What is the legacy you want to leave behind? What do you want to be known and most remembered for in your lifetime?

This is obviously a very broad topic, and everyone has their own idea of what it means. Many think “Legacy Planning” is about leaving the most wealth possible to the next generation, and while that is certainly an element, it is far from the only part or even the most important.

To me, it goes much deeper, and I tell my clients, “Your children will forget about the money they inherit from you well before they forget the life experiences and memories they share with you.”

Prioritizing

For better or worse, everyone will leave a legacy, and accumulating wealth is not a requirement to do so. What will be your body of work over an entire lifetime, not just assets you plan to leave behind for your children or others you care about?

How will you preserve your shared experiences with family that you created together? How will you shape your children into who they will become? How have you impacted those you come in contact with each and every day?

As adults, we cross paths with so many people, and every interaction will allow for an opportunity to make someone else’s life better.

Be willing to learn

My father-in-law is one of those guys that can fix just about anything.

When my garage door opener broke years ago, I was ready to buy a new one. He said, “Before you do that, I have some parts from an old opener I fixed; let me look at it.”

We spent three or four hours tearing that thing apart and, lo and behold, he discovered it was a $5 plastic part that had broken off. He figures these things out as he goes, but that’s the kind of knowledge that can and should be transferred to the next generation.

Just as libraries connect the past to the future, “each time someone dies, a library burns to the ground,” said Jandy Nelson.

Nelson’s words mean the accumulated knowledge over a person’s lifetime can teach us so much about life and about ourselves if we provide venues through which their wisdom and experiences can be shared.

It reinforces my belief that helping others to learn and grow is an essential part of leaving a legacy. It is so much more than accumulating and passing on financial wealth.

Building a meaningful legacy

There are so many different ideas, but here are just a handful:

Share an idea or teach someone a skill as often as possible.

Read to your children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews while they are young.

Mentor someone for no other reason than you can, and they may need it.

If you’ve accumulated significant wealth, consider gifting it rather than leaving it as an inheritance (enjoy seeing the beneficial enjoyment and shared experience).

Be vulnerable, and show you are human.

Offer a sincere apology if you make a mistake, and then fix it.

Spend time with those you care about. Time is our most precious asset.

Leaving a great legacy is the most powerful thing you can do, because your influence can and will transcend generations.

It can be like the “butterfly effect,” where hypothetically a butterfly can flap its wings somewhere over in Asia and it causes a hurricane in Florida.

T. J. McCance is a vice president and financial adviser with Hefren-Tillotson. The views expressed in this article are those of the presenter and not necessarily indicative of Hefren-Tillotson.