For some families, simply being able to sit down and share a meal is already something to treasure.
This is especially true for many immigrant families.
Years ago, parents made a life-changing decision for the family: to immigrate. The hope was to find a new environment and give their children more opportunities.
Then came decisions about schools, universities and fields of study. Later, the children grew up.
Some stayed in Canada. Some moved to the United States or Europe. Others returned to Asia to build their lives.
The planning that was meant to give the family more choices ultimately gave each person a life of their own.
Then, on occasions such as Lunar New Year and Mid-Autumn Festival, families begin to notice:
Sitting together at the same table again has become something they may wait a long time for.
We have been planning all along
Looking back, many immigrant families began planning much earlier than they realized.
- First came the choice of where to live and build a home;
- then their children’s schools, universities and future;
- later, a home purchase, a career, investments and the assets a family gradually accumulated.
What we plan changes as life moves through different stages.
Yet the motivation underneath it all has remained remarkably consistent:
We hope the work we do today will give our family more choices tomorrow.
When children grow up, the planning questions change
When children are young, parents often ask, “How can I give them more?”
Once those children have built families and lives of their own, the question begins to change:
How should everything we have today eventually be left behind?
A home, a business, investment accounts and retirement assets may represent decades of a family’s work.
When children live in different cities or even different countries, while parents begin to think about retirement and the years ahead, one realization becomes clearer:
Owning these assets and one day arranging them well are two very different things.
At this stage, planning is no longer only about growing wealth. Families begin to ask:
- Who should ultimately receive these assets?
- Through what arrangements should they pass?
- How can they genuinely help the next generation?
What parents hope to leave may be more than wealth
Many parents wonder, “After a lifetime of work, how much will I be able to leave my children?”
But returning to the moment, decades ago, when they chose to immigrate may reveal a different answer.
The move to Canada was not necessarily about giving a child a larger bank account. More often, it was about giving them an ability:
The ability to choose their own life.
- To choose where to live;
- what kind of education to pursue;
- a career that suits them;
- and, when life changes, not to lose every alternative because of immediate financial pressure.
Looking back many years later, families may realize:
Immigration was meant to give our children more choices. Thinking about legacy today is still about giving them more choices.
The subject of planning has changed over the decades, but its purpose has not.
The most important legacy question may therefore be more than “How much can I leave?” It may be:
Can what I leave give my child another option at an important moment in life?
Some of life’s most precious things never appear on a balance sheet
What a family values most does not always appear on a financial statement.
- Parents can live with security and dignity as they grow older;
- grown children feel free to follow the path they have chosen;
- siblings do not face lasting conflict over assets left by their parents;
- and years later, family members return from different cities and countries and still want to share a meal at the same table.
A thoughtful legacy is therefore about more than leaving wealth behind.
It is also about preventing wealth from becoming a problem between the people we love.
Real planning preserves choices for the future
We cannot know where our children will live ten years from now. Nor can we accurately predict future markets, interest rates, tax conditions or the changes life may bring.
Planning is therefore not an attempt to decide every step for the next several decades. It is about this:
While we still have the ability to decide, think through what matters most.
- How can life today be arranged with greater ease?
- If circumstances change, will the family have enough protection and enough choices?
- If we can no longer handle these matters ourselves, who will continue the work?
- How would we like the wealth built over a lifetime to reach the next generation?
From immigration and education to family, career and wealth, and now retirement and legacy, we have planned for so much.
Over the decades the subject has changed, but the purpose has remained the same:
To preserve more choices for ourselves and for our family’s future.
A Mid-Autumn reflection
Another Mid-Autumn Festival has arrived.
For many families in Vancouver, some can sit at the same table with parents and children tonight. Others may be separated by a city, an ocean or several time zones, sharing only the words “Happy Mid-Autumn Festival.”
We work, buy homes, build businesses and accumulate assets as we move through each stage of life.
Looking back, from immigration and education to homes, careers, wealth and legacy, we have planned for so much.
Eventually, we may come to understand:
What we truly want to leave behind is never only wealth. It is choice, peace of mind and the relationships within a family.
No matter how far everyone travels, may there always be a table where they still want to sit together.
Wealth for Today. Legacy for Tomorrow.
Guaranti Group wishes you a joyful Mid-Autumn Festival and good health for the whole family.
First published on Guaranti’s WeChat account.