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What do a commercial property mortgage banker and a wealth management expert have in common? Both advise successful entrepreneurs on succession for their real estate legacy. And both bear witness to the sad consequences if estate and succession are not planned well, lawsuits that dismantle the family, mistrust and accusations that divide the children.
My colleague Rick Raybin, a wealth advisor specializing in cross generational wealth transfer and I collaborated on the attached article. In it we describe our different perspectives, and provide advice on how to avoid what we called the "Legacy Trap". A shorter version of the article was recently published in GlobeStreet.
Before it was published, I sent a draft to some of my clients who had experienced first hand inter-family lawsuits, families who had spent millions in legal fees, sons who took over the dad’s real estate business and found themselves ostracized by their siblings. I received pages of heartfelt comments in response to the article and with approval, I put some of their comments in the sidebar.
The article was written to help real-estate investors' heirs avoid the same fate, feel free to share.
