Creating your legacy
- Mike Brown
- Sep 24
- 4 min read
We’ve reached the final step in our seven-part journey to a successful retirement. Over the last several posts, we’ve walked through a process designed to simplify what can otherwise feel overwhelming: the countless questions and decisions that come with leaving the working world behind.
This is the same process I use with my clients, and the one I teach in my classes and workshops. Retirement is too complex—and the stakes are too high—to approach it one decision at a time only when circumstances force you to. Instead, it helps to follow a logical sequence where each step builds on the one before.
Let’s briefly review what we’ve covered in this series before we focus on our last step:
Step 1: Create your retirement vision. Where will you live? How will you spend your time? What’s your sense of purpose?
Step 2: Build your spending plan. Decide what you want to spend each year to support that vision.
Step 3: Identify your income sources. List pensions, Social Security, and other outside income—and calculate the gap that savings will need to cover.
Step 4: Invest your savings wisely. Structure your portfolio to help provide sustainable, rising income without running out.
Step 5: Protect what you’ve built. Safeguard your wealth, your health, and your privacy.
Step 6: Manage your taxes. Pay what you owe, but not more than necessary, so you keep more of what you’ve earned.
And now, Step 7: Create your legacy.
When most people hear “legacy,” they think of what happens after they’re gone. That’s certainly part of it—but legacy planning also covers what happens if you reach a point where you can’t manage your affairs yourself. Who will you want making financial or medical decisions for you? What kind of care do you want to receive? These are just as important as deciding how to pass along assets when you’re gone.
Here are six reasons to start legacy planning now:
Carry out your wishes. You’ve built financial wealth—what should happen to it when you’re gone?
Avoid probate. Without proper planning, courts decide how your estate is settled. A plan lets you keep that control.
Reduce estate taxes. Large estates may face taxes of up to 40%. Good planning can reduce or even eliminate that burden.
Help protect assets. Shields wealth you want to pass on from creditors or lawsuits.
Preserve privacy. Probate is a public process. Trusts and other tools can help your family maintain privacy.
Prepare for incapacity. Decide who will make financial and healthcare decisions if and when you’re no longer able.
Passing on your wisdom, not just your wealth
A true legacy isn’t only about money. It’s also about the values, wisdom, and life lessons you’ve gathered over your lifetime. The stories only you can tell—and the perspective you’ve gained—are part of what your family will treasure most. Don’t leave them to guess. Capture your beliefs, traditions, and experiences in writing, in conversations, or even in a family mission statement.
Tools for building your legacy
Once you’ve clarified your intentions, an estate planning attorney can help formalize them with legal documents such as:
A will – Specifies where your money and property go but does not avoid probate.
A revocable living trust – Allows assets to bypass probate and gives you more control over how and when they’re distributed.
Beneficiary designations – On retirement accounts, annuities, and life insurance policies, these help ensure assets will transfer directly without court involvement.
Powers of attorney – Appoint someone you trust to handle your finances or medical decisions if you cannot.
Advance directive (living will) – Outlines what medical treatments you do or don’t want if you can’t communicate.
If charitable giving is part of your vision, you might also consider a charitable trust or specific bequests to organizations you care about.
The gift of reassurance
Legacy planning isn’t easy. Few people enjoy thinking about illness, incapacity, or death. But imagine your family in the absence of a plan—scrambling to find documents, arguing over what you “would have wanted,” or struggling to pay bills without access to accounts.
A thoughtful legacy plan spares them that burden. It gives your loved ones a roadmap to follow, helps protect them during a difficult time, and helps ensure your voice is heard even when you can’t speak for yourself.
Closing the circle
With this final step, we’ve completed the seven steps to a successful retirement. Creating your legacy ties them all together. It preserves the future for the people and causes you care most about and allows you to pass along not only your wealth, but also your wisdom.
When combined with the earlier steps—vision, spending, income, investing, protection, and tax planning—you have a comprehensive roadmap to retire with confidence, clarity, and reassurance.
Any opinions are those of Brown Family Wealth Advisors and not necessarily those of Raymond James. Expressions of opinion are as of this date and are subject to change without notice. The information has been obtained from sources considered to be reliable, but we do not guarantee that the foregoing material is accurate or complete. There is no guarantee that these statements, opinions, or forecasts provided in the attached article will prove to be correct. Individual results may vary.
While we are familiar with the issues presented herein, as Financial Advisors of RJFS, we are not qualified to render advice on tax or legal matters. You should discuss tax or legal matters with the appropriate professional.
