Wealth

• 2 Nephi 28:13…They rob the poor because of their fine sanctuaries; they rob the poor because of their fine clothing, and they persecute the meek and the poor in the heart because in their pride they are puffed up.
• “We have worked with thousands of families over the past two decades. Through that experience, from our research of the financial and legal literature, and from interviews and interactions with professional colleagues in several disciplines, we have come to this conclusion: Ninety percent of all traditional inheritance plans will fail. In part, this conclusion is based on numerous studies that show in families where new wealth has been created by the first generation, six out of ten of those families’ fortunes will be gone by the end of the second generation. By the end of the third generation, nine out of the ten families will be broke.”  Beating the Midas Curse, by Perry L. Cochell and Rodney C. Zeeb, Page 7
• “We believe that when parents who build wealth pass only their material assets to their children, and not the values by which they have lived, there is little chance the family, or its wealth, will survive for long.”  Beating the Midas Curse, by Perry L. Cochell and Rodney C. Zeeb, Page 7
• “That is not to say that we dismiss the products or process of traditional estate planning outright;  on the contrary, investments, trusts, and other financial and legal instruments are, and always will be, the vehicle for the transmission of the things a family owns. But money is just a tool, as likely to separate families as it is to unify them. Your financial net worth is a statistic, not a legacy. To appreciate that fact is to understand that your family cannot be defined in terms of the things that you own; real estate valuations, spreadsheets, trust documents, and bank account balances describe a condition, not a family. You and your children, your grandchildren, and generations of your family yet unborn can only be defined by the values, the traditions, the faith, and the ethics which have shaped your unique family history for many years.”  Beating the Midas Curse, by Perry L. Cochell and Rodney C. Zeeb, Page 7
• “The Heritage Process helps people put their family before their fortune as they plan. In doing so, the chances that the family can thrive in its relationships and still prosper materially for generations are greatly enhanced.  Families who go through the Process come to a better understanding of their relationship to wealth, and with one another.  They learn to communicate more clearly and more honest about things like money, philanthropy, as well as about their shared goals and objectives.  They learn- by doing, not just by talking- how to make the money a tool to achieve the most important goals of all-family unity and individual achievement.  They listen to stories about the hardships and triumphs that brought the family to where it is today, and they talk openly and from the heart about deeply important matters, like the sustaining quality of faith.”  Beating the Midas Curse, by Perry L. Cochell and Rodney C. Zeeb, Page 8
• Alma 17: 6...Now, these were their journeyings: Having taken leave of their father, Mosiah, in the first year of the judges; having refused the kingdom which their father was desirous to confer upon them, and also this was the minds of the people; Nevertheless they departed out of the land of Zarahemla and took their swords, and their spears, and their bows, and their arrows, and their slings; and this they did that they might provide food for themselves while in the wilderness. And thus they departed into the wilderness with their numbers which they had selected, to go up to the land of Nephi, to preach the word of God unto the Lamanites.
• “The collapse of wealth over several generations is not news to your financial or legal advisors.  It wasn’t news two thousand years ago when a Chinese scholar penned the adage: “fu bu guo san dai,” or “Wealth never survives three generations.”  Or in the thirteenth century England, where the proverb, “Clogs to clogs in three generations,” had morphed by the 1600s to “Rags to riches to rags.”  In nineteenth-century America, where fortunes were made and lost with astounding speed amidst the goldfields, oil wells, copper mines, and railroad booms, people said “From shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations.”  Beating the Midas Curse, by Perry L. Cochell and Rodney C. Zeeb, Page 26-27
• “Adam Smith summed it up over two hundred years ago in this landmark book The Wealth of Nations, “Riches, in spite of the most violent regulations of law to prevent their dissipation, very seldom remain long in the same family.”  Beating the Midas Curse, by Perry L. Cochell and Rodney C. Zeeb, Page 27  
• “According to Paul Schervish of Boston College, at least forty-one trillion dollars will pass from one generation to the next by the year 2044.”  Beating the Midas Curse, by Perry L. Cochell and Rodney C. Zeeb, Page 35
• “In “The Greatest Century That Ever Was,” Stephen Moore and Julian L. Simon wrote:  More financial wealth has been generated in the United States over the past fifty years than was created in all the rest of the world in all the centuries before 1950.  Fifty years ago, real financial wealth was about five trillion in 1998 dollars. By 1970, that financial wealth had doubled to roughly ten trillion dollars. Since then the value of Americans’ financial wealth has tripled to over thirty trillion.  When we combine this burst in financial assets with the sevenfold real increase in housing equity owned by Americans, we discover that the nation’s assets have risen from about six trillion to more than forty trillion dollars in real terms in the past half-century”  Beating the Midas Curse, by Perry L. Cochell and Rodney C. Zeeb, Page 36
• “Andrew Carnegie’s religious faith led him to the conclusion that such wealth should be put to use for the betterment of humanity; he subsequently gave most of his money to public libraries and other charities.  He had no illusions about the effect of unearned money on children. In a letter to a friend, Carnegie said: ‘The parent who leaves his son enormous wealth generally deadens the talents and energies of the son and tempts him to lead a less useful and less worthy life than he otherwise would” Beating the Midas Curse, by Perry L. Cochell and Rodney C. Zeeb, Page 39
• “My life was never destined to be happy.  Inherited wealth is a big handicap to happiness.  It is as certain death to ambition as cocaine is to morality” (said by William K. Vanderbilt, the beneficiary of millions).  Beating the Midas Curse, by Perry L. Cochell and Rodney C. Zeeb, Page 39
• “The symptoms and manifestations of this dysfunctional relationship with wealth make up a pretty depressing litany of disorders. The whole idea of affluenza flies in the face of what most people believe their lives would be like if one day, just like Jack Wrum, they came upon the proverbial pot of gold. “If I only had money,” the fantasy begins. “People would like me. I would be respected. I would be free to do whatever I wished, whenever I wished to do it. I could take charge of my life, and I would have a sense of absolute security. Nothing could intimidate me, and I would have power. Real power. Most importantly, I would be happy.” It’s a great fantasy. An enormously seductive fantasy.” Beating the Midas Curse, by Perry L. Cochell and Rodney C. Zeeb, Page 47-48
• “There is no denying that money bestows great power upon those who possess it. But there is a limit to what money can actually provide. Money will buy a luxurious bed, but it cannot guarantee a good night’s sleep.  It can buy a magnificent library, but not brains, nor the discipline to educate yourself; gourmet food but not healthy appetite. Money can buy designer clothing and jewelry, but not true beauty. It can purchase a house, but never a home; a state-of-the-art medicine but not health; luxuries but not culture or taste temporary amusements but not lasting happiness; religion but not salvation. Money, in fact, can buy a ticket to just about everywhere but heaven.” Beating the Midas Curse, by Perry L. Cochell and Rodney C. Zeeb, Page 49
• “Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Harlan Sanders once quipped, ‘You ever see a hearse towing a U-Haul trailer?  What’s the point of being the richest man in the graveyard- you can’t do any business from there!” Beating the Midas Curse, by Perry L. Cochell and Rodney C. Zeeb, Page 99
• “It is interesting to note the point at which wealthy Americans become involved in giving. According to J.P. Morgan Private Bank, Americans seem to start giving ‘serious’ chunks of their money away once they are worth around twenty million dollars, whereas in other countries the threshold is around one hundred million dollars.” Beating the Midas Curse, by Perry L. Cochell and Rodney C. Zeeb, Page 148
• “Most affluent people earned their money the old-fashioned way: through hard work and personal sacrifice. Studies show that seventy-five percent of all affluent people (defined as having a net worth over three million) made it themselves. No handouts, no winning lottery tickets, and no magic lamp with a genie inside.” Beating the Midas Curse, by Perry L. Cochell and Rodney C. Zeeb, Page 157
•  “I deserve the best, and I accept the best, now.” If you want the above affirmation to be true for you, then you do not want to believe any of the following statements: Money doesn’t grow on trees. Money is filthy and dirty. Money is evil. I am poor but clean (or good). Rich people are crooks. I don’t want to have money and be stuck up. I will never get a good job. I will never make any money. Money goes out faster than it comes in. I am always in debt. Poor people can never get out from under. My parents were poor, and I will be poor. Artists have to struggle. Only people who cheat have money. Everyone else comes first. Oh, I couldn’t charge that much. I don’t deserve it. I’m not good enough to make money. Never tell anyone what I have in the bank. Never lend money. A penny saved is a penny earned. Save for a rainy day. A Depression could come at any moment. I resent others having money. Money only comes from hard work. How many of these beliefs belong to you? Do you really think that believing any of them will bring you prosperity? It is old, limited thinking. Perhaps it was what your family believed about money because family beliefs stay with us unless we consciously release them. Wherever it came from, it must leave your consciousness if you want to prosper.”  You Can Heal Your Life (Louise Hay) Page 113
• “You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity, by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.”
•  “What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.”
• “The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.”
• “You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.”
• “If you would sell what John Smith buys, you must see through John Smith’s eyes.”  The Right Side of the Table:  Where do You Sit in the Minds of the Affluent?  By Scott Fithian and Todd Fithian.  Page XVI (The Right Side of the Table, Financial Planner, Selling, Clients)“What happens when the wealth holder consciously becomes aware that they have more financial resources than they are ever going to need?  They begin to come to grips with the fact that wealth is not the endpoint they spent a lifetime perceiving it to be. No, wealth is merely the means to an end. Somebody moved the prize and the spot is vacant. Where should they place their daily focus?  Contemplative wealth holders are beginning to see wealth as an accelerator. It is a tool for magnifying the meaning and purpose of life. It provides leverage. But leverage toward what?” The Right Side of the Table:  Where do You Sit in the Minds of the Affluent?  By Scott Fithian and Todd Fithian. Page 7
• “We live in a world of both incredible wealth and startling poverty. There are more wealthy Americans than wealthy individuals from any other industrialized country. Thus, the moral, social, and economic responsibility of this country’s private sector to give of its excessive wealth to those in great need continues to intensify. While foundations and corporations get much of the visibility and recognition for their charitable giving benevolence, the vast majority, over 80%, of giving comes from individuals.”  Remarks to The 2008 Annual Membership Meeting Society of Financial Service Professionals, Bethesda Country Club.  Bill Walace, CLU®, ChFC® JUNE 13, 2008
• “However, the most trusted adviser of the future will define comprehensive management as something altogether different. Comprehensive will include accountability for overseeing every insurance professional of every kind; every money manager, whether or not you manage the assets;  all of the CPAs and attorneys, any specialist in play at any given time; the wealth holder’s philanthropic adviser; and even his or her bankers. This management role will account for every facet of the wealth holder’s financial life, but won’t stop there.  It will address the manner in which their life intersects with their wealth. How will adult children manage and preserve the family’s tangible and intangible assets? What mentorship is required? It will include documenting the wealth holder’s value systems and decision-making patterns and then sharing them with future generations.” The Right Side of the Table: Where do You Sit in the Minds of the Affluent?  By Scott Fithian and Todd Fithian. Page 58.
• “Consider the path the wealth holder has been on before they get to the planning table.  When self-made people begin to achieve affluence, everything changes in their friendship dynamics.  They find themselves with a little safe haven to let their guard down about life, wealth, and family; about personal progress or demons.  Their friends can’t afford to do the things they do and they can’t empathize with the wealth holder’s family or business issues.” The Right Side of the Table: Where do You Sit in the Minds of the Affluent?  By Scott Fithian and Todd Fithian. Page 72
• “All too often today, I observe professionals who offer advice to their clients based, not on what their clients need for orderly long-term change to meet new conditions, but, rather, on a product which the professional has developed and wants to sell.  This conduct is the antithesis of the behavior of a true personne de confiance. Families are in the business of overcoming the universal cultural proverb, shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations. Given current demographics, it will take one hundred fifty years for three generations of a family to be born and die.  Thus, it will be one hundred and fifty years from now before anyone can know whether the family has overcome the first hurdle to its perpetual, never-ending war against the proverb. A professional who wishes to be personne de confiance rather than a salesperson has to face this truth.” A Reflection on the Nature and Practice of the Role of the Personne de Confiance in a System of Family Governance; Historically and Today.  By James E. Hughes, Jr., Esq. 
• “I have been a long advocate of “you don’t have to be rich to be a philanthropist.” But I have come to believe you do have to be rich, but not in the way it is conventionally understood.” NCFP, The Value of Family in Philanthropy
• “One of the pitfalls of wealth is that children may live in an isolated world of socioeconomic homogeneity and may not be exposed  regularly to the “have not” segment of society. Our culture is replete with subtle and not-so-subtle messages about the “failures of the poor.” Sometimes our American spirit of individual achievement and competition can be understood to mean that everyone gets a fair chance. Parents can debunk these stereotypes and take proactive steps to broaden their children’s horizons. Encourage your child to join after-school activities with diverse groups of kids. Get involved as a family in community service projects. Use travel together as an opportunity to “unshelter” your children.”  Remmer, “Raising Children with Philanthropic Values“
• “Most inheritance plans ultimately fail because the inheritors are not prepared for the responsibilities that come with their emotional and financial inheritances….To thrive, the family must learn how to work together, and how to equip succeeding generations to deal with the responsibilities and opportunities of inherited wealth.”— Rod Zeeb, p. I, from his piece on Family Governance. 
• “Your approach to wealth is a statement to your family of what you stand for. You and your family do stand for something, even if it is never articulated. What core values and principles does your family agree on-for example, achievement, knowledge, diversity, hard work, generosity, creativity, compassion, spirituality, justice, integrity, honesty, service, respect, or love?” Wealth in Families Third Edition (Charles W. Collier) Page 7 
• “Another key question focuses on the meaning and purpose of your family’s financial wealth? Is its highest and best use to spend it, to provide a higher standard of living for family members, to enable family members to choose careers based on factors other than economics, to fund new family businesses, to provide a comfortable retirement, to provide for family emergencies, to provide resources for philanthropy, or a combination of all these?” Wealth in Families Third Edition (Charles W. Collier) Page 7
• “Family philanthropy is a powerful teaching tool that provides a safe environment in which your children can learn about money management and working as part of a team. Moreover, many families want to leave a legacy of meaning in addition to their financial wealth. Philanthropy can function as an important vehicle for articulation core values, providing a meaningful family legacy, and giving your children (and grandchildren) a competency experience. A strategic philanthropy program for family members enhances their human, intellectual, and social capital.” Wealth in Families Third Edition (Charles W. Collier) Page 9
• “I argue that religion or spirituality encourages philanthropy by explicitly linking givers to the concerns and needs of others,” says Schervish in his essay, “Wealth and the Spiritual Secret of Money.” “My analysis follows a three-step logic: (1) if wealth affords individuals the ability to have what they want (at least in the material realm), and (2) if philanthropy can be understood as the transformation of time and money from a pool of wealth into a disposable gift to other, (3) religion– as it takes form in what I call the spirituality of money-motivates or spurs philanthropy, in amount and type, by shaping the quality of wants or desires among the wealthy. If the wealthy generally can have what they want, it is the realm of spirituality that directs their wants into a bond of care for others.” Wealth in Families Third Edition (Charles W. Collier) Page 13
• “Our research,” says Schervish, in his introduction to the book Gospels of Wealth, “reveals that for many respondents, both those who earned and those who inherited their wealth-a major transformation in consciousness takes place at some point with regard to that wealth. This point may arrive quietly and gradually or appear as a dramatic realization.” Wealth in Families Third Edition (Charles W. Collier) Page 16
• “The wealthy move beyond pursuing private interest as their public contribution to pursuing public needs as their personal concern. Those who do so may be described as having learned the spiritual secret of money. The scope of their self-interest increasingly broadens and deepens to include a greater diversity of people and needs.” Wealth in Families Third Edition (Charles W. Collier) Page 17
• “Financial wealth is a tool to achieve greater ends, for individuals and for society. Thus, philanthropy has a dual purpose. First, it is a vehicle for expressing core values for individuals and for families. Typically, these values might include educational opportunity, advancement of knowledge, artistic freedom, alleviation of suffering, eradication of disease, or environmental preservation. Second, philanthropy is the tangible expression of care for others outside one’s immediate family.” Wealth in Families Third Edition (Charles W. Collier) Page 17
• “The meaning of wealth is fundamentally freedom. It’s freedom from material constraints and the constraints of time. It’s a dialectic between freedom from and freedom to. The freedom to, on the material side, is to be able to purchase what you want, to go where you want, to have what you want in the material realm. Freedom in the temporal realm is often a way of retrieving the past. When things go wrong and you have wealth, you can often correct a mistake or problem. You can shape to some extent the present and the future.” Wealth in Families Third Edition (Charles W. Collier) Page 18
• “Emotionally, wealth is freedom too. There’s a psychological empowerment, a mixture of confidence that you can have what you want and you have the ability to carry it out. On a psychological level, it enables you to have both great expectations, and the confidence to achieve them.” Wealth in Families Third Edition (Charles W. Collier) Page 18
• “I think the terrain of spirituality-of virtue and vice-is different for wealth holders. The dialectics of care and control are different. But remember, wealth is like fire. It can enchant and deepen some, but it can burn and destroy others.” Wealth in Families Third Edition (Charles W. Collier) Page 19
• “This gets to a deeper question. Does money corrupt, or [does it] open opportunity? We know the answer. It can do both.” Wealth in Families Third Edition (Charles W. Collier) Page 22
• “Part of the reason for believing that my wealth should be given back to society,” says Bill Gates, in Forbes magazine article, “and not, in any substantial percentage, be passed on to my children, is that I don’t think it would be good for them. They really need to get out and work and contribute to society. I think that’s an important element of a fulfilling life.” Wealth in Families Third Edition (Charles W. Collier) Page 25
• “True economic freedom is the ability to wake up in the morning and be able to decide what you will do for the day,” Hughes concludes. “Thus, an appropriate inheritance maybe that amount of financial wealth that will allow you to live in this way. Any amount of money beyond that is discretionary because it is not what you need to be free.” Wealth in Families Third Edition (Charles W. Collier) Page 28
• “That is one joy of having money: you can give your children all the tools that they need to be competent and independent adults.” Wealth in Families Third Edition (Charles W. Collier) Page 52
• “Our parents were clear about the dual purpose of the wealth: to enable us to live well while pursuing diverse careers and to allow us to support causes we cared about.” Wealth in Families Third Edition (Charles W. Collier) Page 57
• “In the long run, the possessor of great wealth is judged in part by the use he makes of his riches, including in that use his disposal of them at his death.” Charles W. Eliot AB 1853.  President of Harvard University, 1869-1909. From Great Riches (1906). Wealth in Families Third Edition (Charles W. Collier) Page 91
• Jacob 2: 12-21… And now behold, my brethren, this is the word which I declare unto you, that many of you have begun to search for gold, and for silver, and for all manner of precious ores, in the which, this land, which is a land of promise unto you and to your seed, doth abound most plentifully. 13 And the hand of providence hath smiled upon you most pleasingly, that you have obtained many riches; and because some of you have obtained more abundantly than that of your brethren ye are lifted up in the pride of your hearts, and wear stiff necks and high heads because of the costliness of your apparel, and persecute your brethren because ye suppose that ye are better than they. 14 And now, my brethren, do ye suppose that God justifieth you in this thing? Behold, I say unto you, Nay. But he condemneth you, and if ye persist in these things his judgments must speedily come unto you. 15 O that he would show you that he can pierce you, and with one glance of his eye he can smite you to the dust! 16 O that he would rid you from this iniquity and abomination. And, O that ye would listen unto the word of his commands, and let not this pride of your hearts destroy your souls! 17 Think of your brethren like unto yourselves, and be familiar with all and free with your substance, that they may be rich like unto you. 18 But before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the kingdom of God. 19 And after ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain riches, if ye seek them; and ye will seek them for the intent to do good—to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry, and to liberate the captive, and administer relief to the sick and the afflicted. 20 And now, my brethren, I have spoken unto you concerning pride; and those of you which have afflicted your neighbor, and persecuted him because ye were proud in your hearts, of the things which God hath given you, what say ye of it? 21 Do ye not suppose that such things are abominable unto him who created all flesh? And the one being is as precious in his sight as the other. And all flesh is of the dust; and for the selfsame end hath he created them, that they should keep his commandments and glorify him forever.
•  2 Nephi 13:16-24…Moreover, the Lord saith: Because the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with stretched-forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet— 17…Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will discover their secret parts. 18…In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments, and cauls, and round tires like the moon; 19…The chains and the bracelets, and the mufflers; 20…The bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, and the earrings; 21...The rings, and nose jewels; 22…The changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping-pins; 23…The glasses, and the fine linen, and hoods, and the veils. 24…And it shall come to pass, instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle, a rent; and instead of well-set hair, baldness; and instead of a stomacher, a girding of sackcloth; burning instead of beauty.
• “For married couples aged 65, there is a 57% chance that one spouse will live past age 90. The wealthier half of society lives, on average, 5.8 years longer than the other half.” Rich man, poor man: The life expectancy gap, Monique Morrissey