http://www.eyemg.com
Contact:
Richard Tanner
President
Ownership Advisors, Inc.
6100 Oak Tree Blvd., South
Park Center Plaza 1, Ste. 420
Independence, Ohio 44131
Phone: 216-328-5538
E-mail: rtanner@ownershipadvisors.org
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