A legacy more valuable than money

“You can’t begin to pass on financial values without a strong foundation in basic financial education,” says Agnew. “Those lessons about money can start early,” notes Valerie Galinskaya, managing director, Merrill Center for Family Wealth.™

Brenton Hamlet, a Merrill financial advisor who made Working Mother magazine’s 2021 list of Working Dads of the Year, agrees. “I want my kids to see what money can and can’t do,” he says. That’s why he has given John-Ryan, 10, and Marley, 6, each a piggy bank with slots for saving, spending and giving. “When one of my kids wants a new toy or video game, I'll ask, ‘How much of your own money are you going to contribute to buying this?’” he says. “They'll have to give me some dollars out of that spend bucket.”

As children get older, the same strategies can still be useful. Sandra Williams, a client of Hamlet’s and a retired lawyer, expected her daughter to work during the summers so she would become comfortable earning her own money. And while Williams financed her college education, when the daughter wanted to go to graduate school and law school, “I decided she needed to have some skin in the game, so she had to take out student loans.”

Affluent Black/African Americans  are more likely than the general population to value what financial advisors can do for them; 58% reported having an advisor relationship, compared with 49% of the general population, the Merrill study found. Even so, historical exclusion may have left Black/African American people more skeptical — and more conservative — when it comes to investing as a way of building wealth. The most recent Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances found that only 34% of Black families owned some form of stock, compared with 61% of white families.¹

There are ways to help future generations become more comfortable with investing. Williams and her wife, Theressa Shields, have five grandchildren ranging in age from nine to 26. Now that their children, both daughters, are adults, Williams and Shields are focused on providing their grandchildren with financial experience. One way they’ve done this is by giving each grandchild $1,000 and helping them research and invest the money in companies they buy products from, such as video game manufacturers. “If they invest in something they’re interested in, that's a lot more fun for them,” Shields says.

Hamlet recalls another of his clients whose son saved money from his work on a movie set when he was 17. When the teen told Hamlet he wanted to buy an expensive pair of sneakers with some of his savings, Hamlet suggested that investing the money in the sneaker manufacturer, as part of a broader, diversified portfolio, might benefit him more in the long run. The teen chose to invest in the stock, and now at 25, he regularly talks with Hamlet about new investments.

At some point, you will want to create an estate plan to pass on your wealth, too. Use it as one more opportunity to share with your children the lessons you’ve learned about success and what the money you have earned has allowed you to do for your family and your community. Your advisor and an estate planning professional can help you craft a plan to transmit wealth to your heirs in a thoughtful way. But “the conversations that are part of the estate planning process are as important as the plan you end up with,” notes Galinskaya.

These efforts by Black/African American parents may already be having some impact on the next generation. Since that conversation I had with co-workers about inheritances some 20 years ago, I’ve seen members of my own family change their financial trajectory because their parents passed down values as well as assets. Now, when my nieces and nephew find themselves in a conversation about inherited wealth, I know they will have a lot to say.

Tamara Holmes has written and edited for dozens of publications, including USA Today, Real Simple, Essence, Black Enterprise, Working Mother and Heart & Soul magazines.