The Stewardship of Wealth Transfer

Ron Blue of Kingdom Advisors is doing some important teaching for the many Christian advisors who are part of this excellent organization. This month the focus is on wealth transfer with the key question: "How do you decide how much to leave to whom?"

As stewardship officers, we don't have the training or certifications to allow us to work on the specific documents, nor can we be fully objective in posing the question about how much is being left and to whom and why.

We can, though, ask general questions that might cause our donor friends to see the need to do some deliberate and structured thinking with someone who is skilled in this area.

Ron made keen observations about the difference between wealth transfer and estate planning. In general, wealth transfer focuses on the needs of the beneficiary whereas estate planning is focused on my needs to minimize taxes. Also, wealth transfer can begin now, whereas estate planning only comes into play after we're gone.

There are only three destinations for our wealth:

1. Heirs
2. Charity
3. Taxes / Expenses

There are three principles to keep in mind as we enter into these personal discussions:

1. Treasure Principle - You can't take it with you, but you can send it on ahead (Matt. 6:19-21).
2. Unity Principle - Your spouse completes you, they don't compete with you (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12).
3. Wisdom Principle - You transfer wisdom before your transfer wealth. Wealth never results in wisdom; but wisdom can result in wealth (Proverbs).

Having some of these "exploratory" questions in our mind may help the donor consider larger Kingdom ideas than they have before.