Forward Thinking
Insights for family financial success
Surprise Is Not a Good Succession Strategy
Investment News recently carried an article Inheritance conflict is the rule, not the exception, Wells Fargo finds by Steve Randall. He opens with “Sixty-one...
5 Common Traits of Good Retirement Planning
There is a helpful framework being leveraged today of “what does good look like?” This works across many areas of our lives, and retirement planning is no...
Reading the Tea Leaves in Estate Planning
Forbes recently published an article Where Estate Planning Is Headed: The 2027 Heckerling Agenda by Matthew F. Erskine, JD which I found informative and an...
Debunking a Myth about Family Trusts
For generations, conventional wisdom was that a Trust was only for the wealthy. But this myth is debunked by two fundamental forces: the massive wealth created...
Preparing for the Stages of the Great Wealth Transfer
We are in the early innings of the largest generational wealth transfer in human history, with estimates ranging from $75-$125 trillion of assets and...
Fund Your Trust
I remember when I got my new Trust a couple of years ago. I was so proud of myself, doing some adulting, and taking care of my kids. It was expensive (note: it...
How to Tackle Estate Planning Basics in 7 Steps
The good folks at Morning Star recently published their 7 steps for how to manage your estate. It’s a solid framework and a good place to start, so thank you...
Three Potential Holes in Your Estate
First, Happy 250th Birthday, America! Are we perfect? Obviously not. Is there anywhere else I’d rather be? Absolutely not. We are great. We are flawed. We...
Why Is a Home an Investment?
The old joke: Because you never stop paying for it. Ha. Real funny these days, eh? But why do we simply assume that we should own a home? Is it a good idea?...
Why (and How) to be Remembered after We Die
A friend of Forward Inheritance sent us a BBC article by Molly Gorman titled “What will people remember about you after you die? Thinking about your legacy now...
With Strings Attached
While I will take a moment away from railing against the insanity of ~half of homeowners not having a will, I would like to focus on an interesting article...
Two Simple Ways to Avoid Your Estate Going to Probate
One of the more egregious stats I have come to learn was the opening paragraph of a recent USA Today article How asset titles and beneficiaries save your heirs...
Emergency Medical Visit for Mom and Dad, What to Do?
Life is hard as is: work, kids, carpool, spouses, social life, working out, stock market, geopolitics, local politics, sleep, and so much more. But what...
Who Wins with Estate Planning?
This past weekend was dedicated to a Celebration of Life for a Matriarch. Friends and family were able to come together, pay their respects, tell stories,...
The Inheritance Process Has Many Curbs and Cul-de-Sacs
At Forward Inheritance, we steward families throughout the entire journey of ensuring their estate is in order and the Next Generation has a solid foundation....
Who Needs to Organize their Inheritance?
During the due diligence periods of the 2026 VCIC Global Finals, I was asked multiple times why we are building Forward Inheritance. Who is it for? Who *needs*...
The Real Costs of *Not* Planning
We are so grateful at Forward Inheritance to learn from so many others who are experts in their discipline. We are not here to be your wealth manager or your...
Taxes (Not the Ones You’re Thinking of)
‘Tis the season, eh? My friends who work in tax accounting have been off limits for weeks now, but the real crunch is coming. I find tax season interesting in...
Three Little Birds
Over the weekend, I was able to spend some time with family and friends and decompress a bit. It’s been a wild few weeks with the public launch of the Forward...
When to Dig a Well
One of the more rewarding aspects of serving families at Forward Inheritance is that folks will share stories about how a relative or close friend handled...
An AI Interpretation of Forward Inheritance
I remember getting my first email address in college and going, “Cool…but for what?” I had yet to send or receive an electronic mail message. We had to telnet...
When Help Isn’t Helpful
Highlighting a tweet from a favorite of ours, @KurtSupeCPA, so that we can all learn that putting our hands on this hot stove can and should be avoided. It may...
Not All Assets Are Created Equal
Continuing a theme for the past few posts, I’ve been watching a family deal with the loss of their matriarch. Everyone is grieving in their own way, being...
If You Can Keep Your Head
Like so many, I am a huge fan of Kipling’s If. It’s a pillar of my beliefs and helps remind me where and how to focus my energies. There is an enduring nature...
How the Wealthy Are Preparing
In the best possible way, I had 5+ people send me the WSJ article Gen X and Millennials Will Inherit Trillions in Real Estate Over the Next Decade. Thank you...
On Being Neighborly
At the end of the process, which took a few hours spread over a few weeks, my friend looked at me and said, “Congratulations, you now have a new trust. Next...
Tips for Tough Conversations with Aging Parents
A rather lovely human (you know who you are!) sent me the article 5 Tips for Tough Conversations with Aging Parents from her local news. The advice from Karen...
On Leadership to Survive Chaos
As many of you know / remember, this week marks the one year anniversary of the Eaton Canyon and Palisades fires. Being founded and headquartered in Los...
What to Expect from Forward
Welcome to 2026! On behalf of everyone at Forward, we are honored to serve and help families move forward! As we expand our Home Equity Investment operations...
Three Ways to Protect Your Inheritance
Wishing everyone a wonderful festive season, and I hope it brings you peace and joy. Business Insider ran an article on Christmas Day which I will share below....
Purposeful Conversations during the Holidays
We are well within the festive season, and on behalf of everyone at Forward, however you choose to celebrate, we wish you and yours a lovely holiday. If your...
The Talk - Part 3
One of the recurring themes of these posts (and life) is Harder Now, Easier Later or Easier Now, Harder Later. You get to choose, but the bill always comes...
Solving the King Lear Problem
The article highlights three main reasons why allowing the Next Generation to access a portion of their future inheritance today is valuable for the family:...
"The Hypothetical" Approach
As we approach Thanksgiving, we are delivering the fifth and final installment of conversation starters with our parents about their estate, and we do so via a...
"Professional Third Party" Approach
Continuing on the series about conversation starters with our parents about our future inheritance, sometimes the right approach is the profession one....
"Starting with my Own" Approach
It was fun to explore five conversation starter strategies courtesy of Gemini last week. Since those were overviews, some have asked if we could dive deeper...
Passing Down Real Estate
As we continue to think about generational wealth transfer, Boomer realities, Next Gen realities, and the process, one of the things we can all do is...
Negotiating Inheritance Part 2
Alliance Bernstein shared a great piece called The Big Reveal: Unveiling the Extent of Your Wealth to Your Heirs...
Real Estate
This situation is untenable and flies in the face of The American Dream. Many are trying to help, but perhaps it’s a good idea to take a step back and...
This Is About All of Us
First, truly appreciate the kind notes and support from the last post. But these posts aren’t about me, they are about all of us.Throughout the years, I’ve...
Probate Advance Solutions
Continuing to explore the probate space a little bit, this seems like a big, nebulous part of society that is a social good which will always exist, and likely...
Probate Items
Estates, Probate, and Trusts, ohmy! I learned from an estate resolution attorney this week that it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to dispute a will,...
What Is an Inheritance
“What is an inheritance, anyway?” It is such a rhetorical question, yet when was the last time we stopped to actually answer it thoughtfully? Or objectively,...
The Great Wealth Transfer
While I’ve been rather public about what my family is going through, I would like to zoom out for a bit and (re)share some thinking from our friends at Alts,...
The Second Talk
A couple of days after having The Talk with my father, I called to let him know how proud I was of him and how well he handled himself. I was impressed. He...
The Talk
I've been thinking a lot about family planning, and I had The Talk recently. You know the one: I had The Talk with my 81 year old father. We had The Talk about...
Welcome to Forward
Welcome to Forward! We help families with their inheritance and generational wealth transfer. We do this in a variety of ways, and we’ll explore all of that,...
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