Taking Legacy Planning to the Next Stage

I came across a four year old but timeless article in Third Age by Jill Fallon called "Taking Legacy Planning to the Next Stage." My favorite quotation from the article was Ellen Goodman, who wrote:

“This packrat has learned that what the next generation will value most is not what we owned, but the evidence of who we were and the tales of how we loved. In the end, it's the family stories that are worth the storage.”

I don't often seek wisdom from Ellen Goodman, but she "nailed it" here.

Grandparent Legacy Project

I recently learned of a very exciting and important initiative called the Grandparent Legacy Project. A joint effort of the Association of Small Foundations and the 21/64 initiative, the GLP is dedicated to helping small family foundations (which represent about half of the nation's vast philanthropic effort) pass not just money, but values, lessons and stories to the coming generations.

While their focus is apparently on the wealthier segment of society, the message of legacy transference is very similar to Priceless Legacy's. I have reached out to the leadership of the GLP. There are bound to be useful ways that we can work together for our common aim.

The GLP has books and other resources available at their website.

Lucky in Life

Tom Gilbert writes an informative blog and enewsletter called Your-Life-Your-Story. He is also a Priceless Legacy Consultant in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I always enjoy his writing, but I particularly enjoyed a piece from this month's newsletter called Lucky in Life.

Have you ever noticed that some people just seem to be lucky in life? They have great success in work and love. Good things just come to them. It’s almost like they are a magnet attracting good fortune.

On the flipside there are those who can’t seem to catch a break. They suffer setbacks and difficulties. Their life is like the line in the blues song, Born Under a Bad Sign, “if it wasn’t for bad luck I wouldn’t have no luck at all”.

While it appears that some people are born lucky while others are cursed the truth is that most people have good and bad experiences. What really matters is how we respond to these life situations. We can’t go through life without taking some responsibility for our actions. And if we are aware, grateful for each day, respectful of others and willing to be part of life – living it to the fullest – we’ll find we have “luck in life”.

I’m convinced that capturing our life stories – writing them down or recording them in some fashion – is beneficial. It helps us make sense of our lives, gain perspective, pass on valuable family history and I think it is even good for your health. A recent study conducted by Emory University documents how teenage children had lower rates of depression, anxiety and anger when they were able to retell family stories passed down to them by their parents (see the story by Sue Shellenbarger in the Wall Street Journal).

Give yourself a lucky break. Do something about capturing your life story. There are many ways to do it – see How to Tell Your Story for a few suggestions.

Insightful thoughts during otherwise troubled times . . .

PRICELESS LEGACY COMPANY OFFERS MISSION, MEANING AND MONEY JUST WHEN WE NEED ALL THREE

This is a press release that we are presenting to selected media outlets to help tell our story:

A new company dedicated to helping older people preserve their life stories seeks to train and deploy up to 700,000 part-time workers throughout the country.

Dallas, Texas – March 12, 2009 - The Priceless Legacy Company launched just as the world was falling apart in the fall of 2008. Far from seeing the economic climate as an impediment to survival and growth, the young company sees much to drive optimism and hope for the future.

Priceless Legacy is dedicated to helping older people preserve their life stories for the benefit of this and future generations. The company publishes beautiful Life Story packages that include hardcover color books and audio/visual DVDs. The company is deploying work-from-home part-time Legacy Consultants who sell the engagements, interview the subjects, organize their photos and manage the draft review process. Priceless Legacy has devised a custom publishing system that creates a one-of-a-kind personal biography that is not dependent on the writing skill or interest of the subject.

With over four people dying in America every minute, we have a need to capture the stories of at least 2.4 million people per year. If we assume three stories per Legacy Consultant, we need to find, train and deploy 700,000 or more!

Consider:

1. Demographics are destiny; the recession is only temporary. 55 million seniors today will grow to 75 million over the next ten years.
2. The harsh economic climate has forced people to focus on the important things in life: family, heritage, love and mutual support. The company says: “Honor now. Remember forever."
3. More people are looking for part-time work from home or moonlighting opportunities to hedge or replace their full-time jobs.
4. While people seek economic security, they also yearn for work with meaning and purpose.
5. The “Silent Generation” has so much to teach younger people about resiliency and staying power.
6. Great companies have been launched in uncertain economic times. Especially those with an enduring social mission.

Almost everyone has had the experience of either regret at not having taken the steps to preserve a life story or the strong sense that it should be done and they don’t know how to get started and finished. Using our process, our Legacy Consultants can help anyone preserve the life stories of their loved ones while there is still time to do it.


About The Priceless Legacy Company (www.pricelesslegacy.com)

Based in Dallas, Texas, The Priceless Legacy Company is a privately held custom book publishing company dedicated to helping people preserve their life legacies for the benefit of future generations. The company connects with people through its fast expanding network of Legacy Consultants. Currently active in twelve states, PLC’s Legacy Consultants help people record their life stories. Services include interviewing, photo organizing and scanning and the production of beautiful heirloom quality Life Story books.

Mina Sirkin, a Trusts and Estates attorney in Woodland Hills, California shared this with me:

I'm a expert in post-death trust administration. In my line of practice, I come across countless cases of children who regret they did not mend a relationship with their parent before the parent died.

This complicates the process of grieving in that the child at times may bear anger towards himself for his failure to address the relationship, which anger leads to self-destructive behavior in the child's personal life. If I have learned any lesson from watching these children, it would be this: Thou shall respect your parent. This is unconditional, regardless of whether the parent remarried, etc.

There is one cure for the regret if the child has not mended the relationship: After the parent dies, pray for the parent daily.

What greater way to show respect for a parent that to take the time to listen and record? It is more than flattery to show interest in the life story of another. It is really the ultimate homage, especially to a parent or grandparent.

Couple's Life Story Package

Just in time for Valentine's Day, Priceless Legacy is thrilled to announce its first customized format for a LifeStory Package. We call it the "Couple's Life Story" package and it allows two people (presumably a married couple) to present their Life Story package together. The longer format includes two hours of interviews with each member of the pair (for four hours total), up to 150 photos and an approximate page count of 150 pages or so.

The price for the package is $1899 and includes one copy of the book, an audio DVD, a DVD slide show and a protective and decorative box.

It is inspiring just how many couples have indicated that they desired to be remembered forever just has they had lived their lives: together.

Transcriptionist/Editors

One of the unsung heroes of the Priceless Legacy process is our able force of freelance Transcriptionist/Editors. These "TEs," as we call them, are transcription and writing experts who live all over North America. We communicate with them via email and they do an outstanding job converting audio interviews from the field to the "narrative transcriptions" that are the base of the LifeStory text.

Most of these TEs work in relative anonymity and as such we honestly don't think much about how the privilege and impact of preserving LifeStories affects them too.

One wrote this as she submitted a finished job last night:

If you can, please pass on to the (Legacy Consultant) - and hopefully to (the Subject) - that this story touched me very deeply as I transcribed it. It made me cry, it made me laugh, and it made me reflect on my own life. Much of her life I saw in mine. I loved the way she spoke and the way she expressed her life philosophies - truly inspiring stuff. If you could maybe pass that on to her from the girl who transcribed her story, it would be great.

I love how life story capture impacts everyone in such a positive way.